List Price: $16.95
Age Range: Preschool-Grade 2
Official URL: www.soundprints.com
Rating:

This book, written by husband/wife team Arnold de Hartog and Mies Strelitski, is all about a little creature named Woobie. Before the story starts, Woobie tells us that his mother calls him Woobie because it means “soft, cuddly thing”.

THE STORY

Woobie’s mother is having a birthday soon and he must think of the perfect gift for her. He falls asleep one night thinking about what kind of gift his mother would like and dreams of the many different possibilities. He dreams of “practical gifts, beautiful gifts and magical gifts”. He remembers that his mom likes flowers and walking and reading. In his dream, he catches a jar full of falling stars to give his mother so that she can use their light at night to read by. When he wakes up, of course, the jar of stars is gone but it has given him a brilliant idea! He and his dad buy his mom a new lamp for her birthday and she uses it by her bed to read by at night.

THE HIGH POINTS

The illustrations are the high point for this book. They are an interesting combination of black and white cartoons and colorful drawings mixed together. I think that is what makes the book unique. The simplicity of the story makes it one that my 3-year-old daughter retells to herself over and over. I read it to her twice and she already can remember the basic story just by looking at the pictures. This makes it a perfect book for a child who is beginning to get interested in learning to read.

THE LOW POINTS

I have to admit that I didn’t love this book. The illustrations were well drawn and very cute but the story lacked excitement and creativity. The basic idea of a little boy dreaming up the different gifts his mother would like is charming and creative in itself, but lacked the execution it needed to make it really great. I also thought the final decision to buy his mom a lamp was a little lame. In a world where there are so many cool things to buy for mom (or even personalized gifts kids can make), Woobie essentially decides to get his mother a household appliance. Granted, it was not a blender or a toaster, but it just seemed to make the story fall flat in the end.