This book, along with help from a teacher, might help kids get over disappointment. It is truly hard to have your heart set on one thing, and be told that you didn’t make it.

Oscar hoped for a lead role, but instead has to be a backstage manager. That was not what he wanted, and doesn't sound like much fun.

His teacher knows he is disappointed, so explains that his part backstage is very important, and the play can’t go on without him. His other friends try to tell him the same. Of course, because this is a book about dealing with disappointment, he does get over it, and everything else happily, perhaps too easily, but it is a picture book, and one has to get to the point quickly.

Still the best advice comes after the story, telling how to deal with disappointment. How to talk to others, how to think positively, to keep a journal, and to plant a garden to tend to help you as well. All good advice.

I’m glad there is a book out there, trying to show that every part is important, and that there is nothing wrong with being disappointed, but to get over it at some point, and get up from the ashes.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out the 23rd of September 2025.

I wish i had this when i was little.
Cute and funny way to tac life and how to handle disappointment.