The Gift is a wonderful celebration of creativity and imagination. A little leopard is both cute and curious as he sets out to discover how to get beautiful things out of his birthday gift – a pen. This gentle story of discovery and learning is beautifully illustrated and perfect for inspiring children to get creative.
The Story: When Leo’s father gives him a pen for his birthday he tells him that there ‘are all sorts of beautiful things inside’ it. While his father is at the market Leo tries to get beautiful things out of the pen but doesn’t understand how it works. He asks his sister and his friends for help but then Mama shows him the words and pictures that he can create with his pen.
The Gift is both heartwarming and humorous in the way that Leo discovers how the pen works. Leo’s friends Coco-Tembo and Super-Zombo’s reactions to the pen made us laugh and Mama’s love and patience as she showed Leo how to draw and write made us feel all warm inside.
Delphine Renon’s muted illustrations are beautiful and she includes so many different animals and birds, some that will be more familiar to young readers than others. Particularly cute is the inclusion of a little lizard to spot in each picture, it’s not mentioned in the text at all.
Our favourite illustration is on the final page. With the help of his new pen Leo is an amazing illustrator too!
This gorgeous book would be perfect to stimulate a creative writing / drawing session in an Early Years or Key Stage One classroom. It elevates a simple pen to a thing of wonder.
Age Range: 3 +
Author: Alain Serge Dzotap / Illustrator: Delphine Renon
Thank you to Eerdmanns Publishing Company for sending a copy of this beautiful, beautiful story.
The book is also published in French with the title Le Cadeau.
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