Amazon Jeff's Big Discovery

Author Ofer Shapira has hit a home run in this charming children's picture book. Jeff is a deer that lives in the Amazon and he faces a challenge that all of us struggle with, sometimes at multiple times in our lives. Jeff is trying to figure out who he is and what he is good at. Jeff also very much wants a new challenge in his life, so with his mother's and his friend's support, he sets out to try new things in the hopes of achieving his dual goals.

Jeff encounters many of his friends during the course of the book. He finds that himself attempting to growl and roar with Leo, the lion king, trying to fly with Robin and Jay and trying to sing, sway and howl with Wolf. Jeff comes across a busy bee and a bear that has hibernated the winter away. During the course of his interactions with these friends, Jeff has a moment of self-realization and finds something that he is good at doing as well as something that he also happens to enjoy doing.

The message that it's perfectly acceptable to not know who you are as a person as well as what you're good at is extremely valuable for the children reading the book. The book normalizes this and encourages the young reader to explore their talents and skills and what they enjoy, particularly with their parents, guardians or the person that they are reading the book with. At the end of the book, Mr. Shapira even provides space for readers to list skills that they are good at, which is a tremendously useful and convenient tool. I also enjoyed the pictures in the book. They related well to the book itself and I found myself smiling at them, particularly at the ones of the wolves. It is obvious that a lot of effort went into not only developing the story for children, but also in illustrating the book in an appropriate way.

Children will absolutely love the characters and the pictures in this book while learning a valuable lesson (or two!) that they can carry with them throughout their lives. This is a book that you must get immediately to read to the children in your life!