What do you think?
Rate this book
The Wonderful Roundabout: Stories for kids and other smarty pants
The Wonderful Roundabout is a collection of illustrated short stories for children, meant to inspire little ones to be kind, brave and curious. Each story is split into parts of approximately 500 words, so they can be easily read at bedtime. They are suitable for children over 5 years of age as the narratives may be too complex for those younger. The stories usually portray characters facing challenges. One friendly bear wants to learn how to read. A brave sailor leads the way to a magical island. A smart little boy tries to build a flying machine. They each succeed by perseverance, openness and ingenuity. They achieve great things by doing simple, good deeds. An important aspect of the book is that there are no situations where a character has to do wrong in order to gain something. Even when battles take place, as they sometimes do on pirate ships, they have no detail of violent gestures or actions. This is a point that has been attentively pursued throughout the book. There are many classical children's stories that involve a great deal of violence. Hansel and Gretel's own parents leave them in a forest to die, the huntsman in Snow White kills the wolf, Cinderella's sisters are filled with envy. The Wonderful Roundabout was written with the belief that stories can set the foundations for the moral character of children and, therefore, should, in all ways, inspire kids to become caring, generous and motivated individuals. Which is why references to violence or mischief are removed. The obstacles our characters face are more those that appear when one tries to follow a dream that is not readily accessible - such as reaching a magical castle, transforming a bicycle into a mouse or building a bridge in a beautiful place. Simply put, if at least one child becomes a better person after hearing one of the stories, then The Wonderful Roundabout would have fulfilled its purpose.
- GenresChildrens
192 pages, Paperback
First published March 18, 2013
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 24, 2017
This is a collection of sweet, fun stories for the young folks and for the older folks who read them.
"For kids and other smarty pants" is a terrific subtitle.
The stories are not sappy or over-sentimental. They're optimistic and bright, and they share lessons about being optimistic, smart, brave, all those good things.
The stories contain vibrant characters, and the stories are just a delight, frankly. I am jealous of Olina's imagination and style.
My personal favorite: "The Unusual Adventure of the Wild Chicken." I would've been OK if Mandy Olina had named the whole book that.
Your kids and your adults both need this book. It's just fun.
"For kids and other smarty pants" is a terrific subtitle.
The stories are not sappy or over-sentimental. They're optimistic and bright, and they share lessons about being optimistic, smart, brave, all those good things.
The stories contain vibrant characters, and the stories are just a delight, frankly. I am jealous of Olina's imagination and style.
My personal favorite: "The Unusual Adventure of the Wild Chicken." I would've been OK if Mandy Olina had named the whole book that.
Your kids and your adults both need this book. It's just fun.
December 20, 2024
Another book that was hiding in my kindle library. I thought of spending the last few days of the year with not so serious books and gave it a go.
Surprisingly, I liked it very much. Few stories were not so good but majority were really really good. The magic house of doors, The lizard prince and the fire frog, The pirate's tale, The boy who chased the sunset, The bear and the book, The mountain that built a world, to name a few.
As an adult way past the target audience, maybe I saw the stories in a different light.
Book #62 of 2024..
Surprisingly, I liked it very much. Few stories were not so good but majority were really really good. The magic house of doors, The lizard prince and the fire frog, The pirate's tale, The boy who chased the sunset, The bear and the book, The mountain that built a world, to name a few.
As an adult way past the target audience, maybe I saw the stories in a different light.
Book #62 of 2024..
August 28, 2017
The Wonderful Roundabout is a collection of short stories for children grades K – 3, age levels 5 – 9.
The book’s description states that each story is ideal for bedtime, since they’re broken up into about 500 words. This means most of the stories are told in separate parts. I have to wonder how well small children will like this format – having to wait over several nights (or days) to learn how a story ends.
Although the book’s description states that these short stories are illustrated, I’d have to say that they aren’t really illustrated in a way that most children (and adults) might be expecting. There’s one small picture at the beginning of the first part of each story, but not at the beginning of any subsequent parts. This means there are very few illustrations in total.
