Perfectly Imperfect Mira, by Faith Pray
When I choose my books for review, I will often meander through a bookstore and wait for the book to call to me. I won’t know what I’m looking for or why, but when I find it my intuition lights up like the Griswald house on Christmas. When I picked up PERFECTLY IMPERFECT MIRA for the first time, my intuitive circuits blew…Goosebumps. Shivers. My third eye started doing this thing where I can’t control twitching muscles throughout my face (the visual is really attractive and not embarrassing at all 😉).
I already knew I loved Faith Pray from her story “The Starkeeper.” Both stories have magical illustrations and simple text that carry deeper messages of Divine connection, empowerment, and kindness. (hmmm….sounds familiar…) She’s also a local author/illustrator in the Pacific NW just across the bridge from me, and supporting local artists has always been my jam. Besides these things, I love PERFECTLY IMPERFECT MIRA because of what it teaches us about perseverance.
If you’re a parent, then I know you’ve had to convince your child(ren) to keep trying something when they want to give up- because you know they will like it once they get better, or because the activity/skill will benefit them later in life, or even because you already spent money on it! And if you haven’t had to teach your child(ren) yet about the value of sticking with something BECAUSE it is hard, then you yourself have inevitably had to convince yourself at times to persevere- in a job, a workout, or even patience in parenting. PERFECTLY IMPERFECT MIRA starts out with Mira in a gymnastics leotard, wanting to be good at something, but she’s deterred because all the kids around her already seem to be better than her- be it playing a ukelele, painting, or dancing. Mira’s problem is that she tries something only once, and then gives up. In my house, we would say that her “fuzz” channel is taking over. Mira’s mind brings up a long list of fears that keep her from trying anything a second time. Any reader could relate to one of her reasons for quitting:
Even little readers with short attention spans for listening can still comprehend the fears Mira has because of Faith’s use of color. Mira’s “fuzzy” worries are illustrated in shades of orange/red, and depict images of other children tumbling, cartwheeling, and leaping freely with smiles on their faces. Mira looks at them with apprehensive body language and scared expressions and is illustrated in shades of blue.
As Mira imagines other children joyfully succeeding at gymnastics, you can see her physically fall deeper into defeat, apprehension, and disappointment. I love a good tug on my heartstrings, which is why my favorite lines of the book come from Mira comparing herself to other children, until she feels like nothing more than a shadow.
“They were mountains. Mira was stone.
– Perfectly Imperfect Mira, by Faith Pray
They were rivers. Mira was a trickle.
They were trees. Mira was a seed.”
However, being a shadow meant that Mira couldn’t twirl, or splash, or laugh. And although adults can surely relate to Mira, she is definitely a wonderful protagonist in the way she appeals to our little readers…Mira wants to wiggle! Mira’s response to her desire to wiggle is to pretend she is good at something…just for a minute. “Fake it ‘til you make it” is one of my go-to strategies when I need courage myself, so I love the wisdom in Mira at this juncture.
One of the many qualities of Mira that makes her so endearing is her ability to laugh at herself. Even when she’s outside of her comfort zone as she repeatedly “unfurls, untucks, and uncurls” on the beach, she decides to try again and even laughs at herself when she falls- partially because no one can see her…or so she thinks. Young readers will undoubtedly love that a sweet cat and dog join in the fun as they too “stumble, spin, and spring” along the colorful beach with Mira.
When Mira allows her fears to fall by the wayside, she is finally able to enjoy the process of trying something new:
And perhaps the biggest takeaway is that instead of worrying about embarrassing herself, Mira took her personal power back into her own hands by laughing at herself. If the worst that can happen in the “fuzz” channel of fears is that people will laugh at you, Mira shows us that her fears didn’t hold power over her because when she laughed at herself, then that fear dissipated away. Like a piece of driftwood on the beach. And that feeling?- “It was almost like becoming a mountain or a river or a tree. And Mira loved it.”
This book is a wonderful resource for all you parents out there who need support convincing your child(ren) to persevere. To not give up because of how they think they compare to others. To show them that having fun isn’t correlated with being the best… Mira reminds us all that we are already perfect. “Perfect at growing.”
Perfect doesn’t mean being the best at something or never failing or doing something the “right” way every time. Perfect is accepting yourself as you are and going for your dreams with all you’ve got. Perfect is being able to laugh at yourself when you’re outside of your comfort zone and not giving up on something because of what someone else may say or think about it. The fact is, no one actually ever laughed at Mira or told her she was a failure in the story. Those stories were all in her head. When we realize that fact, then we’ve perfected the art of growing. And so it is.
