I was afraid this was going to be a horribly obvious uplifting book with a clichéd happy ending. Fortunately (although it did have a happy ending), it wasn't the ending I was expecting. I really enjoyed the book. I love Zippy's enthusiasm and the way he encourages the others. I liked the pictures, too. Best of all, I think the kids will like this book, just as much as I did.

This adorable picture book teaches a valuable lesson without being didactic and over the top. Zippy is a zebra who always comes in last place in races, no matter how much he practices. But Zippy never gives up because he loves to run. He always hope he will get better and gives hope to everyone around him. The book will delight adults and children.

This is a great story about trying to succeed and how we measure success. Zippy loves to run, but is not very good at it. He runs because he loves it, not because he feels he has to win every race. What a wonderful lesson for society. We should all be more like Zippy. Not only is the story a great lesson, but the artwork is fun and supports the story well. Sometimes books with this kind of lesson have very dull illustrations that are not engaging. Definitely not the case here! This book is part of the Myself Bookshelf series which deals with social and emotional issues. I will look for other titles in this series to help address these issues with my students.

This is an inspirational tale of Zippy the Zebra who loves running. In races he always comes last but that doesn't stop him running because he knew that he would keep getting better and he enjoyed it anyway! He always hoped and kept persevered and kept a positive attitude despite sometimes negative suggestions from friends.

How the story could be used to encourage children to persevere and have hope is suggested after the story. This book is one of a series that is designed to support children's social emotional learning in an endeavour to "promote not only self-awareness, responsibility, positive relationships, but also academic achievement." It is a delightful story, beautifully illustrated and could easily be used in the suggested ways to help children learn that "if at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again!"

Title: Zippy the Runner

Author: JiYu Kim

Illustrator: JeongHyeon Seon

Publisher: Norwood House Press

Year: 2015

Pages: 29

[Disclaimer: I was provided an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my fair an unbiased review of this book. I was in no way compensated for my review and I was not required to write a positive review of the book. ]

I teach special education at a small elementary school. I have been teaching special education for 4 years now as a second career. It is not easy work--I work with students who have emotional/behavioral disorders. The students keep my on my toes and on the go. They have more energy than is typically necessary for a human, but that is all part of the fun of the work.

Another aspect of these students' lives that is perplexing is their willingness to give up easily on tasks they deem too difficult. Typically their default mode is: "I can't." It is terribly frustrating for me as a teacher because I see in them the ability to do anything they set their minds to doing--even if it requires more processing time to do so. Yet within in them there is a chicane of some sort or another that convinces them they cannot. Thus a large part of every day is spent working to show them that they can, in fact, accomplish something and that what matters is not, always, success, but effort. We constantly use the word 'try' in my classroom because, as I tell the kids, you do not know if you can or cannot until you try.

To this end, I believe Zippy the Runner would be a helpful book. Zippy, the main character, has to press on and on, keep practicing, keep running--keep trying. What I like best is that at the end of the book Zippy has no yet succeeded, but neither has Zippy quit trying. This, in my opinion, is what is key to this story.

I also like the artwork very much. I believe the illustrator did a brilliant job composing art for the pages--even though what I saw on the digital version didn't render very well on my Adobe Digital Editions (I didn't even download this to my NOOK so I'm not sure how it rendered on that device.) Still, I loved what I saw. And if the truth must be told, I will say that if a children's book as good artwork, it will usually fly with kids--and with me. I love the illustrations.

The end of the book features a Reader's Theater idea which can be found here and some curriculum ideas for using the book in the classroom. The reader's theater is a bit short, but may be helpful in lower grades. The curriculum idea is a fun little art project that the students will likely enjoy as well.

This is a book I will incorporate into my classroom and one that I think my students will enjoy. I enjoyed very much and I will look forward to reading more from this author and, perhaps, from Norwood Press House books in the MySELF Bookshelf Series.

5/5 stars

The information below is from the Norwood Press House website I have linked to above.

Grade level: K-2 Dewey: E Subject: Fiction, Social and Emotional Learning, Optimism, Self-Worth Accelerated Reader Reading Level: 2.5 Accelerated Reader Quiz #: 168500 Lexile Level: 470L GRL: K

I loved the illustrations. This is great book for the classroom. Perfect for character ed lessons.