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Monday 28 April 2014

Owl At Home by Arnold Lobel

I've been reading the Frog and Toad books for a few years but hadn't heard of this one by the same author til about a month ago. Its called Owl At Home.

You could say its nothing special, just a few little stories about Owl, but oh my goodness its really, really great.

Owl lives alone. He's a bit of a thinker, pretty neurotic actually, but in the end he figures things out. For example, his little house has two storeys. Which is great. But how does the ground floor manage when he is upstairs? And are things ok in his bedroom when he is sitting by the fire? So Owl races up a down the stairs trying to figure this out. Its nice to read a book that brings up stuff like this. Daft but still, who hasn't thought about it?

Theres another story where Owl, in order to make some Tear Water Tea, has to think about sad things, to make himself cry. 

"Chairs with broken legs," said Owl. His eyes began to water. "Songs that cannot be sung," said Owl, "Because the words have been forgotten."...
"Mashed potatoes left on a plate, because no one wanted to eat them. And pencils that are too short to use."

In the end he had a full pot and sat back in his armchair and enjoyed it. Which is exactly what we did with this book. Highly recommended, for ages three to six.

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