Gossie by Olivier Dunrea

Gossie by Olivier Dunrea is the last of my recent "finds" at while browsing the children's shelves at my library. I'd actually heard of this book before, in fact I bought a Gossie story at Target as a gift for a friend's two-year old, but this is the first I'd actually taken the time to read the story to my daughter.

In this particular book Gossie the gosling is wearing her red boots... she wears them everywhere, until one day.... she can't find them. Where they turn up is a fun surprise for children and in a subtle way teaches about sharing.

Gossie is 32 pages with bright colorful pictures, easy words and short simple sentences. This was a great book to read aloud to my 14-month old before her nap as it did not require too long a period of her attention, but still gave us a fun book to read together. The sentences are sometimes repeated and at times there is a bit of rhyming, but only when it fits well with the story's fun. Gossie and the others in the series (I think there are about eight) are aimed at the Pre-K to Kindergarten age so it's ideal for a toddler as I've pointed out.

First published in 2002 the Gossie series is relatively new and is thus easy to locate both in bookstores, stores (i.e. Target), online, or even at the library. Copies range in price from a little over $1 (used) to $9.95 for brand new. This is a fun book to include in your child's library -- either by buying or by borrowing.