[.ca] Owl Babies (ISBN 0744592704)

A very fun book to read with one's children:
I bought this book over two years ago, when my daughter was around 14 months and was just starting to visibly enjoy being read to. Two years later she still pulls it off the shelf sometimes and asks me to read it (usually around bedtime). The plot is appropriately simple: Mama Owl goes out hunting for the night, and the three owl babies get progressively more worried and scared. When they have almost sunk into despair, mom comes home. The illustrations are beautiful. Benson does an excellent job of evoking the fear of the wee owlets as they wait, and their exuberant joy upon mama's return. They are a perfect companion to Waddell's writing. Waddell makes good use of parallelism. After a couple of readings, if you're child is verbal, expect her to be wailing "I want my mommy!" right along with you and baby Bill. Also, despite the brevity and simple vocabulary, one gets a real sense of the different personalities of the owl babies. As children's literature goes, this is a masterpiece. Concurring with several other reviewers, I would agree that this is a great book to share with your kids if any of them suffer from separation anxiety.

Terrified Owl Babies:
The beautiful artwork in this book doesn't mask a storyline that is way too upsetting for a young child. From the perspective of a 3-year old, mama owl disappears on page 1 and doesn't return until the last page. The pages inbetween show 3 gorgeously drawn little birds in the throes of anxiety over the loss of their mama. As an adult, I found it unsettling as well. Too bad the talented artist got hooked up with a hold-over author from Grimm's Fairy Tales.

Perfect for a two year old:
We started reading to our daughter very young, which she always enjoyed, but this was the first book we read where she clearly followed the narrative. She was in visible suspense when the mother owl was gone and very relieved when she came back. An amazing moment! It was a favorite that we read many times thereafter. She was around 2 years old at the time and I highly recommend this book as a gift for a child that age.

One of our favorites:
I really love this book a lot. It is touching and sweet. I read it to my son on a regular basis from early on. He enjoyed the dark black colour of the pages when he was a tiny baby, I have a lot of fun reading it to him and I know he enjoys listening, this book is a must have.

Calm fears - and a cute little brother:
Our three kids love this book. Particularly hearing the fear in the littlest owl's wishing for his Mama's return, and his joy at her arrival.