The Smile Shop

By Author / Illustrator

Satoshi Kitamura

Genre

Friends and family

Age range(s)

Publisher

Scallywag Press

ISBN

9781912650972

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

01-02-2024

Synopsis

Award-winning artist Satoshi Kitamura delivers the powerful message that kindness is more important than money. Nominated for the Greenaway Medal 2021.

Celebrate the power of a smile in this deceptively simple story set in a multi-ethnic market. A small boy is planning how to spend his first ever pocket money when disaster strikes and he's left with only one coin. His day seems to be ruined until he sees a Smile Shop. In a surprise ending, the world is put to rights and suddenly the whole world is smiling again!

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Reviews

In The Smile Shop, a young boy is meandering through town absorbing the sights, sounds and smells as he decides what he would like to buy. He wants to buy something but what should he choose? There are interesting foods he could try, beautiful toys, colourful books or maybe a musical instrument or a hat? Just as he is about to make his decision - disaster! With only one coin left, he feels like his day is ruined. But what's that? A shop selling smiles? Well, he could really do with a smile just now but can a shop really sell smiles?

This fantastic picture book is packed with beautifully detailed illustrations, full of gentle humour, which reflect a multicultural, multi-ethnic town. You could loose yourself for hours looking at all of the drawings. This is the book to prove that a smile really is the gift that keeps on giving. The themes of kindness being more important than money, and things not always turning out as you predict, are important lessons for life.

This is a wonderful feel-good book which would be perfect as a read-aloud book in an EYFS/KS1 classroom or as a bedtime story at home.

Picture book / Reviewed by Amanda Shipton, teacher