A Perfect Saturday… almost by Dave Jones, PsyD (Author) and Rheanna (Illustrator)

This review first appeared on Reader Views. Read the Reader Views version here.

It’s the best day of the whole week–Saturday! It is going to be perfect. There will be an early start (almost), getting 100% ready and cleaning everything up (almost), excellently planned adventures (almost), and a great time to perfect skills (almost). At the end of a busy day (that maybe did not go exactly as expected), how does one judge the day?

A Perfect Saturday…almost by Dave Jones, PsyD, follows a young boy throughout his Saturday. He has great ambitions to get chores done perfectly, do activities he loves perfectly, and practice some skills perfectly. He does all of those things…almost. Author Dave Jones deftly shows that while the narrator (who uses first person so he remains unnamed) may be disappointed that things weren’t “perfect” on his Saturday, he still did so much and enjoyed so much.

This juxtaposition is enhanced by illustrator Rheanna’s work. Rheanna is able to sweetly show the narrator’s joys, (mis)adventures, and frustrations throughout his Saturday. She additionally includes a cute gray cat in every piece of artwork. Having visual repetition is a great way to engage young readers, as it can become a game of “find the cat.” My favorite illustration is when the narrator is chasing fireflies (and his cat is playing with a jar of them). I just felt like this page captured the joy that is chasing fireflies on a summer night as a child.

I think that while A Perfect Saturday…almost can certainly be enjoyed without additional commentary or questions, it is also a book that could help an adult reading it to a child start a conversation with that child by asking both comprehension questions (e.g. “What wasn’t perfect about the boy’s day?”), but also questions around emotion (e.g. “How do you think the boy feels that his day wasn’t perfect?”) and meaning (e.g. “What do you think the author wants you to think about if you have a day that isn’t perfect?”). While the kind of questions and their phrasing will of course vary by child, Jones’s book feels like a great spark to ignite some important conversations with kids.

I appreciated the repetition of the word “almost.” This may seem silly to comment on, but having a reliable ending to each section of the story allows kids to feel comfortable with a story that is perhaps not going the best way. Additionally, this particular word allows the adult reader to put whatever emphasis on the word they like or even change it up to keep emphasizing how the narrator’s day was so close to perfect, but just wasn’t quite there.

A Perfect Saturday…almost brings readers along on an (almost) perfect Saturday. The combination of author Jones’s prose and illustrator Rheanna’s artwork shows that even though the day may not have been perfect, it was still a great day.

A Perfect Saturday… almost by Dave Jones, PsyD (Author) and Rheanna (Illustrator), Tellwell Talent