Lost and Found Hardcover – Picture Book, October 2, 2012

I read this book to my 6 year old Granddaughter, a kindergartener, and 5 year old Grandson, in Pre school. I got the book because I knew they both could identify with the school setting. They thought the book was great. My grandson was impressed with the size of the lost and found box, and all the unusual items. His smile at the end of the book was priceless.My granddaughter had to look at every picture and identify every object in the box, she was worried for the boy, but loved how it ended. I think this will be one of those books we read again and again.

Kids just loved this book as a read-aloud. The pictures are great and expressive. Another Bill Harley 'must have in your library' book. Even visiting parents say "let me write down that title and author".

Read to my 3rd graders to decide if it is worthy of the Arkansas Diamond Award and the kids all voted that it is!

if you haven't heard bill harley then you missed an important part of childhood!

This is a great book for school kids. Every grade in our building that has read it has enjoyed it!

Adam the illustrator for this book was my art teacher so I bought a copy so he could sign it.

The writing was ok and the pictures were great, but the story really seemed to lack substance. It was over just as quickly as it started. I understand the point of it, which is don't judge someone before you know them, but I think it needs to be better spelled out if you are trying to get that point across to a little kid. Also, the author might have also actually described some of the weird things that the kid found instead of just having pictures of them.

The story is straightforward - Justin has lost the hat his grandmother made for him, can't find it anywhere, and so must visit the custodian, scary grumpy Mr. Rumkowsky, in order to look through the lost and found box. So, how well is the story told and how well is it illustrated? Unusual for this type of book, the strongest suit is the illustrations. I've mostly found that the illustrations for read aloud books or just-before-chapter-books books tend to be frantic or sketchy or too exaggerated or just too comic bookish. Well, not here. Adam Gustavson has done a top notch job. The individual characters are very expressive; you can feel Justin's anxiety and dismay just from the drawings. There is a touch of humor in there, and a bit of playing with perspective in order to heighten the drama, but mostly the illustrations feel real and honest. (Look closely at the cover illustration above. Mr. Rumkowsky is in the lower left; he is perfectly imagined and represented. Justin doesn't have little exclamation points coming off the top of his head or little beads of sweat on his forehead. Rather, he looks like an unhappy and vaguely confused kid. He looks right.) The illustrations nicely complement Bill Harley's text. It too is direct and to the point. The narrative is spare but telling. Justin's conversations with his schoolmates about his fear of Mr. Rumkowsky are short and cryptic, and they read almost like poetry. The prose isn't all pumped up with zaniness or exaggeration, which is so common at this age level. Each word is carefully weighed, and because the tale is so spare in the telling, it ends up having more impact than an overwritten, busy, blabby version would. So, if you'd like a nice read to or read with book, or even a first reader, with wit and style, this book seems worthy of serious consideration. (By the way, it also has an elegant, slightly twisty, and satisfying ending.) Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to the author or the publisher of this book.