Natalie Tinti

Sewing a Friendship, by Natalie Tinti , is a wonderful inspiring story with lessons in friendship. In this chapter book you will find four sweet 7 year olds girls planning a PINK SLEEPOVER, and preparing for a fashion show. The author has written a story using whimsical names such as, Sokron Blossom, Nina Key, Meeka Venya, and Jonsy Jipsy. With character names like these you can imagine how special this story is going to be. The girls decide to participate in a fashion show and begin to sew the clothes themselves. But, there is one problem, only 9-year-olds are allowed to model in the show and they need five participants. The four girls befriend Kiki Shaver, a 9 year-old they thought was not a nice girl.

The characters get to know Kiki, become friends and work together to accomplish their goals. The fashion show turns out to be a big success and they learn valuable lessons in friendship. I particularly like the beginning of the book where you will find an introduction to all the characters. Each character is outlined with information about their birthday, hair color, favorite food, and specialty just to mention a few. Each profile includes a full page drawing of the character. I know readers will be able to identify with the characters and maybe even imagine that they are one of them.

Did I mention that this book is authored and illustrated by a 10-year-old? Natalie Tinti has written this imaginative story that girls between the ages of 6 and 8 will love reading over and over again. The age appropriate vocabulary used by the author relates to how girls in this age group talk on a daily basis. Kids will relate to this text and will really enjoy the story. Readers will find colorful words and phrases in this story for example, Jonsy’s father asked her what she would like for breakfast and she responds, “I feel like a cherry with vanilla ice-cream, a cup of dragon tea with a yellow umbrella, and a huge hot chocolate cake”. This book is filled with glossy bright original Magna style drawings throughout. I highly recommend this book, and Natalie Tinti will be an author to watch for in the future.… (mere)

This book is written and illustrated by ten-year-old Natalie Tinti, a girl with a bright and very colourful imagination. Tinti creates a fantasy world where the wind speaks and little seven-year-old girls sew and together produce a fantastic outfit for a fashion show. The theme is centered on the value of friendship, and we are introduced to four unique girls who befriend Kiki, “the meanest girl on the planet” to include her on their team as they prepare for the show.

As a writer myself, I was impressed with Tinti’s ability to create unique characters, from their talents and traits to their distinctive clothes. I especially liked Meeka, the girl who loves math and solving problems. Tinti also brought to life a girly, fun world that I am certain will appeal to young girls. My nine-year-old daughter read this book too and liked it although I think the story was young for her as she is already in the middle-grade level books with older characters. Finally, the original Manga-like drawings are colourful and detailed and match the fantasy world the author created.

There were times when I felt the story was disjointed and a more thorough editing was needed to correct the overall flow of the book and the verb tenses. Otherwise, this is a cute book and story and will appeal to girls between the ages of 5 to 8. I must add that I admire this young writer’s ability to use the elements of story writing (characterization, plot, resolution, etc.) and her bright illustrations to create a unique children’s book. Congratulations, Natalie!… (mere)

Summer vacation had just started while the wind listened to a group of friends (Sokron Blossom, Meeka Venya, Jonsy Jipsy, Nina Key), all seven (7) years old, discussing their summer plans, a new one was presented to them. They wanted to be a part of the big fashion show, but the problem was they needed a five (5) member team to enter. They were only four (4), but as they were trying to figure out how to fix it, Sokron’s dog, Dogon, took off with the rules for entering. Chasing him down they found another little girl (Kiki Shaver), but she was nine (9) which might work out because one of the rules was that at least one of the team members had to be at least nine (9). So they asked Kiki if she wanted to be a part of the fashion show as one of their team mates. After much thought, Kiki agreed, for one reason she didn’t have many friends so she thought this would be a good place to start making some.

As a story concept, this is a very cute and inspirational one. One member of the team is overcoming a fear of shyness and all of them are looking past some of their preconceived opinions of the others. Mostly I liked how they were all accepted for who they are and they all made the best of each of their own special strengths to make it to the fashion show. The help of Babushka (Grandma) and Dogon was a cute addition to the story, but not entirely necessary. (The nit-pick section of my review is about the grammar), I did find a few spots that should have maybe been corrected, but only a small handful of them. The illustrations on this book are Magna in style, full of color and tie into the story well.

The interesting thing about this book is the fact that it is written and illustrated by a 10 year old. As a writer, she has room to grow (of course) but to be able to articulate herself so well through her story and pictures is just amazing. The book I received shows that it is has already been nominated or received awards from several places. This may be an up and coming author to watch.… (mere)