Do you have a child that strives to be perfect all of the time? How about a child that is hard on themselves when they make a mistake? I love this book, The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett and Gary Rubinstein because it teaches a child the challenges of trying to be perfect all of the time, which is impossible!
Beatrice Bottomwell is a young girl who never makes mistakes. She always has matching socks, puts her shoes on the appropriate feet, remembers to feed her hamster and makes her brother’s sandwich the same way every day. She even has a special juggling act that she performs in every year at the talent show. Beatrice is known as “the girl who never makes mistakes”. This is a a lot of pressure to live with because she has to avoid certain activities that she might not be perfect in like ice skating with her friends and just being silly.
Will she make a mistake at the talent show?
The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes is an excellent book to teach your child the concept that everyone is human and that we all make mistakes. As both children and adults, sometimes certain people in our environment may seem to be “perfect” and “free of problems” but this cannot be true. We are all humans and we need to teach our children that it is not the mistakes we make, but how we learn from them that is the important thing. Also, it’s not really fun trying to be perfect all the time! Beatrice finds this out at the end of the story and learns to have a lot more fun as just Beatrice, versus The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes!
Are you a teacher? Check out this lesson plan that I found written by YHBA Picture Book Committee. This activity form contains some excellent activities that can done with this book in the classroom. It’s in Microsoft Word Version so feel free to modify it as needed!
The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes Lesson Plan
I found another lesson plan written by NYC DOE here. Feel free to use these with your children and/or students!
The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes Lesson Plan written by NYC DOE