I haven’t exactly figured out how I want to do book reviews for this site, but I know I want to, so I thought I’d just jump in today with one of our very favorites.

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This is Robert Munsch’s Ribbon Rescue. You probably know Robert Munsch already because of the book Love You Forever, for which he is most famous. To be honest, Love You Forever is actually my least favorite Munsch book; I just find it too bizarre. But lots of people love it, so what do I know?

Munsch is a prolific Canadian author who loves to make children laugh with the silliness of his books. I’ve also heard that he is great about answering children’s letters, but we haven’t tried writing to him yet. Some of our other Munsch favorites include Kiss Me, I’m Perfect!, Andrew’s Loose Tooth, The Sandcastle Contest, and Smelly Socks. The Paper Bag Princess is also delightful and may actually get its own post here someday soon.

But our very, very favorite is Ribbon Rescue! It has some of Munsch’s classic silliness, lots of great repetition, and beautiful illustrations by Eugenie Fernandes. And the teacher in me just goes ga-ga over this book because you can go so many different directions with it and it fits in with so many different themes! The story is about a Mohawk girl from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal, Quebec, and the traditional Mohawk costume ribbon dress her grandmother makes for her to wear to a wedding.

But while she is waiting outside for her mother, the groom, the bride, some wedding guests, and the best man come running by one-by-one, all with a problem and late for the wedding. To solve each one’s problem, the young girl uses ribbons from her dress, and then she provides each with a different form of transportation, ranging from skates to a wagon, to get to the wedding more quickly. But when she gets to the wedding (also late!), the usher at the door won’t let her in because she’s all dirty and her dress is torn from helping everyone! She sits down to wait on the steps outside, but all ends well as the bride and groom find her there and make her their flower girl, torn dress and all.

Some of the themes I see this book fitting with well include kindness, sacrificial giving, inner beauty, problem solving, transportation, time/punctuality/planning ahead and even Native American/First Nations studies. Plus, it’s just fun to read over and over again! I hope your family finds as much joy from this book as ours has! We even made ribbon dress costumes for a book fair celebration a few years ago! Happy reading!

P.S. If you are a children’s book lover like me, you will LOVE my sister’s website, Three Books a Night! She actually knows what she’s talking about!