This is a lovely childrens book, one of a series including "Woof Woof Wednesday", "Trumpety Trump Tuesday", and "Sssssssssssss Saturday". Beautifully illustrated, this would grace any child's bookshelf. Warmly recommended.

The books are easy to read. They offer suggestions for parents to help their child read and things to talk about. My 4-year-old can read each of these books ... on his own. Learning to read is hard and can be frustrating. These books help me teach my son that reading is fun and that he can be successful at reading.

This amusing picture book is great to teach kids that not everything valuable is bought in a store. The old red rocking chair of the title is discarded with the garbage because, though perfectly usable, it is worn and does not match the owner's new blue sofa. It is claimed by a series of interesting people who each use it for a while and then discard it, as it becomes more and more thoroughly "used." Each owner enjoys it and eventually discards it. After it loses both arms, its back, and its rockers, it becomes a stool, its seat carefully covered with blue wool from a discarded coat. In the end it is bought at a yard sale by its original owner, who admires the stool because it matches her blue sofa!

The pictures in this book are wonderfully interesting and amusing, but unfortunately in the printing process some turned out rather dark. I suspect that is why this book did not get the attention it deserved when it was first published, and why it is now out of print. What a shame.

This is a great book for elementary teachers to use in a recycling unit, and for any family who has ever found and used something discarded by someone else!

The illustrations in this book seem to me extraordinary, and my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter seems to agree; this book is her current favorite. She calls this book "Chase Yellow Leaf" -- which is how the whole story gets started: Oliver is a little bear whose mother is hanging out the wash and whose father is raking the leaves; Oliver chases a yellow leaf being whipped around in the autumn breeze -- chases it all the way into the woods, where he suddenly finds himself lost. But he soon figures out how to find his way home.

Back to the illustrations: the palette is muted, which I find a welcome relief from -- and less condescending than -- the primary reds, blues, and yellows of many books for toddlers. These illustrations also simply illustrate, without the jarring style of some "nouveau" illustrators or the phony cartoony look of many books. The illustrator has created a charming bear cottage at the edge of a wood, and it's a world that seems somehow familiar, faintly nostalgic, and complete -- not quite of this time, and timeless.

The story itself is told in a rhythm that my daughter seems to love: when we read this book, I often pause to let her fill in the blanks -- she knows the words of the story by heart.

At any rate, I've read hundreds and hundreds of children's books to my kids, and this one is truly special.

Great Book! My 3 year old loves it. She makes up games and says words and phrases from this book months after we borrowed it from the local library. Great Buy! Everyone needs a copy of this book! I even like it!

When Bonnie Bumble eats plum turnovers for breadfast one morning, her whole wold turns upside down. This is a good humorous book, in color, for students K-2 grade.

This is an absolutely stunning children's book, and I say that with an awful lot of beautiful books in our family library. The "story"/song that accompanies the illustrations takes a quick backseat to the visual feast but is fine and true to its religious origins. I haven't yet tested this out on my 6 year old (Christmas being a bit away), but my take on this book is that because of the lack of ACTION! he won't appreciate it unless we block out a lot of the bustle of the day and get into a cozy space that allows for more concentration than the usual pace of our evenings. However, I think it's good to have a book so lovely that it compels you to try to create that space with your child, at least during one season every year.

The text of this book by Phyllis Root draws on Christmas tradions from all over the world. Animals of all sorts rejoice in the birth of the child: this idea that all nature celebrates a great event or mourns a great loss is an ancient convention in Western literature. Root's simple, beautiful language takes no back seat to anything, including the art, exquisite though the illustrations certainly are. Nicola Bayley has drawn on art in medieval manuscripts for the design of the book, using complicated borders around the pages and jewel-toned miniatures set in a filigree surround. It shouldn't be considered only a Christmas book or a religious text, for its theme of joy in beginnings and the hope inherent in the birth of a baby is universal. It would be an lovely gift for adults as well as children, particularly for new mothers, at any time of year.

As a person who prefers to celebrate solstice and the wheel of the year instead of Christmas commercialism, this book charmed me immediately. It helps us to remember that winter is a time of rest and introspection and that the wheel of the year turns and turns, time is circular, not linear. Love it! The nature references help us to remember that we are not alone on this planet and that there were beings living with the 4 seasons long before indoor heat and thermal underwear.

This book was a gift to my son and a very special surprise. The story line is very unique and the illustrations are truly beautiful -- they are unlike any I have seen in other children's books. I plan on purchasing this book for all of my nieces and nephews. This book would be a very special addition to any child's library.