Review of “Piper's Perfect Pick” by Peni Clark, Illustrated by Penny Weber

Score: 96/100 (9.6 out of 10)

Piper's Perfect Pick by Peni Clark is one of the biggest little surprises of the year!

It is an extraordinary children's book augmented by better-than-average illustrations, a great, sympathetic, and relatable main character, and a story that is sure to resonate with many—young and old alike!

Piper's Perfect Pick follows the titular protagonist, Piper, presumably the youngest and smallest in her loving family. Piper isn't just the runt of her siblings, she also seems to be the black sheep among the kids in her community. First and foremost, she doesn't seem to be very athletic or physically capable (at least in the beginning of the story).

She runs the wrong way on the basketball court.
She trips on the soccer field.
She breaks a window during baseball practice.

She topples off the balancing beam in gymnastics class.
She misses the ball while playing tennis.
She crashes into the hurdles on the track.
She gets stuck in her own karate gi.
She struggles to swim and becomes disgusted by the chlorinated water in the pool.
She also falls during ballet class.

All of this devastates her self-confidence and self-esteem. Piper just doesn't seem to fit in, and she flops and fails at everything she does.

Is there ANYTHING she CAN do?

Her loving and supporting family try to give her different ideas of things she could try: archery, field hockey, golf, and yoga. But none of that appeals to Piper, especially after all of her bad experiences with sports and physical activities.

Then, as fate would have it, she has a heart-to-heart with her beloved cat, Tater Tot (a nominee for “Cutest Character”) who starts throwing jabs/paws at her—“boxing at” her. Piper then concludes that Tater Tot is trying to encourage her to try boxing.

In boxing class, Piper still struggles, but she also finds the challenges to be fun and exciting. Learning new strikes, punches, and stretches excites her.

To the surprise of her whole family, she finds that she actually enjoys and likes boxing!

Despite initially lacking the skills and coordination, Piper embraces the strength and toughness involved in boxing. Most of all, she seems to love that she can make noticeable progress every day. She loves that the practice makes her better and more capable. And, with that, comes a huge boost in her confidence and self-esteem!

Though she struggles and eventually loses her first fight (as many do), her whole family gets to be there when she does the most meaningful and powerful thing in boxing and in life: GET BACK UP!

This is truly an exceptional children's book.

Not only is the story engaging, and not only is Piper a super relatable character, but the illustrations are superb! We love that the characters look so real, human, and expressive! Even the opponent, who only appears for a few panels, looks detailed—like an actual human being! Everything appears hand-drawn and colored, which is almost always something we love and admire. We wish there were more books that were illustrated like this.

The illustrator took the time and made the effort to include every freckle on Piper's face and every strand of her hair!

Furthermore, the illustrator masterfully captured the facial expressions of each of the characters on every single page and panel. You can see and feel the disappointment on Piper's face on pages 5 & 10. You can see the loss of hope—the feeling of being dead inside--on page 9 (trust us, we've felt that way too!). You can see the bewilderment on Piper's face as she walks into the ring for a match for the first time on page 22. You can see the fear and nervousness on her face on page 27. And you can see the joy and feeling of accomplishment (and, perhaps, relief) she feels on page 30!

On subsequent readings, we actually caught an interesting Easter egg. So, apparently, the opponent that Piper fought was actually one of her classmates in the boxing school. Interestingly, this unnamed character seems to have a little story of her own that subtly plays out. You can kinda tell from the one illustration on page 13 that the opponent is very capable, confident, and—perhaps most importantly of all—comfortable with boxing. She is actually a very good foil for Piper who begins this journey being neither of those things. The opponent has a smirk on her face and the best footwork of the students.

She also starts the fight on page 23 looking much more prepared to fight than Piper does, but then closes her arc by looking as surprised and bewildered as Piper did after easily knocking her down.

Excellent book!

Check it out on Amazon!