Title: Chaucer’s Toy Box
Author: Lynn E. Lensmire
Illustrator: Louis Hornung
Publisher: Lynn Lensmire Books
ISBN: 978-1-962110-08-2
Pages: 32
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Pacific Book Review
In the ever expanding and crowded genre of illustrated children’s books, certain thresholds of creativity need to be achieved in order to succeed in publishing and creating a demand for a book. Author Lynn E. Lensmire has accomplished these goals in her creative new book titled, Chaucer’s Toy Box.
With an abundance of pictures by her talented artist/illustrator Louis Hornung, Chaucer, a cute furry dog with big brown eyes, takes readers on a visual tour of its toy box. Narrated via a first-person dog, speaking in well-footed prose and rhyme, the book is very original as readers learn the value and appreciation Chaucer has for each of its toys. It was interesting to learn how a dog thinks, and the illustrations accompanied the galley text just perfectly, interleaving images into the poetry of the narration. For example, Chaucer says, “I like my ORANGE PUPPY, He once was round and fat. I pulled his stuffing out of him, So now he’s very flat!” The illustration shows a flattened stuffed orange puppy. On-and-on the story goes highlighting aspects of Chaucer’s toys, with a grand finale of a picture of Chaucer with all of his toys in front of him. Chaucer is in fact a real dog, because in the pictures you can tell Chaucer was cut-and-pasted from a photograph and then copied on top of an illustration.
The moral of this story would be that all toys are fun for – whatever the reasons – dogs have their favorite toys, as children also will have their favorite toys. But Chaucer is also a dog which, when you think of it, is a sort of toy itself, being a faithful companion to children – so in a way the story becomes a tale of a toy’s toys. The author indicates there will be more stories about Chaucer in future books, so keeping a copy of this book in hardcover will become a foundation in a family library to go with other stories yet to come, making for a wonderful collection of bedtime stories for the youngest of children to enjoy, giggle, and dream happy dog-thoughts when going off to sleep.
