Little Fur Family Board Book

This has to got be one of the strangest, coolest, most out-there kids books ever. I mean, what exactly ARE the little fur family? The dad looks like some kind of furry owl, the mom might be some sort of feminine echidna, the boy looks like a bear, and the grandpa I'm pretty sure is an airedale. ...Pretty sure. Sometimes the book rhymes, sometimes it doesn't; sometimes the writing is odd and redundant--like living in a "wooden tree," sometimes it's lyrical and beautiful--like "the dark and sunny woods"; and always it's just bizarre. ...The fur family seems peaceful, but they all wear fur coats, evidently from some other animals that got skinned. ...The boy meets his grandfather and has the oddest and most non sequiter exchange about sneezing. ...The little fur boy captures a tiny little furry man, before kissing it and sending it on its way. What on earth is going on here? The pictures, by Garth Williams of "Little House on the Prairie" fame, are awesome, every one suitable for framing, and the text, by Margaret Wise Brown, author of "Good Night Moon," makes more sense than say, "The Color Kittens," but still seems somewhat drug-inspired. And the ending is terrific. This is one of my favorite kids books that I've ever gotten for my daughter, and she seems to like it as well. It's just so incomprehensibly bizarre that I have to love it. Have to.

Despite a childhood filled with books, I didn't see this one until I picked it up in a secondhand store last week (at the age of 46!). I have read it several times a day since. There's something profoundly sweet and comforting about it, without the slightest trace of sappiness. It makes me feel transported the way books used to magically do before I turned 7, a rare thing indeed. Of course every child should have this book, but so should every grownup in this wicked world.

Initially put off by the miniature edition I'd ordered by mistake, I now must recommend it. We have an older hardback that my daughters love, and this small, fur covered version is another hit. My 15 month old loves to hold a little book in her hands that feels 'all soft and all warm'.

The calm and soothing nature of this book makes it a great one to read when sending your little ones off to sleep. When I was a little girl, my mother read this book to me often. Now that I'm a mother of two girls-ages 8 and 3-it's a great excuse for me to read one of my favorite childrens book. My girls especially love it when I sing the lullaby at the end of the book. Hopefully, this book has become a favorite of my girls, that they will take with them through life the way I have.

I discovered the Little Fur Family at the home of my piano teacher, who easily could have stepped from the pages of one of Margaret Wise Brown's books. (Maybe whispering "hush.") The teeny, fur- covered edition is the one to have, in my view. When it was reissued (I think around 1985) and I spied it in a bookshop, I instantly was transported back to my childhood. I bought it and kept it in a safe place for nearly 12 years, until I first read it to my baby daughter. I keep it in her her room, in its box. After we read it, she cuddles it until she falls asleep. Every page is a delight, from the hollow tree the family lives in, to the teeny tiny fur animal who gets kissed on his little fur nose, to the wonderful supper and lullaby the fur child receives from his parents at the end of a day in the wild wood. I wish that this book (and Goodnight Moon) were issued to every child upon birth.