Georgia Kostopoulou
“The Sunny Adventure” by Ira Alice is a beautiful story about Redkin, a little Fox that lives in the forest with Mother Fox. One day, Mother Fox, asks Redkin to go hunting so she can brings food for both of them. She is grown up to the point to find her own food, so Mother Fox challenges Redkin to do exactly that. The little fox is not so happy with the idea, but as she goes by at the forest, she finds some delicious sun beams. She tries to bite the beam without success, so she sets out to catch it. But she reaches the end of the forest and still she has not been able to do so. As she finds herself in front of a swamp, she meets Loudcroack. The frog becomes instantly her new friend and tries to help her in her adventure to bring the sun back to her mother.
As the two of them revolve within the forest, they meet a squirrel named Fluffy and later on, a hare named Zippy. Each one promises to help them on their endeavor and the offer their support. But none of the two new buddies becomes a friend to Redkin or Loudcroack, so eventually the two of them end up on their own. As they try to catch the sun, time passes by and by nightfall they have to go back to a very worried Mother Fox. But none of them expected the surprise that awaited them there.
Before going into the story, I would like to point out the beautiful illustration that would call for children attention. The little fox is such a cutie, that makes every heart melt, either an adult one. All the animals are amazingly cute and pretty. Even if you are not used to a cute frog, this is what you would find in this book! And they all come from the very talented Elena Teplova.
The story itself talks about friendship. Little Redkin and the frog, become truly good friends immediately. They stick for each other, they help and support each other, as true friends do. There is one incident where Redkin is afraid of something and Loudcrack finds it funny and starts to lough until he realizes that he hurts his friend’s feelings. That is a very important lesson for children. To learn to recognize when they hurt someone’s feelings and learn to not do that, especially to friends, but to all as well. And not only that, but good friends help each other overcome their fears and any other obstacle comes in their way!
The story also teaches children to be responsible, just as Redkin becomes when she goes looking for her own food. It teaches them to stand on their own feet and not expect that their parents or another adult will be there to provide for them throughout their whole life. It also point out that they should speak for themselves and try to make their dreams come true! Overall a beautiful story!