In my opinion, as a mom, grandmother and early childhood educator, I’d have to say that there are many words that will need explaining to young children. The author does state this in her synopsis, but I’d have to include children even older than five, as she mentions. The vocabulary, at times, seems even a bit too advanced for the average seven year old. This is not a book that most young children will be able to read themselves.
I do appreciate the author’s idea of writing stories that remove any mention of violence and conflict, but instead depict characters that are facing challenges and are able to overcome them peacefully and intellectually.
The book’s description states that each story is ideal for bedtime, since they’re broken up into about 500 words. This means most of the stories are told in separate parts. I have to wonder how well small children will like this format – having to wait over several nights (or days) to learn how a story ends.
Although the book’s description states that these short stories are illustrated, I’d have to say that they aren’t really illustrated in a way that most children (and adults) might be expecting. There’s one small picture at the beginning of the first part of each story, but not at the beginning of any subsequent parts. This means there are very few illustrations in total.
In my opinion, as a mom, grandmother and early childhood educator, I’d have to say that there are many words that will need explaining to young children. The author does state this in her synopsis, but I’d have to include children even older than five, as she mentions. The vocabulary, at times, seems even a bit too advanced for the average seven year old. This is not a book that most young children will be able to read themselves.
I do appreciate the author’s idea of writing stories that remove any mention of violence and conflict, but instead depict characters that are facing challenges and are able to overcome them peacefully and intellectually.
February 22, 2017
The stories were a bit long and detailed for my four-year-old grandson so I had to summarize them up a bit. (He likes lots of pictures!). I think these would be perfect for a child who is five or older. The pictures are well done! I really liked them! I wish there were more of them for each section of the individual stories. I liked how all the stories are divided up in little segments that are easy to read if you don't have a lot of time. I was very impressed with the author's creativity and uniqueness of each story. I like the bits of magic and how one's imagination can be used to envision these stories. The pirate story was a favorite of my grandson. I liked the mouse and the bicycle story personally!!
August 10, 2017
I was a bit torn with the short stories in this book. First I have to say I liked to see so many in the collection, I think I counted a dozen. I felt the cute stories at the beginning of the book were more interesting for younger children.Toward the end of the book the stories are different and may be better for more advanced readers. The first stories with animal connection I found to be fun. Toward the end of the book, the stories take a different turn and are more about natural creation. I think the writing was really well done and would have liked to see a bit more humor in the stories.
February 7, 2019
Excellent
I thoroughly enjoy reading these type of children books, for they always teach my children an important life lesson in a simple and easy way that they can understand. It's important for children today to have morals, and the only way that they will obtain them is if they are taught from a young age.
I thoroughly enjoy reading these type of children books, for they always teach my children an important life lesson in a simple and easy way that they can understand. It's important for children today to have morals, and the only way that they will obtain them is if they are taught from a young age.
September 11, 2019
A collection of short stories to share as families. The suggestion is to read a piece for bedtime each night. Some of the stories are harder for younger readers to understand but provide opportunities for family discussions.
November 27, 2022
Son and mother reading together
This has been our best bedtime story. We really enjoyed it and it has supported my son in his reading. This is a fun book to read with many stories to go through we recommend this to other young readers, like my son, Thank you.
This has been our best bedtime story. We really enjoyed it and it has supported my son in his reading. This is a fun book to read with many stories to go through we recommend this to other young readers, like my son, Thank you.
November 13, 2017
Kept us enraptured for days
Bedtimes stores for weeks, each nightly chapter ending with a request for more! My two young sons clung to every word of these fantastical tales.
Bedtimes stores for weeks, each nightly chapter ending with a request for more! My two young sons clung to every word of these fantastical tales.
January 16, 2019
Heartwarming
I found this book beautifully written. A good read for a rainy day in. Would recommend this for those needing a break from an exhausting read
I found this book beautifully written. A good read for a rainy day in. Would recommend this for those needing a break from an exhausting read
June 14, 2013
This is such a wonderful read for by children. It's just so positive and that I can see little changes in the kids since I started reading this to them. What has been the most amazing is our two girls don't have a favorite story. They like them all and from cover to cover nightly it gets read!
April 23, 2017
Zzzz
Zzzz z zz. Zz zz Z zz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zz
Zzzz z zz. Zz zz Z zz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zz
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews