I know I’ve said this before, but it’s such a valid statement that I need to say it again – when you need to talk to a child about something and make sure the message gets home to them, finding an appropriate book has to be the best way to do so. And I’m delighted to say that reading Roo the Roaring Dinosaur with Little Miss C has been the perfect way to start a discussion that we’d been struggling with for a while.
Roo is a little dinosaur who is very, very attached to his moomie – his precious comfort blanket. They do absolutely everything together and are the best of friends.
One day Roo and Moomie have an unexpected visitor in the form of a large woolly mammoth (called Wooly) who literally lands with a bump when the canopy of his hot air balloon develops a hole. Wooly looks sad so Roo decides to cheer him up and before long they’re playing together and having fun like old friends. The next morning though Wooly looks sad again and he is worried about how he is going to fix the hole in his balloon to be able to return home.
Roo realises that his Moomie is exactly the right size to fix the hole in Wooly’s balloon and after thinking long and hard about how much Wooly needs to fix his balloon to get home Roo decides to give his Moomie to Wooly. Together they sew it over the hole and then Roo roars to fill the balloon with hot air and Wooly floats away.
Poo Roo is feeling rather sad as he waves goodbye to both his new friend and his beloved Moomie, but then he sees something floating down towards him from the balloon. It’s Wooly’s scarf – his new Moomie!
Little Miss C and I have talked so much about how Roo did the right thing and was nice to his friend and it seems to have really struck a chord with LMC. With a younger brother who always wants to play with her toys we’ve been trying to encourage LMC to share with both him and her friends lately and also been trying to explain how sometimes other people can need something more than you think you need it. Up until now it felt like chats about this subject were just falling on deaf ears, but suddenly since reading Roo The Roaring Dinosaur there has been a real change of attitude and as a result much more harmony at home.
Thank you Roo!
Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of Roo The Roaring Dinosaur for the purposes of this review. This post contains affiliate links.
Book are a lovely way to get a message across, and that sounds like a really good one. There are so many rubbish kids books out there without and substance, it’s nice to hear about the good ones. x