I'm so confused by this book.

I wanted to love it. I mean, energy healing from a kids' perspective? I'm so in. I would LOVE to share this with my youngest, and perhaps teach him something about how to send energy to others.

Unfortunately, there's a lot off with this book, and I'm not sure where to start. I should note that I hate giving awful reviews.... I'm a writer too, and I realize how much time and effort go into creating a book.

The Importance of Integrity is the third book in the Energy Annie series - although I have no idea what the other two books were called, or what they covered. This one starts in the middle of the conversation, and it's unsettling. I have no idea who the people are, what they're referring to, or why there are seeming ghosts/angels floating around everyone's heads.

Every single page has the word "integrity' in it. I didn't need the reflection questions at the end of the book to notice. It's hard not to. In order to incorporate this word into EVERY page (this is a children's book), the word loses its meaning. It becomes dry, stilted, and meaningless. As well, the explanation of what integrity IS... just isn't. I still couldn't explain to my son what the word means.

The most interesting part of the book, where I wanted more, was when Annie gets invited to send healing energy to others. I'm hoping for some sort of explanation, instruction, but instead Annie hears her Guides tell her she's powerful, and then we see an image of four people I'm assuming she's healing. Later, she speaks with her Grandfather, who tells her he saw green light as Annie did the energy work. "Cool!" I thought. That is, if the stilted prose, energy beings floating around, and what I can only assume are people's aura's encasing each character didn't distract me.

I can see where the book wants to go with this, but for the life of me, can't understand how this won any awards or what it was supposed to teach me. If it was what "integrity' means, it failed. If it's what we can do with energy healing, I'm sorry, but that failed, too.

I do appreciate NetGalley and the publisher giving me an advance reader's copy to review this. I had never considered this topic for a children's book, and would welcome it - if it made sense.