Toot & Puddle: A Present for Toot

Rating:
Summary: T&P join the ranks of "famous couples"
Review: It would be hard to top the reviews of this book, so in leiu of one-upping them, I'll simply lay my $.02 on the table.

Toot & Puddle: A Present for Toot is an amazingly well done book. Reminescent of other famous pals-- Bert & Ernie, Oscar & Felix-- it's clear that the two have a very strong friendship tempered by the occasional bout of frustration.

It's going to be Toot's birthday, and what CAN you get for the Pig Who Has Everything?? Puddle, in his travels about town and windowshopping, finds WONDERFUL things that HE would like, but isn't sure that it would please TOOT. Time and time again he finds things that HE would like to have, but realizes that he's searching for a present for his friend, not himself (a wonderful watercolor illustration is of Toot eating breakfast while Puddle slings on his backpack to head out the door for another round of shopping).

The message is simple: it's the giving, not the gift, it's the thought that counts, and when present shopping, you should get goodies for the person you're BUYING FOR, not for yourself, no matter how many things fly up at you yelling, "BUY ME! BUY ME!"

The watercolors are some of the most vivid, detailed and comfortable ones I've seen in a career of reading children's books. This comes highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A new Classic
Review: It would be hard to top the reviews of this book, so in leiu of one-upping them, I'll simply lay my $.02 on the table.

Toot & Puddle: A Present for Toot is an amazingly well done book. Reminescent of other famous pals-- Bert & Ernie, Oscar & Felix-- it's clear that the two have a very strong friendship tempered by the occasional bout of frustration.

It's going to be Toot's birthday, and what CAN you get for the Pig Who Has Everything?? Puddle, in his travels about town and windowshopping, finds WONDERFUL things that HE would like, but isn't sure that it would please TOOT. Time and time again he finds things that HE would like to have, but realizes that he's searching for a present for his friend, not himself (a wonderful watercolor illustration is of Toot eating breakfast while Puddle slings on his backpack to head out the door for another round of shopping).

The message is simple: it's the giving, not the gift, it's the thought that counts, and when present shopping, you should get goodies for the person you're BUYING FOR, not for yourself, no matter how many things fly up at you yelling, "BUY ME! BUY ME!"

The watercolors are some of the most vivid, detailed and comfortable ones I've seen in a career of reading children's books. This comes highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A new Classic
Review: The best children's books manage to delight your children and keep you amused -- even on the 55th reading. The Toot and Puddle series does this time and time again, with beautiful illustrations full of mood, detail, and humor, and prose that never panders to its young audience. They give the reader the feeling of peeking into a fully imagined world -- and the wonderful anticipation of the stories to come!