The Little Brute Family

I thought I was the only one who knew about this joy of a book. It's been one of my all time favorites since I was a little girl and I often pull it out to read when I'm feeling down. It's funny and precious and gives me hope.

Our old tattered copy of The Little Brute Family has always been a favorite of my children and grandchildren. When I saw that is was going to bee published again, I preordered five copies. I have been looking for more copies of this book for years. It is our all time favorite, a simple story with a beautiful message.

Just like many others who've reviewed this book, I had it as a child and have been searching to find another copy for my children. This is the sweetest, purest kind of story telling that transcends generations and should never go out of print (as it has)! My children appreciate this lovely tale just as much as I did. If you are fortunate enough to find a copy, you will surely appreciate these two wonderful authors.

How unfortunate that this book is out of print! My children loved this book. My husband and I loved this book and loved reading it aloud to our children. Now I want a copy for my grandchildren! In a delightful and humorous, uniquely Russell Hoban fashion, this book shows how kindness and love transform human relationships. The illustrations by Lillian Hoban are much loved by children and adults alike.

This is a simple story in which the grumpy Brute familychanges from being cross and mean to each other to being friendly and doing things together. This transformation is effected without any preachiness - being nice and more sociable is simply more fun. The illustrations are wonderful. The Brutes don't look very brutish, with their furriness and soft colors, just bad tempered and adorably ugly. Mother Brute's messy beehive hairdo is about as scary-looking as it gets. If the badgers from A Bargain for Frances (same illustrator) had some distant feral relatives, they might look like the Brutes. It's a great book that I loved as a child, and that adults like also. The Stone Doll of Sister Brute is as good (better, actually), and Harvey's Hideout (by the same team) has a similar theme, but features muskrats. These books are also challenging to find. The Hobans' much reprinted Frances books are sweet, but the Brute family books are also wonderful creations, less mild and a lot funnier. They definitely deserve to be reprinted as well.