Customer Reviews

Sewing a Friendship

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great book for kids all ages, especially girls, since it really expands
on the subject of friendship in a very playfull & exciting manner. The book is about
five girls and the problems they encounter with "sewing a friendship". They main story
revolves around the fashion show & "pink sleepovers". This book was written by a
ten-year old girl, who is able to describe the emotions & fantasies of the girls
her own age much better than any adult would. Thus, I would recommend this book to
any parent who wants to promote healthy relationships with friends in their child,
while keeping them excited and interested in reading.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of participating in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books held at UCLA. This particular event is awesome as an author to see the number of people all excited about books. It helps give me faith in the path I am pursuing in continuing to write and produce stories for readers. I love having the chance to talk with my target readers and find out some of their interests. One of the additional joys of participating in book festivals is the opportunity to meet other authors face to face and talk with them. I was delighted to meet Natalie Tinti in person at the festival. Ms. Tinti is a poised, professional, 10-year old, who has written and illustrated a book about friendship. She not only had books, but also had colorful illustrated posters from her book to help promote her product.

Sewing a Friendship starts with a picture of each of the characters in the book and character profile of each, answering the questions of birth date, age, family, eye color, hair color, favorite food, favorite color, and specialty. For the target age group Natalie is writing for, I found this to be a nice way to start the story. The reader then knows who the characters are that they will meet and have a visual they can refer to if they need to during the course of reading the book. As a young reader, I always loved character profiles, just a little snippet about the character outside of the actual text. Then I would compare throughout my reading experience to see if the author kept true to the profile, or whether I could spot any discrepancies.

The story starts with the wind blowing through town and checking on each of the main characters at each house along the way. Ms. Tinti has very unique character names. Along with the wind, you meet the four friends, Sokron Blossom, Nina Key, Meeka Venya, Jonsy Jipsy, and the outcast Kiki Shaver. In addition to the friends and Kiki, there is Sokron's grandma, Babushka and her dog, Dogon.

The four friends get together to have a beginning of summer sleep over. Then they find out about a fashion show and are excited to participate. However, Kiki Shaver threatens to stop their participation. The girls find because of the rules, they need Kiki and Kiki needs them and through working together they are able to become friends by seeing the value in each other. My favorite character is Dogon, as he snoops on the girls and helps to ensure the friendship is knit together.

The illustrations are delightful and highly colorful, and each chapter has a different border, which makes it a happy read. I look for a bright future for this young author and illustrator.

Sewing a Friendship, by Natalie Tinti , is a wonderful inspiring story with lessons in friendship. In this chapter book you will find four sweet 7 year olds girls planning a PINK SLEEPOVER, and preparing for a fashion show. The author has written a story using whimsical names such as, Sokron Blossom, Nina Key, Meeka Venya, and Jonsy Jipsy. With character names like these you can imagine how special this story is going to be. The girls decide to participate in a fashion show and begin to sew the clothes themselves. But, there is one problem, only 9-year-olds are allowed to model in the show and they need five participants. The four girls befriend Kiki Shaver, a 9 year-old they thought was not a nice girl.

The characters get to know Kiki, become friends and work together to accomplish their goals. The fashion show turns out to be a big success and they learn valuable lessons in friendship. I particularly like the beginning of the book where you will find an introduction to all the characters. Each character is outlined with information about their birthday, hair color, favorite food, and specialty just to mention a few. Each profile includes a full page drawing of the character. I know readers will be able to identify with the characters and maybe even imagine that they are one of them.

Did I mention that this book is authored and illustrated by a 10-year-old? Natalie Tinti has written this imaginative story that girls between the ages of 6 and 8 will love reading over and over again. The age appropriate vocabulary used by the author relates to how girls in this age group talk on a daily basis. Kids will relate to this text and will really enjoy the story. Readers will find colorful words and phrases in this story for example, Jonsy's father asked her what she would like for breakfast and she responds, "I feel like a cherry with vanilla ice-cream, a cup of dragon tea with a yellow umbrella, and a huge hot chocolate cake". This book is filled with glossy bright original Magna style drawings throughout. I highly recommend this book, and Natalie Tinti will be an author to watch for in the future.

This book is definitely for girls older than 7. I read it to my daughter, who is 5, and she got bored right away. But, I read it all the way through and, as is usual for girls, my daughter's friendships are very important to her so I will pull this book out when she's older and I know she'll get a lot out of it.

"Sewing a Friendship," written by ten-year-old Natalie Tinti, is about a group of girls who are having a sleepover when they discover an invitation to a fashion show. When the four friends read that five participants are needed to enter, they reluctantly decide to include nasty Kiki Shaver, who's never been very nice to them. With the help of Sokron's grandma, whom she calls Babushka, they are miraculously able to get ready for the fashion show in a short period of time. In the meantime, they all learn that they need each other and figure out how to work together. In the end, they all become friends with Kiki, who learns the value of friendship. I would recommend this book for girls in upper elementary and middle school. They'll be inspired by the fact that it was written and illustrated by one of their peers. And they'll be able to relate to its themes of friendship, fun, and getting along.

Sewing a Friendship

Sewing A Friendship is a story about four friends and a rival. Each has a speciality. Sokron is a visual artist, Meeka loves numbers and math problems, Nina is sensitive to sound and music and Jonsy is sensitive to feelings.

The girls attend Beachwell Elementary School and the students were waiting for an announcement from the Principal. He jokingly announced that they have lots of homework that needs to be done over the summer in order to prepare for the coming year. Meeka loved this announcement because she liked homework!

