48 months - The sequel to "A Chair For My Mother". Another really thoughtful book by this author. The little girl takes great care in picking the best most worth while birthday present with the big jar of coins her family has saved. May we all learn a lesson from this story. ( )

The book, “Something Special For Me”, is a really sweet book. The first part about this book that I enjoyed was the plot and how the book was written. It’s about a little girl, Rosa, whose family is poor but every time her family earns money, they put the left over coins in a jar. Once the jar is full, the family normally picks out something that can be efficient for the whole family. This time was a special time for Rosa because it was her birthday and she was allowed to use the money in the jar to pick out something special. As the story unfolded, the author created these characters to be believable and relatable. Another reason why I enjoyed this book was the illustrations. The illustrations are created with bright watercolors that fill up each page. Each illustration has fine detail on the smallest possible items. For example, there is an illustration of a big red chair with tiny roses that cover the seat. There are multiple colors used in the roses and very small detail. The main idea of this book is to teach children to save their money and only spend it on something they are sure that they really need or want. ( )

I liked the book for a couple of reasons. First, I liked the illustrations in the book and second I liked that the characters were believable. The illustrations in this book are great. The illustrations are all painted. They are not perfect which makes them very unique and fun to look at. The illustrator put great detail in even the smallest objects. For example, the camping store had pots and pans hanging from a rack. The illustrator managed to put blotches of white to imitate a price tag. The main character Rosa is also very believable. The story is about her complications of what to choose to buy for her birthday , which almost every kid can relate to. For example, when Rosa went into the skate store she was imagining herself having them on. “ I could see myself dancing around on my new skates in the schoolyard to Leora’s little radio.” With such a strong connection to readers experience, I think that it made the story much more believable and realistic.
Overall, the purpose of this book was to show that good comes to those who wait. Rosa waited a long time to decide on a perfect gift for her birthday instead of getting the first thing that she like. She ended up getting an accordion, which was enjoyable not only for her, but her entire family. ( )

I gave this book 4 stars because it is very wordy and it lost my attention and I know ti would loos a child's. I think that it reminds me of being in college and having a money jar to save up for special things. I have had a money jar since I can remember. You could use this in the classroom to talk about the economic crisis and how some families have to wait and save up to buy things, or you could use to to talk about waiting to make decisions until you are 100 percent sure about what you want. ( )