Gorgeous illustrations show how a variety of animals envision a mountain, each arguing that they are right. They finally climb a mountain and can see that all of their ideas are part of it. The story is short, but there’s lots to look at in the art and it’s a good example of how we all can have a different perspective on something.

The Mountain is a wonderful children's picture book that will encourage them to consider other perspectives. Different animals describe the mountain in vastly different ways, but who is right? They all are! The illustrations are stunning and unique. I really enjoyed this book that encourages seeing the same thing from different perspectives.

Thank you NorthSouth Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

Translated by Marshall Yarbrough, Rebecca Gugger and Simon Rothlisberger use text, drawings, and a variety of animals who live on, in, and around a mountain and believe their view describes a mountain, to teach the acceptance of diversity. A beautiful book for elementary students and science classes.

The Mountain features different animals in different habitats talking about what they each think is a mountain. The illustrations were beautiful. I read this to my 6 yr old and he thought it was pretty good but wanted more of a story.

This book is beautifully illustrated and I love the simple and clear writing, would definitely recommend this book!

A very creative way to show different perspectives from various animals. Cute story with vivid illustrations. I loved the details of the ant's house. This book should be required reading for everyone in politics. It did end a bit abruptly but overall it is definitely a keeper.

*Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Four thousand stars. I love this little book soooooo much! The art is both gorgeous and sly- the octopus with the fishbowl helmet was great, also the ant in a bubble bath and an underground fungus greenhouse, AND the funny ways each animal prepares for the climb, but my favorite was the mashup of them all bickering. The story is perfect. The open-ended resolution is a great way to start a conversation with little ones about how beliefs can be right and wrong at the same time, and there is often more than meets the eye. I am absolutely picking up a copy of this when it is published.

Thank you to the publisher for the copy for review!

A sweet book about how we all view something differently. And how viewing it different does not mean that it is wrong, just different. The illustrations were darling as well.

A bunch of different animals start talking about what they think the mountain is. every alternate page is so much fun, as you have to find the animal, blended into the environment. The illustrator's palette shines here. Eventually they all realise that each has a different view and set out to find the truth.
We took a chance to find out how mountains are formed from scischow kids.
What a beautiful way of showing kids, how same thing can be viewed as differently depending on where we are and how it seems to us.

A deceptively simple book about different perspectives and opinions.

This would be a good mentor text for inferences and provoking discussions based on logic vs opinions.

All in all, a quick, fun read with great illustrations.

This is a story about animals who have different opinions about what a mountain is like. When a bird reminds them that they haven’t actually been on the mountain, they all travel there and realize that the actual experience isn’t quite what they assumed it would be.

The illustrations are gorgeous, and in my opinion the best part of the book. The story itself falls a bit flat because the moral isn’t clear. What exactly is the lesson here? The children I read this to were confused. It begins and ends rather abruptly, and if the story is meant to be about how different perspectives can all be valid, that was lost in the execution of the narrative. The problem may lie in the translation, since this book was not originally written in english. The illustrations deserve five stars but I think the story itself needs revision.

This book didn't work for us. Neither my 6 year old son, nor myself really enjoyed it. The illustrations were very pretty to look at, and there were many of them, but that's where the positives ended.
The story lacked a proper introduction, and you felt yourself thrust right into a conflict, you didn't know existed. After that every animal's opinion takes up a lot of visual space, but very little text. It's just a short phrase on a double page spread... just an opinion, no reason for it. The font an layout was off as well. It took us until about halfway through the book to realize that the tiny printer under the quotes was even there, let alone part of the story. Oops. So we went back and tried again, but hadn't really missed much other than "claimed the bear" or "said the sheep".
Finally the story ended as abruptly as it began. If there was a lesson to be learned, it entirely went over my son's head. He needed... more.

I loved this book that teaches children about perspective. Each animal in the story believed their version of a mountain was the correct one, until the wise bird advises them to climb and look down from above in a new way.

I am always searching for books which help children understand perspective taking, and this is perfect. It will hold a child's attention, has beautiful illustrations, and will promote wonderful discussions between adults and children.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The value that the world needs most in today’s world is tolerance. This book is a beautiful resource for little children to help them understand how perspectives can be different without affecting the truth.

The illustrations reminded me of the Russia storybooks I used to read in my childhood. They are absolutely stunning.

I’ve knocked off a star because I think the book ended too soon. It was building up so beautifully towards the finale but the ending felt incomplete. Felt like it raises a valuable point but ends without establishing it firmly. There was a golden opportunity for moral lessons, for the animals to reach an understanding with each other, for them to realise their mistake, for them to acknowledge that all of them were right in their own way and that they should have understood the reason for the different opinions without dismissing them outright. But all this is left up to the parents or guardians to discuss with the children. For independent readers, it helps having the morals in writing, at least to a certain extent. Alternatively, the book could have ended with introspective questions for the little readers asking them their opinion on the animals’ argument.

There was this lovely poem I read in my school English textbook many eons ago. It told us of six blind men who bump into an elephant and try to guess what type of creature it might be. Each insists that his own guess is perfect and the others are wrong. The story in this book reminded me of that beloved rhyme. The poem was titled “The Blind Men and the Elephant” and written by John Godfrey Saxe. It was based on parables found in Buddhist texts.

This shouldn’t take away from the book. The message it propagates is an absolute must for every child and adult in today’s world. There are enough idiots who see things only from their perspective and believe everyone else to be wrong. A truly humane society with tolerance and empathy is the need of the hour.

Thank you, NetGalley and North South Books Inc., for the Advanced Review Copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

After reading this book, I immediately went and pre-ordered a hardback for my daughter. The art is utterly gorgeous, and I loved the message around understanding that others have a different perspective and that reality is often more than our limited experience.

Oh my gosh, the artwork in this is simply gorgeous and colourful and just so wonderful. I loved all the extra details in each page and the way the animals and their ideas of the mountain are depicted. This is such a lovely little book, definitely give it a shot!

Things happened a bit suddenly in this one, but I still think it is a really cute book that kids would enjoy!! The plot is kinda unique and the animals are cooly drawn

A cute, simple picture book in which a group of animals argue over their different perspectives of a mountain. Filled with cute and colorful illustrations but has a bit of a sudden introduction and conclusion as far as the conflict is concerned.

Hmmm... This reminded me of some old adage about the elephant – take half a dozen blindfolded people, each only able to feel a bit of it (a snakelike bit at the front, a solid pair of tusks, tree-like legs, wispy hairy tail etc) and they would never know what it really is. Here a disparate group of animals each sees the mountain in front of them in their own way, but they've never climbed it before to actually explore. The moral of getting the bigger picture, and therefore understanding other people's viewpoints, is kind of missed by a very sudden ending that seems to bluntly deny the moral ever existed. Visually it's fine (the absurd idea of the octopus climbing the mountain covered quite well) but I didn't think the large double-page splashes for every animal's knowledge of the mountain were actually that necessary. Not bad, but no classic.

I really enjoyed this retelling of The Blind Men and the Elephant parable. It involves many different animals' perspectives of a mountain and features beautiful illustrations. Short and sweet, with a great moral lesson that is as pertinent today as it was when the parable's original form started.