Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton
Oh my!
During my shopping spree at Barnes & Noble last week, I purchased a board book copy of Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton on a whim. I picked it up from a table full of Halloween books (where it had been stacked despite not having anything to do with Halloween, but its coloring totally worked, so I suppose that's why it was there?) and read it and fell so in love with the story and illustrations (and that seasonal coloring I mentioned) that I couldn't in good conscience put it back. (Nor could I in good conscience just take it - I paid for it, of course.) It came home with me, ostensibly as a gift for my niece and nephew, but I find myself loath to part with it, because it is so darling and I luuuuurve it and want to hug it and pet it and call it George. In fact, I really wish I'd written it.
Here is the wee owl, falling over in his sleep at the start of the book:
The story is simple, but exceedingly well done. It tells the story of a little owl, who falls off his perch while he and his mother are sleeping. A helpful squirrel tries hard to help him find his mommy, with a few misunderstandings along the way, such as this one, which comes from the original British book (entitled A Bit Lost) and therefore says "Mummy" instead of "mommy", and there are few other edits, and no, I don't quite understand why these things get changed because they still make sense either way but there you have it:
And finally a frog assists them both in their quest and the happy reunion occurs. And then inside the back cover of the book you find a quote from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe and your mind is boggled:
"Thus we never see the true State of our Condition, till it is illustrated to us by its Contraries; nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it."
See?
