I met Jessica Collaço, founder of Shine Your Light Books and author of children’s book Firenze’s Light at STAR Eco Station’s Children’s Earth Day event in Culver City a couple months ago. I learned about her mission: to create books, which tell stories that model compassion, reflection, self-worth and kindness. Together with her illustrator, Angela Li, their hope is that these books will nurture loving, peaceful children who will one day become loving, peaceful adults.
As a parent of a young girl, I am quite selective of the books we keep on her shelf and what shows I allow her to watch. I love stories, such as Firenze’s Light, which showcase individuality and the importance of appreciating who you are. The story is encouraging, optimistic, and the illustrations are gorgeous. The insects’ names are quite clever too! Angela Li did a beautiful job with the artistic lighting effects.
We received a copy of Firenze’s Light to review two weeks ago. It was well-received by my four-year-old daughter, who really enjoys it. She’s asked for it as her bedtime story several times, and also likes “reading” it on her own.
Storytime: reading of Firenze’s Light
Read with permission from the author, here is a video of me reading Firenze’s Light
4-year old Aria “reading” Firenze’s Light
My daughter insisted on being the storyteller after seeing me read it. So this video is her version of the story, with me (and the camera) in the audience (her words: “you be the child and I’ll be the teacher”). I helped her a little bit at the beginning, but then she told me to “stop talking” and interpreted the rest on her own. She mixed up a few things, but it’s all from her memory of me reading the book to her several times. It’s rather cute, so I thought I’d share.
Purchase Firenze’s Light
Firenze’s Light is available for purchase on ShineYourLightBooks.com
or on Amazon (affiliate link) as a hardcover book, Kindle, or Audible
Shine Your Light Books
Learn more about founder/author Jessica Collaço and illustrator Angela Li on Shine Your Light Books website:
www.shineyourlightbooks.com
This post contains affiliate links. There was no monetary compensation exchanged for this post. A hardcopy book was provided in order to facilitate this review. All opinions are 100% honest and my own. Some images used with permission and provided by Shine Your Light Books.
