Book Review: More Than What I See

More Than What I See by Alisha Smith is about Grace Joy Smith, and she is constantly in trouble. She does not intentionally go out to do bad things, but she does make mistakes. Throughout the book, she is called to attention on mistakes by her parents, her principal and her aunt. But at church, Apostle has a message from God just for Grace about love and forgiveness.

My review as a reader: This is a quick read with a good message. Although this was only a snippet of Grace's everyday life, I could see how she felt like such a "horrible" person in the face of the frustrations of her authority figures. This being from Grace's point of view, she may have perceived that her mom or dad were angrier than they actually felt, which made Grace feel worse. Sometimes children do feel this way when they are corrected. The illustrations are clean pencil drawings which present Grace's and the other characters' facial expressions well.

My review as a writer: *possible spoiler* As Grace faces her many mistakes and then feels bad about it, she remembers a quote from the Apostle "I'm more than what I see." I feel like this gives away the point of the plot before the ending.

Overall, an ok read good for building self-love in children.

(Side note: I'm also still waiting on the audio download to become available through the code in the back of the book offered by Tate Publishing.)

Rating 3/5