The Girl Who Lost Her Smile (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Stefan Czemecki (Illustrator), Strfan Czerneck (Illustrator), Stefan Czernecki (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3-In this obscure story, Jehan has lost her smile, making the city of Baghdad gray and drab. Even the jugglers and fire-eaters can't cheer her up. The hoopoe bird and Jehan's father try importing artists to paint pictures to cheer her, but while the girl finds the Chinese dragons and the Italian seraphim beautiful, she still won't smile. The hoopoe rejects the religious subject matter of the Tibetan artist as "Too scary" and the Egyptian's as "Too serious." Finally, a young Persian gives her a sandalwood scraper and together they sand a wall until it glows. "-Jehan saw that its beauty had always been there. It had just been waiting for her to uncover it." This message passes for the point of the story. Czernecki's angular and flat watercolors rely less on Turkish folk art and more on bold, varying color, black outlines, and static placement of figures. Young readers are unlikely to be moved by the pictures or the inexplicit theme, and it is never revealed why the child is sad or why sanding a wall makes her happy. This story needs a little more fleshing out to make plain its simple message that beauty is where you find it.
Susan Hepler, Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 6-9. Inspired by a tale from the Sufi poet Rumi, this elegant, unusual story begins when young Jehan wakes up one morning in Baghdad and cannot find her smile. Her father asks the wise hoopoe bird what to do. It suggests that Jehan will smile again when great artists paint pictures for her. Italian and Chinese painters come, but though Jehan finds their art beautiful, she cannot smile. Then the hoopoe brings a young Persian. The Persian brings forth a sandalwood scraper from his bag and asks Jehan to help him smooth the wall. As the wall begins to glow under their hands, "Jehan saw that its beauty had always been there. It had just been waiting for her to uncover it," and she smiles again. In airbrushed colors, the illustrations are combinations of geometric forms: Jehan's head is a circle and her lips a perfect ruby heart. Persian windows, Jehan's turbaned father, and the gaudily crested hoopoe evoke the locale. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Winslow Press; 1st edition (October 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890817171
• ISBN-13: 978-1890817176
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,374,887 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Cultural Book, April 10, 2002

By A Customer

This is a folktale of a young girl Jehan, who lives in Baghdad. One morning she wakes to find out she has lost her smile. She searches for it all over the world, only to find it was hidden in her own home all along she just had to uncover it. She finds the more she smiles the easier it is and the entire community shares her smile. The moral is to find the hidden beauty in life that is often right in front of us. This is a great book that incorporates the culture of Baghdad, culture all over the world, and has a great moral to it. This is delightful book and I highly recommend it.