The Best Emma Ever

The Best Emma Ever by Jean E. Pendziwol and Christina Leist is a book about perseverance.

Emma wants to be the best ever just like her dog. She tries so many things and discovers that she is certainly not the best. How can she ever be the best?

Jean E. Pendziwol crafts a wonderful narrative that will be recognizable to all readers: the struggle to be the best at something. All children want to be recognized and praised for their accomplishments and when they fail, it can be really tough. I love how this story acknowledges the struggle in finding something that you can be “best” at while also reminding readers that in order to be the best, a lot of hard work and failure must come first.

More and more, I see children who are struggling to be the best at something but not trying when perfection or mastery doesn’t come immediately. I was one of those children, I was not very good at persevering in a task that didn’t come fairly easily. This book is a wonderful story to remind all readers of the old adage, “practice makes perfect”. I really did enjoy the story and the message behind the text, however, I really didn’t enjoy the choice of font by the publisher. When creating books for children, it’s so important that the lettering is close to what they will be trying to recreate. This font was much too stylized for my taste and I would have loved to have seen a better, more reflective choice.

The art by Christina Leist is so wonderful and very reflective of the message in the story. I love how the shapes aren’t perfect and the colouring is sometimes blurred at the edges just to remind readers that there is beauty in the process.