An Owl In A Towel

Today a beautiful book came through my letterbox. Well actually it didn’t, there was a knock at the door and the postman handed me a brown parcel.

I unwrapped it and it contained “Owl in a Towel” a beautiful children’s book by Lesley Leatherdale, with wonderful illustrations by Cheryl Woynarski.

The first impression is of space and lightness. There is no pressure coming from this book; it invites you in.

There is an opening paragraph taking up a page telling us to be mindful as we read this and the back cover gives a brief synopsis of what the book contains.

Following this we get a lovely dedication with a beautiful image of a Caticorn before we get into the book proper.

This review will contain a lot more words than the book itself, but hopefully, you will want to grab yourself a copy from the link at the end.

I purchased mine for my granddaughter Alexis Leia. My daughter, Kirsty (Alexis’s mum), thinks it is beautiful, and I must say I totally agree with her, and am sure you will when you open this wonderful book.

I have added a few pictures of Alexis Leia with the book for this publication. She enjoyed seeing it but we had to keep her sticky fingers away from it.

So, into the story of the “Owl In The Towel” itself. The book is large format, but very easy to read. The pictures are easy on the eye with no harsh or striking colour, but the characters and scenes are well-defined.

I think this is very soothing to the reader and will also have the same effect on the child's reading, even before the child starts to read.

We are introduced to Owl and the towel, which is the basis for many of the concepts in the book. I don’t like using words like “concepts” as it takes away from the pure joy of enjoying this wonderful book.

It’s almost like a fluffy eiderdown (I know eiders are ducks not owls) but it’s that sort of feeling when you turn each page.

We learn the benefits of the towel for the owl, and though the towel is a single item it can be used in many ways. This will help a child learn the value of things in a very comforting environment.

As the child grows this will be a wonderful aid to learning to read.

The words “Owl” and “Towel” are simple and go together very well and if a child learns one it will soon learn the other.

As we progress through the book we begin with the Owl Family and their life with their towels and the family grows so by the end of the book the family is a little larger. Throughout the book we experience many feelings, happiness, sadness, waiting, and love and the person reading to the child can bond even more using this book.

When we come to the end we get to meet Lesley and Cheryl who brought us this beautiful story.

This is, in my opinion, unlike almost any children’s book I have seen. The characters are genderless, but if you think of most children’s books most characters have a defined gender even if they are animals. In this, the reader (or person being read to) can identify with any of the characters.

Very often we see very po-faced non-genderism, but “Owl In The Towel” is very inclusive non-genderism.

All in all a beautiful tale, beautifully presented in a beautiful book which will provide a wonderful reading experience for parents and children for a very long time. There are not many books that you can say that about.

You can order your copy here.