Good Thing You're Not an Octopus! by Julie Markes Illustrated by Maggie Smith

from goodreads

4 stars

I love having books around. Just seeing lots of books on a shelf makes me feel smarter. I probably am not, but I feel smarter just the same. Even with the Twilight Saga, next to Tolkein. (No judging.)

But there comes a time when even old friends need to be changed out. As a single income family, money can be tight. Raising three munchkins means that my book buying budget is pretty non-existent, even if buying secondhand. So, when my kids' school did a book swap I was super excited. You drop off your books and get the same number of tickets then you can go and get up to that many books back. It was great. We got to get rid of books that weren't our favourite, and were given the possibility of finding new favourites. I think that is a win-win all-round.

So if you have books that you are not loving get friends together, or your neighbourhood together or your kids' school together and have a book swap. I free way to change up your book shelves. This busy mom likes!

Synopsis

This little boy doesn't really like getting ready for the day, or having a bath, or brushing his teeth. So his parent helps him realize how good he has it.

My Thoughts

This is one of the books we got at the book swap. This was a cute book. My kids thought it was really funny. I didn't find it nearly as funny as my kids but I was still mildly entertained and I don't mind reading this over and over.

I liked the variety of animals used, especially the use of animals that don't often get into kids books, like the octopus, and caterpillar.

The pictures themselves were nice and colourful, but not ones that you are going to remember or be wowed with. In a way, this whole book was just your run of the mill children's book. I would have given it just a 3 but, because my children really liked it, I gave it a 4.

I like the message, "be grateful you are you". It shows kids that sometimes we do things that we don't always want to do or particularly like, but it could be worse, so be happy with your lot. I'm trying to teach that to my own kids. Maybe I should read this book to them everyday and hope the message sinks in?