Recently we received an interesting package, all wrapped up, what could it be? Inside the wrapping paper we discovered The Best Birthday Present Ever! and I chuckled. This lovely new picture book is written and illustrated by Ben Mantle was published in January this year.
The Best Birthday Present Ever! is aimed at children aged 3 years and over, and it’s charming.
We meet Squirrel and his best friend Bear, at a time when Squirrel has a big dilemma – what to buy his friend for his birthday? Bear has so many wonderful things already. Squirrel wanted to get something different, whilst everyone else went to the toy shop, Squirrel thought of something totally different.
So began the search for the perfect present – nothing too big, or small – the perfect stick! The present was wrapped and the party began. Would Bear like the unusual present? It certainly was much smaller than Bear’s other presents.
Bear’s birthday party was in full swing and he opened his wonderful selection of presents and finally reached the present from Squirrel. Would this be the Best Birthday Present Ever! It would seem so.
I love the message in this book, that you can make anything into something else. Monkey has such a vivid imagination that he has no problem looking at an object and using it for all sorts of things in his imaginative play. Bear is exactly the same. The other animals struggle to see what he could do with the stick birthday present. But not Bear, he comes up with all sorts of ideas.
There’s a lovely twist at the end of The Best Birthday Present Ever! which I won’t spoil for you. Monkey has really enjoyed this book and the underlying message is wonderful. We received the hardback copy which retails at £10.99, but you can also purchase in paperback for £5.99 (my Amazon affiliate link is shown below).
disclaimer: we were sent this book in exchange for an honest review