The four girls wondered what they would do together over the summer. They decided to have a PINK SLEEPOVER.

Meeka came up with the idea that the four of them should go to the park first to study blue caterpillars for her science sandwich. Once at the park, they met Kiki Shaver who was known as the meanest girl on the planet. Sokron asked Kiki why she was so dressed up and Kiki replied that she was attending a fashion show at the Shimmering Florida Hotel the next day. She also made the point of mentioning that it was a shame that the four girls were not invited. Sokron answered "Actually, you'll see us there".

When the four girls got back to Sokron's house they started planning for the fashion show. Each one was given an assignment such as make-up, hairstyles, etc. Sokron's grandmother, Babushka, had a sewing machine in her room. This meant she had to have some fabric somewhere. The girls went through several doors to get to Babushka's room and finally found the right one. Much to their surprise, Babushka asked if they were ready to work, work, work? Babushka pulled out all of the supplies and quickly let the girls get to work. As they looked at the old-fashioned sewing machine they saw a sheet of paper hanging from it. It was an invitation for the fashion show; however, the rules indicated there must be five people on a team and one model from each team must be at least nine years old. The invitation slipped out of Nina's hand and Sokron's dog, Dogon, ran away with it right out the open window.

The girls found Dogon on the green grass. They also noticed Kiki coming towards them. She knew what they were looking for as she had the invitation in her hand. The four girls invited Kiki to be a member of their group because this way they could all come out a winner. Kiki would be the fifth member and she was nine years old. At first, she declined but then said yes.

How does the fashion show go for the girls? How do they get to the fashion show? What lesson did they learn from this experience?

It is amazing to read this book and look through the illustrations and find out that ten-year-old Natalie Tinti did everything. At the beginning of the book, Natalie introduces the reader to each character by telling many things about them such as their speciality, favorite food, family, etc.

The illustrations are wonderful and add so much to the story. Natalie is very talented to be able to create these illustrations.

The thing that impressed me the most is Natalie's creativity. An example of this is when she talks about the sun:

"The sun finished its duties on the other side of the world and rose from the hills turning into a bright sunrise and let all light come out to share its love and happiness with everything that day. All the trees smiled happier than ever for they saw the light in their faces."

Another example is when Natalie describes the wind as it is "whooshing by" her friend's house. Her descriptions make the reader feel like they are right their riding along with the wind.

These are only two examples - Sewing a Friendship is filled with many examples of Natalie's creativity. Not only is Natalie's writing creative but it is also poetic.

Also, this book is about a valuable lesson in life - how a friendship is formed and so came the title "Sewing A Friendship". It shows that if one really tries and the two sides give in a little, great things can happen and friendships can be made.

This is an excellent book for a young reader and adults will find it amazing also!

Amazing that a 10 year old wrote this. The text is filled with creative images and the graphics are a treat for the eyes; full of colors and vibrant. Natalie, the author, inserts quirky lines that are sure to amuse adults, not just children. The math savvy girl ponders the H2O content in the air, the character Kiki's favorite food is bread! The plot is easy to follow and the lesson is beautiful: helping others is a way to help oneself. Good job, Natalie!

Natalie Tinti is an amazing young lady! How many children can show such creativity and wisdom at such a young age? This book about friendship reminds me of the wonderful adventures I went on every time I opened up a new book in my school library. Every teacher should share this book with their class! Only 10 years old on the outside, but I suspect Natalie is much older in terms of wisdom!

This book is a creative light-hearted way to express the issues confronting young girls of age nine or so.
It also shows the wisdom of the elder generation in guiding the passions of their grandchildren. It sends a positive message to its readers that would promote similar activities to include the less social children in their circle. This young writer uses the wind as her narrator to bring the reader into the homes of each character, and describes each girl the way young readers would describe themselves.
It is a enchanting collage of pictures, colors, and personalities.

Summer vacation had just started while the wind listened to a group of friends (Sokron Blossom, Meeka Venya, Jonsy Jipsy, Nina Key), all seven (7) years old, discussing their summer plans, a new one was presented to them. They wanted to be a part of the big fashion show, but the problem was they needed a five (5) member team to enter. They were only four (4), but as they were trying to figure out how to fix it, Sokron's dog, Dogon, took off with the rules for entering. Chasing him down they found another little girl (Kiki Shaver), but she was nine (9) which might work out because one of the rules was that at least one of the team members had to be at least nine (9). So they asked Kiki if she wanted to be a part of the fashion show as one of their team mates. After much thought, Kiki agreed, for one reason she didn't have many friends so she thought this would be a good place to start making some.

- As a story concept, this is a very cute and inspirational one. One member of the team is overcoming a fear of shyness and all of them are looking past some of their preconceived opinions of the others. Mostly I liked how they were all accepted for who they are and they all made the best of each of their own special strengths to make it to the fashion show. The help of Babushka (Grandma) and Dogon was a cute addition to the story, but not entirely necessary. (The nit-pick section of my review is about the grammar), I did find a few spots that should have maybe been corrected, but only a small handful of them. The illustrations on this book are Magna in style, full of color and tie into the story well.

- The interesting thing about this book is the fact that it is written and illustrated by a 10 year old. As a writer, she has room to grow (of course) but to be able to articulate herself so well through her story and pictures is just amazing. The book I received shows that it is has already been nominated or received awards from several places. This may be an up and coming author to watch.