Lou Caribou: Weekdays with Mom, Weekends with Dad

by Marie-Sabine Roger

A little reindeer named Lou Caribou lives with his mom at one end of a green forest. Every weekend, Lou visits his dad who lives on the other end of that forest. While his parents live apart, Lou knows they both love him dearly.

Genres: Picture Books

36 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Jason · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a nice little bit of propaganda, sugarcoating every aspect of having divorced parents. A good book for making parents feel less guilty about the effect their actions have on their children. "With one life here and another life there, having two lives is bliss!" From someone who's lived it, that's a total crock.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think this would be my first choice for a book about divorce. The writing itself is a little stilted- sometimes it rhymes and sometimes it doesn't- but I chalk that up to translation. Then there is writing that may be weird because of translation, but... it was hard to understand. ("Weekends are weeks without Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, but otherwise they are weeks." and then "Weeks are just weekends without Saturdays and Sundays, but otherwise they are weekends." I had to read those several times)

I know that not every children's book about divorce needs to cover mixed emotions, and/or dive deep; but this felt very saccharine. I did think the illustrations were cute, though.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

First published in France, this story could just as easily have featured as main characters humans, bears, mice, dogs, etc.; in other words, it is not really about caribou per se. The story is basically about a small child whose parents are divorced, so he has to travel between parents every week. The text is simple enough to be suitable for pre-school children. The translator into English occasionally uses a rhyme scheme, but not always. The illustrations are cute and fairly large. This is an acceptable book for reassuring small children of divorced parents.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just ok. And it does kind of 'stuff down' the emotions of pain that accompany a divorce ("There'll be no wet tissues when they say goodbye") -- seeming to suggest that it's not okay to have mixed emotions about living with divorced parents.