The other day my husband stopped at the library and as per my request, grabbed me a handful of picture books to read to my children. Two that he brought home feature the cutest little stuffed moose I’ve ever seen, and if you know anything about me and my relationship with children’s books, you’ll know that the cuter the illustrations are, the better I’ll enjoy the book.
The first book is “Elliot’s Bath.” It snookered me in right from the start with the front cover – Elliot is sitting in the bathtub, a cute rubber ducky at his knee, and he’s washing his tummy with an oversized bar of soap. All together now – awwwww!
As we start the story, we find Elliot and his friend Socks (a monkey made out of – guess – socks) getting ready for the talent show they had planned for that night. Painting the stage, there was an accident which left Elliot and Socks both covered in blue paint. The other stuffed animals quickly dash them over to the bathroom sink and plunge them into the water.
Elliot and Socks scrubbed and scrubbed the paint off, and Socks began to change color as the blue in the water tinged her fabric. She turned purple, but she didn’t mind – she likes purple. In fact, they were having a marvelous time until they realized that they were completely waterlogged and were too heavy to climb out of the sink. Their friends dragged them out, rolled them in towels, blew them with a hair dryer, and finally hung them from the clothes line, all to get them dry in time for the talent show. They were, of course, the hit of the evening.
The second story is “Elliot’s Shipwreck.” Elliot had dreamed of sailing the seas, and the next morning he invited Socks to come with him in a daytime adventure. They built a ship out of odds and ends from around the house, and found costumes too. They pushed their boat to the edge of the pond and set sail, happily eating the lunch they brought along. It was great to be on the open sea!
But then their boat sprung a leak, and their friend Amy, the stuffed anteater, rowed out in a boat of her own to save them from disaster.
With darling illustrations, caring friends, and simple storylines, these books and the other Elliot books are sure to be a hit with your two-to-five year old.
(These books were both published by Kids Can Press, “Elliot’s Bath” in 2001 and “Elliot’s Shipwreck” in 2000.)
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