Si Dindo Pundido

WE ARE ALL UNIQUE

by Angelica Saguano*

Title of the book : Si Dindo Pundido

Author : Jomike Tejido

Publisher : Adarna House

Year of publication : 2012

 The book I’ve read entitled as, Si  Dindo Pundido written by t  he talented, Jomike Tejido has a very interesting story. It is about a firefly named Dindo. In the fascinating world of fireflies, Dindo’s family was very famous because all his siblings have something special. One of them shone the brightest, one has a beam straight as a flash light and the other one’s light has many colors. Dindo was the youngest so everyone was excited to see what’s special about him. They were shocked because when he was born he has no light. Dindo grew up feeling indifferent. He was always bullied by his siblings until one day; he was the only one who was brave enough to help them when they got to misfortune. This made Dindo find his own glow and own uniqueness.

         “Si Dindo Pundido” is a story book is recommended to ages seven years and up. It can be an eye-opener to everyone who has personal problems of being indifferent. It can be obliging to those who feel of not being exceptional. Dindo can be an inspiration to built one’s self confidence and find that extraordinary thing. It is telling us that each one of us is special in our own ways and we can use it to help others in times of troubles.

         I really like the title, Si Dindo Pundido because the title itself gives us a little idea of what the story is about. It is nice to see the book in Filipino language with accurate English translation. In this new generation we all know that some kids are not fluent in speaking our own language so this can be helpful to parents who would like to train their children to speak in Filipino. One thing that I will suggest the author is to use simple Filipino terms. It will be read by almost some children so I’m advising him to use simple words that they can understand easily. While reading the story, I can imagine the scenes because the illustration was clearly drawn but in my own opinion, it would be nicer if he used lively colors. I have seen a lot of pages that almost green in color. I understood that the story was about fireflies and we usually seen them at night but I like it to be more colorful without losing the idea that it was a night time. Aside from a good story and good values that we can get, there’s also little fun in the story book. At the last page of it there’s an activity that you can do with your family. It is making a puppet of the characters of the story. It can develop the creativity of the children and create a bonding time among the family members. The price is very affordable because there are a lot of activities that you can do.

         To finish this book review, I’ve read and showed it to my seven-year old niece. After that, we did the puppet making activity and she really enjoyed it. I asked her what’s the best part of the story and she said that the best part is when Dindo bravely helped his siblings. Based on her answer, I can say that she really got the moral lesson of the story and it is very influential. If I will evaluate this story book from one being the lowest and ten being the highest, I will give it an eight. It’s not perfect but I have seen the effort of the author to create this story book even if there’s a lot of competition in the market. I think he achieved his goal that is to give a moral lesson from his story. I’m not recommending this book just to tell you the lesson and fun that you can get but also to encourage you to buy books written and illustrate by our fellow kababayans.

* I'm Angelica Saguano a freshman college student of Miriam College. I'm 16 years old and taking up Child Development Education major in Special Education.