Rosie's Roses

by Pamela Duncan Edwards, Henry Cole (Illustrator)

As is a present for Aunt Ruth's birthday, Rosie Raccoon is determined to offer four roses tied with a rainbow ribbon. As she and her big brother, Robert, ramble through the forest toward Aunt Ruth's house, Rosie's flowers mysteriously disappear, rose by rose. Is there a rose robber in the forest? In this lighthearted alliterative romp -- written especially for fans of the letter R -- Pamela Duncan Edwards and Henry Cole tell the story of a little raccoon who discovers that sharing with others brings its own rewards.

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 25, 2003

About the author

Pamela Duncan Edwards is a British-born children's author living in the United States. She has written over forty picture books published in both the U.S. and the U.K., known for their playful language and engaging storytelling.

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 2 out of 5]

A picture-book celebration of the letter "R," Rosie's Roses follows its eponymous procyonine heroine, Rosie Raccoon, and her brother Robert, as they make their way to their Aunt Ruth's for a birthday celebration. As Rosie's four beautiful roses - tied up with a colorful ribbon - disappear one by one, she becomes more and more distraught, convinced she will have nothing to give her aunt. Fortunately, her loss is Mr. Rat, Mr. Rabbit, Mrs. Robin, and Miss Squirrel's gain; and Aunt Ruth, as it turns out, already has the rose she likes best...

I cannot say that Rosie's Roses was really my cup of tea, as I found Pamela Duncan Edwards' story just a little too treacly-sweet, and Henry Cole's illustrations a little too cute, for my taste. These things vary, of course, and I imagine that some readers might find the overall effect here very winsome. I've certainly enjoyed Cole's work on other books - Mouse Was Mad was darling! - so fans of his might still want to take a look at this one. Despite being rather underwhelmed, I did appreciate the book's potential as a tool for teaching alliteration, and thought the incorporation of an "R" into every page (I didn't find them all!), was very clever.

[Rose Rosetree · Rating 5 out of 5]

My word, was this book made for me or what?

Made for me, Rose Rosetree. There's even a letter "R" hidden in every picture in the book. Hooray, even though these visual puzzles are tough!

BACK TO THE STORY

Great lines catch me by surprise, like "That rodent is a rogue." Try saying that 20 times in a row -- not a tongue twister but a lip pouffer. And there's plenty more. (I'm just not going to spoiler it for you, no no!)

BUT I CAN TELL YOU THIS

Not only will readers find a happy ending. The Rosie who was given those roses... she has such a sweet disposition, that will linger with readers like me, readers who could use a reminder of how to live with spontaneous, open-hearted, sweetness.

[Marytza Mundo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book can be useful with kids because the use of alliteration. This can be used with kids to help them learn and analyze new vocabulary words. Because this story has some harder vocabulary words for younger students to comprehend I think this story is also good to show how to share and how its not always about the physical things. I liked this book because the story overall was so sweet and it had such a cute ending.

[The Reading Writing Puppet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story, the ending was the sweetest. Cute illustrations

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story, in which words with the letter "r" are emphasized, had the added feature of having a hidden R in every picture. There were a couple of pictures where I just didn't see it. Maybe I was looking too hard! The story was cute except that, in order to use "r" words, the author sometimes used words that young children really wouldn't encounter in everyday speech (rapscallion, rogue) and that might be difficult for them to decode. Nevertheless, I liked the story, which had a sweet ending.

[Terry]

Reading the alliteration in this book is challenging and fun.

To read the full review, go to the Reading Tub.

[Gwnhwyfer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute message and cute illustrations (not my favourite of Cole's however), though Rosie's various repeatings of "I guess that's okay..." (she yelled) become a little annoying.

[Michael D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this light-hearted book using alliterative text.

[Laura Filtness · Rating 4 out of 5]

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