How to be Happy with Who You Are – a mini lesson on self acceptance [Review]

Rate this Book / Post

Title: How to be Happy with Who You Are
Author: Sudha Murty
Illustrator: Shruti Hemani
Publisher: Puffin Books (An imprint of Penguin Random House)
Type: Hardcover
Length: 32 Pages
Age recommendation: 5 to 8 years

In today’s day and age the ability to stay content with oneself is an art that some of the most “successful” adults haven’t been able to master. This is because, self contentment is an art that has to be a part of one’s DNA from a very young age.

It’s our children’s privilege to have literature covering such an advanced and complex topic in a simple, lucid way. Kudos to Mrs Sudha Murty for being able to do so.

‘How to be happy with who you are’ is about a your princess who gets influenced by a few friends and wants to change herself. Her wise father agrees to her wishes to allow her to learn by experience, that she doesn’t need to change and brings her a unique value to the table.

The book itself is written in a very simple language. When it arrived, I had a whole discussion planned out but my 7 year old daughter found the book while I was busy and gobbled it up! She really liked the fact that she learnt it’s good to be oneself. She happily did a mini video review which was shared here in the kbc fb group.

Comparison with friends, wanting to “fit in” is a common challenge lots of kids across age groups face and we’re no different. Incidentally this topic was also the theme of the month at school. Hence, she connected deeply with the story. Within a few minutes not only did she finish reading it but was able to share her quick review and what she learnt from it. The connection was so deep that the book went to school and was also shared with the entire class!

For the parent, the father’s character was a gentle reminder to sometimes let the little ones learn via safe experiments.

Would highly recommend this book for 6 year+ kids for self reading [earlier too for our early book worms!]. This book also serves as a great conversation starter. This is a perfect bedtime self read book, addressing a pretty important topic of being confident in what we are. Happy reading!!!

Other books by Sudha Murty that are apt for 5-8 year olds are:
How the Onion got its layers
How the Sea Became Salty
How the Earth got its beauty (review)
These titles are also available in a boxset of 4 – My First Sudha Murty Collection
How the Mango got its Sweetness is another book that gets ordered often. You can read Prachi and Ishani’s review here.
How The Bamboo Got Its Bounty – Snehlata’s review can also be read in this post.

The Gopi Diaries: Coming Home (for 6-9 yrs)
THE GOPI DIARIES BOXSET Hardcover (for 6-9 years) is a boxset of 3 books in the Gopi Diaries series – Coming Home, Finding Love, Growing Up.
You can find all of Sudhaji’s books for children here on Amazon. (kbc affiliate link). And her books for grown ups, here.

If you enjoyed this review and wish to buy the book from Amazon (kbc affiliate link),

CLICK & BUY NOW!

Disclaimer: Lakshmi and Shaina are a part of the #kbcReviewerSquad and received this book as a review copy from the publisher.