Baby Wren and the Great Gift
Baby Wren and the Great Gift
By Sally Lloyd-Jones (2016)
Recommended age: 3-6 years old
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Review
This is one of only three books that have so far earned a spot in our unofficial list of Absolute Favorite Books (hopefully the group of three grows in the future). We got the book as a gift and will definitely be giving it as a gift in the future.
As with the other two books in that category, it’s the message that elevates the story. Here is a baby wren who is both insecure and trying to find her identity. Happily, after wanting to imitate a host of animals that parade past her little nest on a cliff, she does find her own unique self.
I feel like this book gets at one of the most important things to talk to a little one early on – confidence in who you are, who you want to be. I’ve tried over and over to instill a sense of confidence in my little one that arises not from accomplishments or the ability to do better than others, but from knowing that God made my little one, flaws and all, just as He intended. This story gave me plenty of opportunities to talk to my little one over and over about being confident in their own body, desires, abilities, and so much more.
The writing is well done, with a recurring theme of nature and butterflies. There’s a bit of rhythm to the writing, and some repetition to the ideas, which makes it fun to read aloud.
The illustrations are pretty, with soft, muted colors. In my untrained artistic eyes, they feel like watercolor paintings. They are neither realistic nor abstract, but somewhere in the middle. Rather than carry the story by themselves, the illustrations support the story very well, favoring emotion over realism. They are true to the cover artwork throughout the story.
The only part we were sad about is we felt the author slightly missed the mark on the rhyming and rhythm and closing out all the repetition together at the end of the book. It felt so close to perfect. But this is truly the most minor criticism of what is a fantastic book.
Cautions
We have only one very small, minor caution. There is a thunderstorm and large eagles drawn as silhouettes and the combination of the two frightened my little one the first couple of times we read it. The fear wasn’t intense but even as my little one got bigger, the storm and the eagles continued to come up in conversation.
