Title: A Very Powerful Gift
Author: Pamela Elges Roesler
Illustrators: Destyne Richardson and Pamela Elges Roesler
Publisher: AR Press
ISBN: 979-8-89356-800-4
Pages: 64
Reviewer: Beth Adams
Hollywood Book Reviews
Growing up as a youngster certainly is full of challenges. Obstacles, both real and imaginary, teem children’s minds with doubt, anxiety, and even fear. Self-doubt reigns as a cloak over accomplishing tasks others seem to be able to do with ease. But whether founded on logic or just an unrealistic emotional pressure, the accomplishment of such events, over time, is essential to build self-confidence.
In A Very Powerful Gift, author and co-illustrator Pamela Elges Roesler introduces readers to Stewart. As an 8-legged arthropod, Stewart the spider lives in his web up in the corner of a house. His web is simple and austere compared to the other spiders who embellish their webs with ornate designs and functionality. Stewart has one major fear: that of jumping. You see, spiders must jump in order to build webs, but Stewart is afraid of jumping. One day Stewart is given a present from his mom; a hat with a propeller on top to help Stewart not fear jumping, as the hat will keep him safe. Wearing the hat does provide confidence to Stewart, but he still doesn’t like to jump so he stays in his simple web.
One day a lady comes out of her house with a broom turned upside down to whisk away the spider webs, and one-by-one Stewart’s mom and other spiders jump out of their webs as the lady destroys each web. When the lady approaches Steward, he jumps to safety. On the ground, Stewart noticed his hat had fallen off, so his jump was made successfully without the hat – all by himself! In his generosity he tells his mom to give the hat to someone else, as he no longer needs it to jump.
Perhaps a simple lesson, but Pamela Elges Roesler conveys an important theme for children growing up. Irrational fears can be overcome, and self-confidence is achieved step-by-step in developing minds of young people. What seems to be a challenge simply becomes an achievement. This is a wonderful story to show children how not to fear things other children can do with ease. Although people with arachnophobia (fear of spiders) may find themselves frightened by the illustrations, meeting Steward will also soften their anxiety over spiders, and who knows – maybe in the future they won’t step on them when confronted by these amazing creatures.