The Wonderful Fluffy Little Squishy
Something to love about French children’s books is that they often do not have the educational moral messages that drive the storylines of American storybooks. A moral tale is not a bad thing, it’s wonderful that books instill meaningful values in developing minds, yet it can be refreshing to simply enjoy a story that’s fun for the sake of fun. Lucky for us that this delightful story about five year old Eddie on a day’s mission to find her mother a “fluffy-little-squishy” as a birthday present has been translated to English!
Eddie gets an idea in her mind to find something that fits these over-heard words, and she wanders her city visiting different shopkeepers, sure that her unrealized magic idea must exist somewhere. And how wonderful that it does, and that it is bright pink and cuddly, and has ever so many uses! Of course her mother recognizes the gift as every bit as amazing as Eddie finds it. As parents we learn so much from the discoveries of our little people, their delight re-opens our eyes to the wonders of the world.
I love the book for it’s amazing illustrations with so many details to unpack, the themes of treasure hunting, discovery and giving, and a truly delightful title.
A fun game to play would be putting together your own adjectives, and making drawings or paintings of what creature might embody those words - I’ve come up with “the Exceptional Flying Fluffer Whumper.” I’d love to see what you create!
