Cloudland (Dragonfly Books)

Rating:
Summary: Another brilliant book from Burningham
Review: We have the British edition of this book--Burningham is British--and it is one of my 2-year-old son's favorites; and last week, when I saw my 2-year-old niece, she wanted me to read it to her three times in two hours. At first I thought perhaps they might be scared by the idea of Albert falling off the cliff on his hike with his parents, but they weren't because the next thing you know, he meets all kinds of new friends. The story is an original and unsentimental way to help kids figure out not only that "there's no place like home," but also that you can appreciate other places while you're away from home, and that you can always find company and be taken care of. This is great for families who travel a lot. And of course Burningham's illustrations are amazing. In this book, he does something different from his others--he uses photographs as the basis for some of the pictures, adding his amazing interpretations. And he never talks down to kids or plays to sappiness or sentimentality. If you don't have MR. GUMPY'S OUTING and MR. GUMPY'S MOTORCAR, I'd recommend those as well.