Petra finds herself?

Petra is a mountain. An island. And many other grand things. However, it keeps getting pointed out to her that she is just a rock. However, because of the things she can imagine (and finally the very unique way a young artist imagines Petra) she can be almost anything that she can dream of.

At first, I was not sure I would enjoy this picture book. Very basic, simple, text (in fact I have almost already written more words about it then there are words to the story) leaves little to fully flesh out a story. Yet, once you realize that Petra is a child imagining things to be, then it does get better. And in fact, I do very much enjoy how the artist at the end of the story, changes Petra one more time. But, also how Petra mentions that this might not be her last change. This takes the story away from a child playing to an adult journeying through life.

Over all this book is just a very simple story about imagination. Coppo’s illustrations are not fancy or colorful but are pleasant to the eye. The tone of the book is obvious to me of someone who probably does not have English as their first language. The fact the author blurb mentions she lives in Italy and this is her first picture book in English reinforces that. It has a feel of being a translation. That European feel to the text comes out. However, this might not be as obvious to the reader who has not down as much reading books translated into English for children as I have over my book-selling/reading careers. Thankfully this does not take away from the story.