Genre: Fantasy Fiction
Age Appropriateness: Primary (through first grade)
Media: Watercolor
Review/Critique:
Mole was walking in the snowy woodland one day when he spotted a diamond! He was so excited that he took it home, but by the time he got there, the diamond had left his hands! Mole was so dissapointed when his friends found him and asked what was wrong. Mole decided to show them where he had found the diamond, but he soon learned that the diamond was actually an icicle! Although his diamond was not true, he and his friends did get to see a spectacular and magical sunset.

This book is good fantasy because there are many realistic elements along with unrealistic elements. Obviously animals are not going to be thinking about diamonds or be friends with other animals. The setting is very realistic, however, because the author and illustrator wrote and painted about a woodland and burrows. Snow is something that would affect animals as well. While it is unrealistic, the story seems plausible.

This is an adorable book about a mole who goes out into the snow and finds an icicle and thinks it must be a diamond. There is definitely some "all that glitters is not gold" moral to this story, and it brings out great ideas of friendship, loyalty, and just good fun with daily things students would see around them. I might also use this book to talk about discovery and collaboration with peers when trying to figure something out or learning about something exciting and unknown. ( )

Okay story, nothing special though. The main character doesn't really solve a problem. ( )