In this children’s picture book, titular protagonist Kika
loves living her life upside-down as indicated by the cover art depicting her
hanging from a suspended bar with her canine companion observing, the first
image within the book showing her walking her dog with her backpack suspended
by her feet. She’s even skillful enough to suspend herself upside-down with one
hand upon the ground, with further indication that she enjoyed upside-down life
even during her infancy, a pair of pictures showing her upside-down in her
mother’s baby carrier and in her high chair suckling from a bottle.
Kika even does sundry tasks such as eating breakfast and
brushing her teeth upside-down, and travels as such to school, participating in
and out of class in reverse position. However, her life takes a turn when she
does a back-flip that consequentially damages her bed, in which instance her
parents encourage her to life at least some of her life right side-up, and
despite supplemental advice from a doctor visit, she firmly believes
upside-down life is fun, feels alone, and goes through various reverie depicted
in bubbles such as being in outer space upside down.
Fortunately, however, Kika finds her talents to be right at
home in the local gymnasium, and even goes on a world tour entertaining people
with her acrobatic talents. The brief biography following the main text
indicates that author Jessica Tudos herself is an “upside-down girl” and has
supposedly spent over ten thousand hours training upside down for Olympic gymnastics
competitions. Ultimately, this is an entertaining story sure to satisfy younger
audiences with the message that it’s okay to be unique, which this reviewer,
being autistic, most certainly is, and is highly recommended.
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