Monday, June 8, 2015

Kika the Upside-Down Girl



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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