Customer Reviews

Top of the World (Toot & Puddle)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the sweetest children's books I've seen this year. The illustrations are so beautiful and the story is so charming you'll come back to it again and again. The plot is simple enough for the four and five year old set, but there is enough subtle content and gentle humor to the story to satisfy the six and seven year olds too. This book would even appeal to an adult friend -- especially one who loves to travel. Finally, if you are a fan of Olivia you will feel right at home with Toot and Puddle.

When Puddle got up that morning, Toot was already gone. "Puds, gone for a walk. Be back soon. T" Only Toot didn't come home that morning, or afternoon, and by dinner, Puddle had decided it was time to go out and search for him. Thinking just like his best friend, Puddle soon finds himself at the airport on a plane to Provence. "Now that was one place Toot had never been." In no time, the two old friends find each other, and after having a wonderful time in the French countryside, decide to travel on to Nepal. "They have the highest mountain in the world there..." Holly Hobbie takes the reader on another heartwarming and entertaining adventure starring her endearing pint-sized piglets, Toot and Puddle. Ms Hobbie's gentle and witty text is engaging, but it's her sweet and captivating artwork, filled with bright colors, warm humor and dazzling, playful details, that really steals the show. Youngsters 3-7, who've enjoyed the previous books in this series, will revel in this latest adventure. Toot & Puddle: Top Of The World begs to be read aloud and shared, and is a fun-filled, magical story that shouldn't be missed.

Toot & Puddle is one of our favorite reads, for both the sweet stories and the illustrations. We love the characters Toot & Puddle and how they care about each other and encourage one another. The pictures are wonderful and the story always holds our interest with thoughtful observations and characterizations of these two best friends. This particular story features Hobbie's beautiful illustrations from places around the world which should get your imaginations going as you imagine traveling along with our little piggie friends! I would definitely recommend any of the Toot & Puddle stories for your preschool and elementary-aged children!

The best story lines, the best art, the best characters... I love it!

Toot & Puddle: Top of the World is a great book. Having said that, the publishers took WAY too much of a shortcut in producing a version for the Kindle. I don't have any huge complaints about the limitations of the platform. Layout changes are required when moving a picture book to an electronic platform such as the Kindle. However, some of the problems with the Kindle version seem to be pure laziness on the part of whoever converted the book. I purchased and viewed the Kindle version on my iPod Touch using Amazon's Kindle app. I did this specifically because I wanted to see what a picture book would look like on the platform. The graphics, while small, were beautiful. However, there are several pages in the book where there is text embedded in the graphics and the size of the graphics makes the text impossible to read. That would be forgivable if whoever was responsible for the conversion added a separate copy of the text so you could read it. Here's where it gets really bizarre. On some pages they did just that! However, they didn't do it on all of the pages. Critically, the last page of the book lacks a legible version of the text. I think the book is wonderful. I think the Kindle is cool. I love the fact that Amazon has created an app to allow reading of Kindle books on the iPhone and the iPod Touch. However, if publishers, and Amazon, want this new platform to be successful, they are going to need to pay a little more attention to the details. I would steer clear of the Kindle version of this book until someone fixes the problems.

I love the illustrations and find it ever so entertaining to see what adventures Toot and Puddle will go on. Great for beginning readers as well.

My best friend and I give each other Toot and Puddle books for each special occassion (we're in our 20s). The books are super cute and really great to read. Adorable book for anyone of any age!

This is my four year olds favorite book of late. He giggles every time we read Cou cou pouche! He loves it when Toot and Puddle finally meet up and Toot shouts "Bon jor mon ami"! The artwork is charming and I love these pigs of Holly Hobbie!

We received this originally as a gift for my then year-old daughter. The sparkly snow on the front cover was very attractive to her as a baby. Now that she's two she still loves it and requests it often as a bed-time story. We have given this as a gift to other kids on their birthdays, with great reviews. All the Toot & Puddle books are great, but this is a particularly good one to start with because it's shorter and less wordy than the others. Plus it features planes, trains, buses and bicycles, which are fun to talk about with young toddlers. It's also, by the way, a great book to give if anyone in the house speaks French or can fake it to funny effect, as Toot winds up in Coucou Poche, Provence.

"Wish You Were Here," about plants and being sick, or the first Toot & Puddle, which has monthly postcards from Toot, have become more interesting as my daughter gets a little older. Also take a look at Llama Llama Red Pajama, another top favorite.

The TOOT & PUDDLE series are wonderful. This is a great one about really knowing a friend. Our 2 1/2 year old loves it and so do we. Holly Hobbie writes this series of books so simply (for the young) and intelligently (for all of us).