Published: 09 May 2023
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Illustrator: Sarah Kurpiel
Pages: 40
Format: Picture Book
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars
Snake loves art class–until his project is a disaster, and he makes a terrible mistake that hurts a friend. How will Snake fix his mistake.
For weeks, Snake has looked forward to sculpting the most spectacular clay pot in art class. But when his pot breaks and his teacher confuses Snake’s pot with Turtle’s, Snake takes home Turtle’s masterpiece to show his family and pretends that he made it. Now, Snake will have to craft a way to repair a broken pot and a broken friendship.
This was a fun find and I’m glad I picked it up. I really liked this because it shows that sometimes people can be jealous, and impulsive, and can make bad decisions. It also shows us that things can be repaired.
The story follows Snake who is in a class at school working hard to make amazing pottery creations. After a mix up Snake makes a bad decision and then has to live with the guilt of their actions.
It sounds terrible but I’m glad Kurpiel showed how Snake’s actions ruined the friendship between them and Turtle. It’s a good lesson to learn that people can be hurt by your actions, and it’s not always an easy thing to forgive. However, the good thing about pottery is it takes time and with the guidance of the teacher Snake can repair their relationship as well as their damaged pottery.
The illustrations are cute, I loved Snake’s outfits and the various other classmates. The double page spreads gives a lot of scenery to work with and you get a sense of the whole class as well as the life at home. I like how Kurpiel breaks up the page to go with the repetitive style narration. It is creative without needing to make the story rhyme.
A simple story but one that has a good lesson in it while also being an enjoyable read.
You can purchase Snake’s Big Mistake via the following
