Customer Reviews

Oscar's Half Birthday

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A young couple, along with their little daughter and their dog, celebrate their baby son's six month birthday with a picnic in a city park.

This story brought a long, slow, quiet smile to my face. Memories of my own days as a young parent came flooding back. This is a very simple story about family love and a sense of community. The patient, indulgent parents obviously enjoy their two little children, which makes reading the text and looking at the pictures a joy. The illustrations are lovely and uncluttered, I like that both the beauty and the gritty reality of the city are shown. (My only change would be to show more diversity among the people in the park - I was disappointed that everyone was white. City populations are generally much more colorful!)

Many picture books are full of weird creatures, slam-bang action, and excitement. But to a 3 year old child, the world is still so new and big that everyday life is already exciting - watching traffic, seeing planes in the sky, a leaf falling, taking a walk over a bridge and under the train tracks - these are wondrous things for a very little person. "Oscar's Half Birthday" captures this enchantment perfectly. This would make fine bedtime reading for small children, and big people too!

This sweet, light little book is as airy as angel food cake and just as delightful. There's not a lot of story, just a simple tale of a family outing. Oscar's family is loving and caring and the depiction of almost-4-year-old Millie is very accurate.

"She wears coat-hanger fairy wings on her back and a dinosaur puppet on her hand. She's excited and the dinosaur squeezes Oscar's arm. 'Careful, Millie,' says Mom. 'A little more fairy and not so much dinosaur,' says Dad. 'But he's so CUTE,' says Millie. "I know," says Dad..."

An added bonus is that Oscar and his family are multi-racial, something not often seen in children's books. As a person from a rather...funky family myself, I also liked that Mom has cornrows and Dad sports a ponytail, but both are shown as loving, caring parents who act as any other parent does. A book that can be enjoyed by families of all types, especially if the older sibling is very excited about their new brother or sister.

It's nice to see a picturebook set in an dingy, urban environment for once, rather than the endless procession of books set in idyllic, pastoral New England farmhouses with smiling, priveleged, upper-middle class nuclear families. Nice, too, that this hip, young "nontraditional" family is completely loving and sweet, and that the urban setting isn't used as a backdrop to hash out some social issues or whatever. City folks can have joyful lives, too.

I love the idea of half-birthdays...I love that the family spent the day together...and that the community got involved (singing happy birthday to Baby)...and I love that it's a mixed race family with an alternative style...but I don't necessarily love the ending...

This is a hard one...the illustrations are absolutely beautiful, and the story is cute. However, we were less than thrilled with the mother in the book wearing a belly shirt, the grungy look of the father (he looks practically homeless), and the graffiti on the bridge walls. This could have been a favorite, but so disappointed with the grungy, unkept look of the family.

This was my son's favorite book when he was 3, and it is currently my daughter's favorite (she is 2 and a half). The topic of birthdays is always good, but this diverse family who so obviously adore their six month old is particularly touching and recognizable for little people. Oscar's older sister (soon to turn 4) is a great character, full of the contradictions of childhood. I love the ending scenes which find the mom and dad dancing in their apartment while Oscar falls asleep on the couch with his sister looking on. The illustrations of the city are also really interesting. The kids will spend a long time really looking at them. My kids love this book, and so do I.

If you're looking for a fun way to add a little more celebration to your child's life, pick up a copy of this book. One birthday a year isn't enough. Celebrate every six months by sharing this adorable book and starting the tradition of "half birthdays". It's an easy read with pictures that are sure to delight any child.

This book captures the young child's imagination as the extraordinariness of the ordinary day plays out. There are a very few books that touch both children and parents in such a way so as to stand the test of time. Oscar's Half Birthday deserves a special place beside Good Night Moon on every young child's bookshelf.

My daughter adores the illustrations, the story and the beautiful language. It has become our favorite gift to give friends with small children. I even read this story to a group of adults I was teaching....they were totally entranced.

Kudos to Bob Graham.