I liked this book for one reason, and did not like it for another. First, the characters are well-developed and are believable. The main character, Kiri Mama, was well-developed and was a believable character. For example, the author developed his character by describing his personality and his background of his life. These descriptions make the character more believable and helps the audience to relate to Kiri as he searches for the umbrella thief. The author tells that Kiri comes from a poor village that has never seen an umbrella. With this specific character development, the plot of the story becomes more intense. However, I did not like the illustrations in the book. The illustrations are busy and unfocused with no clear lines. This makes the main character difficult to find. The illustrations do not enhance the story, as it is difficult to understand the illustration because of its lack of defined lines. The illustrations are unfocused, making it a distraction from the text. Overall, the big idea of this book is to fight for justice and always do what is right. ( )

This book emphasizes the value and importance of giving back to the community. The main character, Kiri Mama, travels into town from his small village and purchases his first umbrella. After returning home he realizes that his umbrella has been stolen so he purchases a new one. This happens multiple times before he finally gets fed up and searches for his lost umbrellas. When he finally finds all of his umbrellas he decides to open up an umbrella store and sell umbrellas to the people of his village. Thus helping out helping out his friends in the village. I enjoyed reading this book for many reasons. I like how aspects of Sri Lankan culture are evident in the text. This provides readers with knowledge of a culture they may not know much about. For example the illustrations depict the characters of the story in traditional Sri Lanka clothing in an authentic setting. In addition, I liked that the illustrations in this book helped to enhance the text. There were multiple illustrations on each page that were large and often took up the whole page. They were also brightly colored to capture the reader’s attention. ( )