Sam and Gram and the First Day of School Book

Oh, I adore this book.

The illustrations are beautiful, just lovely, and include a lot of humor too. They are intricately detailed, and have some wonderful expressiveness and uniqueness. I love how mama elephant reaches for the cranberry juice. I love everything in the pictures, elephants, mouse, mouse's house, Stanley's house, the shops, just everything. The colors and how they're used make for a gorgeous result. There is so much to look at on every page. And, I even felt fond of mouse. My favorite illustration of mouse is the one on the way home when mouse is traveling on Stanley's head and appreciating a tree's leaf. I could look over & over at these paintings, and would have poured over them incessantly when I was young, and think some young children today will do that when they see this book.

The story is about Stanley (it probably helps that I love elephants and love how they're depicted here) who's a young elephant who wants to help; he's very kind. He's also very, very, very clumsy. Luckily, he's also very clever and creative.

I appreciate how nobody gets overly mad at Stanley for his mistakes, even though they're acknowledged. I appreciate the friendship story too, even though it's a new friendship. Great story for modeling good enough parenting, forgiveness, making good, doing for others, and just for fun. It's a fun, funny, and pretty book.

Wow, and I guess I'm in a very receptive mood because as I go to post this review, I see I love this one more than most other Goodreads' members. I'll have to read their reviews when I've posted mine. Hardly anyone else gave 5 stars to this book.