Somebody Loves You, Mr Hatch

Lovely wee story and a good life lesson in confidence and self-belief for children.

子供の絵本を選んでいて、たどり着いたこの本。訳本は増版されてないようで高価なため、洋書のペーパーバックにした。 簡単な英語で、力まずに読むことができた。 人間関係で傷ついたことのある人なら本当に心が温まるストーリー。 単純なストーリーだが、だからこそ英語で読むことに意味があると感じた。ペーパーバックにして良かった。 誰かに「だいすきだよ」と言ってもらえることは存在肯定そのものだ。

A great valentines story for kids. My two kids felt empathy for Mr.Hatch and enjoy reading this book around valentines!

My 6 yr old loves this book,it touched my heart too. it’s a beautiful story with wonderful life lessons.I wonder why this is not a classic!so glad to have come across this book Beautiful illustrations ,the story is about kindness,empathy and thoughtfulness. How one thought changed a person for the better.it’s story also subtly deals with loneliness and overcoming it. It’s lengthy so age 5 and up I am guessing.

Una bonita y entrañable historia, deliciosas ilustraciones.

Found this one for my kids while on a mission to celebrate Valentine's Day. This is, at it's heart, about the transformational effect of love on a lonely man, about reaching out to people you might overlook, about being a part of a community / connecting with people, and about how a person can enrich others' lives by sharing their unique strengths and talents. That's a LOT to successfully pack into a picture book! It teaches empathy, and it's really SO beautiful. There are 2 things I would tweak, but they are minor and not everyone will mind them: 1. I thought I had FINALLY found a valentines book for kids that was exclusively about friendship and platonic love and didn't fall into normal tropes. This is 99% true. But it does subtly allude to the default Valentine's expectation of romance in one little sentence along the lines of "he wondered if any of the *women* who visited [...] had sent him the valentine." Does it make sense for an adult heterosexual male to interpret a valentine as romantic? Yeah of course. Is his sexual or romantic interest relevent to kindergarteners or to the plot? Nope. I replace the word "women" with "people" when I read it to my 5 year olds, who are learning about the different ways we can love others and be loved appropriately, which at 5 doesn't begin with romance. On the other hand, the message that romantic love isn't the only or most meaningful way to connect or be fulfilled as a person is lovely and even a little subversive if that comes across to a kid. 2. Towards the end, when everyone lists reasons they love Mr Hatch, every single reason is something he does for them, which subtly implies that love is primarily about what you can get from someone else rather than who they are and mutual support. If Mr. Hatch hadn't helped in these ways, he would not have connected with his neighbors and they wouldn't know him... But a) that would be a bit on them right? And b) I don't relish the possible takeaway that the only people worthy of love and effort are the ones who are useful. So we talk about that. Not a big deal, just a little discussion tacked on to the end along the lines of how pre-valentine Mr. Hatch was lonely, overlooked, and sad, and we shouldn't always expect lonely or sad people to help us; we can also ask ourselves "how can I help them?" I think any book that brings up that kind of convo is good.