I'll admit it. I think this book is a little syrupy. The mother is just too too patient with her ultra-competitive little ones. All they care about is being the best, and yet, she always manages to have the answer which avoids choosing favorites. (Frankly, she sets a standard that's hard to live up to.) Neither son is the best rower - one rows deep, the other rows fast. Neither is the best fisherman - one gets more fish, but the other got the smart fish. And so on.

And yet, despite the fact that I think it's just a tad bit on the sweet side for me, I do like it. This *is* a good way of talking to kids (even only children benefit from being specifically complimented on what they do instead of being generically told they're the "best"), and the message that there's value in everybody's actions (even if they aren't the "best") is a good one for kids to hear. ( )

This book is about a mother and her two sons. Her sons are both very competetive when doing anything. They always want to knwo who is better. Mother always gives them both compliments. I think this boko does a great job of pointing out how you can find great in everything.

This story is about a mom and her two boys. After dinner they would go fishing and the boys would always be in compettion with each other. They would ask "mamma, who has the most worms", "mamma who is the best rower", and "mamma who do you love more." She would anser them by giving rewarding statements about the both of them.

This story was great!! I really enjoyed it because I am a mom and how she handled those situations were awesome.

I do not know how this book could tie into any type of unit. ( )

In this story, the two brothers are very competitive at a young age and always seek approval from their mother. Instead of ever pointing out either as being better at anything, the mother chooses the strongest attribute each son has during each activity and encourages them as individuals with different strengths and weaknesses.

This is a beautiful book. The illustrations are breathtaking, and so is some of the prose: "I love you the color of a dragonfly at the tip of its wing." Yes, I wish I could write (or think) sentences like that.

Yet, I find reading this book dissatisfying. I always come away just a little bit annoyed with this Mama, with her book, with the way she deals with her sons. It's hard to put my finger on exactly why--certainly I agree that people should be appreciated for who they are. As parents, we ought to be helping our children to see their strengths, and this Mama is the consummate encourager. So what's the problem? I think it comes from the sense I get that nothing these children do could ever, ever be best. Even if one of them were, legitimately, a musical prodigy, she would affirm the other, equally, for his own, clearly more amateur efforts on the piano. The woman appears unwilling to make a true value judgment--this is better than that. She likes her boys for who they are, but she refuses to admit that one of them might be genuinely better--at anything--than the other. As a reader, I am not satisfied with that, and have difficulty believing that the boys in the book--competitive as they are--are satisfied either.

On the other hand, I have a sister and a daughter who both love the book, so perhaps I'm just unhealthily competitive. And I have to admit that despite my dissatisfaction with the message, I come back to this now and then to look at the pictures and savor the language. It's such a gorgeous book. ( )