Oliver Finds His Way

Rating:
Summary: My daughter's current favorite
Review: The illustrations in this book are extraordinary -- and that's important when you're only two and a half. "Oliver Finds His Way" has definitely struck a chord with my young daughter, who knows the words by heart and, for a time, would ask for multiple re-readings in a single sitting.

Her name for this book is "Chase Yellow Leaf," which is how it all gets started: Oliver is a toddler-bear who, while his mother hangs the wash and his father rakes the leaves, chases a yellow leaf being whipped around by the autumn breeze. He chases it all the way into the woods, where he finds himself lost. But don't worry; he soon figures out how to find his way home.

I began with the illustrations, which seem to me unusually appealing. The palette is muted here, all earth-tones and (to me) a welcome relief from the primary reds, blues, and yellows of many books for young children. The style, too, is unaffected, avoiding the jangly "nouveau" style of some illustrators and the phony cartoony look of others. This illustrator has created a recognizable world, somehow nostalgic, charming, and complete. And more important than my own opinion, I guess, is the fact that my daughter enjoys vacationing in this world.

I have read hundreds and hundreds of books to my children. This one is special.

Rating:
Summary: My daughter's current favorite
Review: The illustrations in this book seem to me extraordinary, and my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter seems to agree; this book is her current favorite. She calls this book "Chase Yellow Leaf" -- which is how the whole story gets started: Oliver is a little bear whose mother is hanging out the wash and whose father is raking the leaves; Oliver chases a yellow leaf being whipped around in the autumn breeze -- chases it all the way into the woods, where he suddenly finds himself lost. But he soon figures out how to find his way home.

Back to the illustrations: the palette is muted, which I find a welcome relief from -- and less condescending than -- the primary reds, blues, and yellows of many books for toddlers. These illustrations also simply illustrate, without the jarring style of some "nouveau" illustrators or the phony cartoony look of many books. The illustrator has created a charming bear cottage at the edge of a wood, and it's a world that seems somehow familiar, faintly nostalgic, and complete -- not quite of this time, and timeless.

The story itself is told in a rhythm that my daughter seems to love: when we read this book, I often pause to let her fill in the blanks -- she knows the words of the story by heart.

At any rate, I've read hundreds and hundreds of children's books to my kids, and this one is truly special.

Rating:
Summary: Unsafe message
Review: The same day I read this book to my 4-year-old, we'd been doing some shopping. My daughter was standing right beside me . . . and then she wasn't. I looked up and down the aisles and then saw her at the store's front door, trying to open it and go out. She couldn't find me, so she thought I had left! After I assured her that I would never leave a store without her, I stressed the importance of *staying in one spot* if she should ever get separated from me again.

So what does that have to do with this book? Well, Oliver is a bear who gets lost in the woods. But does he stay in one spot so his parents can come find him? No! He does the exact opposite of what I had just that morning instructed my child to do. (In fact, Oliver's parents are the ones who stayed put in their yard, even though they knew their little one was lost and calling to them!)

To give Oliver credit, he roars as loud as he can; his parents roar back, Oliver heads off to find his way home, and the adult reader realizes that he is following the sound of his parents' roaring to guide himself home. But this isn't stated explicitly, and the young child may very well not understand exactly what Oliver is doing.

The illustrations are excellent, so I'm not recommending avoiding this book altogether. But if you read it to your child, please take the opportunity to discuss what you would like your child to do if he or she gets lost.