Saturday, May 18, 2019

Review: The Dream of the Tortoise by Nyako Nakar



THE DREAM OF THE TORTOISE
by Nyako Nakar
Clink Street Publishing
Picture Book
36 pages
ages 4 to 8




This is the story of a tortoise with very big dreams.



MY TIDBITS

Created with love, this is a story which encourages readers not to give up while touching on the importance of friendship.

The tortoise is no longer the youngest and has trouble seeing and hearing. But he still has one dream he'd like to fulfill. The tortoise wants to swim in the sea. With the help of glow worm, he heads in the adventure to see if he can achieve this one last dream.

This is a story which came from the heart, and the love for it radiates off of every page. The tortoise is easy to like and cheer for as in the special friendship it develops with the glow worm. Young readers are gently exposed to some of the difficulties age brings, and this alone makes it an interesting read. But the addition of chasing dreams and friendship really hits home.

The illustrations are careful depictions which allow a sense of reality also to flow across. The accompany the story nicely, just right for a read-aloud. And that's what this picture book is. The text is rather heavy for a very beginning reader, but makes a perfect bedtime story. Slight older readers (ages 6 and up) can tackle it on their own.

While there are many warm messages in these pages, parents should be aware that there are a couple of tougher turns at the end as more sensitive listeners might find these moments disturbing—she almost gives up and doesn't eat, getting thinner and thinner as well as ants attacking her with bites.


And here he is...

When I was a child, I had many problems in school. I had a hard time concentrating and committing things to memory and was hyperactive – characteristics that would be recognised today as typical of someone with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

I sat as far back as possible in the class and while the teacher talked and talked about things that I didn’t understand, I drew – though from a distance the teacher may have thought I was making notes on what he was saying. Quite often the teacher noticed and punished me or expelled me from class.

I had a lot of imagination and that helped me to create many different stories.

Later, after studying graphic design and working in advertising, I changed course and decided to dedicate myself to theatre and dance. I studied at the Theatre Institute of Barcelona and soon after I joined The Lindsay Kemp Company, where I worked for many years and in parallel created my own theatre company.

In the 1990’s I left the theatre and immersed myself once again in graphic design, starting to work on 3D computer design programmes.

I am also very interested in the world of meditation and healing and I travelled all over the world, getting to know other cultures and investigating Shamanism, especially in India and Mexico. I conducted many workshops in Spain on how to use silence to encourage creativity.

Today I continue to love the world of drawing and children’s stories and I have many drawings and writings to edit in the future.

Since 2017 I have lived in London and found the peace and tranquillity to work and to make my dreams come true.





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