TRINI'S BIG LEAP

Trini can do everything, or so she thinks, until she discovers she can’t.

In her flowery green dress, yellow boots, and red superhero cape, Trini can do anything. “She was the highest flyer, the strongest gripper, the most spectacular cartwheeler at Bounce and Build.” But one day she finds her friends are not around her as she “leaps and twirls and swirls and curls”; they are instead playing with blocks. When she tries to build “a castle with a tower,” Trini finally finds something she cannot do. After initial frustration she accepts help from her friends, and together they have a wonderful time building a castle. The next day Trini is back and ready to help her friends perform all the gymnastics that she is so good at, “And in their own ways, with Trini’s help, they did.” Trini is depicted with black hair and olive skin; of her friends, two are white and two are darker-skinned, one possibly black. In a lengthy afterword directed at parents, co-author de Wit explains the importance of exposing children to a variety of experiences both challenging and easy in order to promote their development, teach them to overcome obstacles, and maybe awaken a life calling.

Partly a parenting book, partly aimed at children, best read and discussed together.