Rose Rosetree’s Reviews > The Curious Adventures of the Abandoned Toys > Status Update

This delightful book ends with a resoundingly happy ending.

Hilarious full-color illustration of the animals searching through garbage at the dump, seeking clues about where Rabbit's family was moving.

The deeper I delve into this picture book about stuffed animals, the more apparent it becomes to me that this book is mostly a comedy of manners.

Often Julian Fellowes's words are LOL funny.

But in that dialog just cited, Julian Fellowes used "KIND" perfectly. IMO.

And I do think it's incumbent upon those who raise children, or write for them, or review books designed for them... to highlight ethics and integrity and, yes, kindness.

Maybe adding some words, but mostly teaching by example.

All too often, fellow Goodreaders, do you like it when people bandy about the word "kind"?

I don't. Usually it involves insincerity, or treating people like charity cases.

Even worse is if you say something you mean, and it's positive. Then the recipient responds, "That is very kind of you." Heck, I'd rather have somebody throw a cream pie in my face.

Readers are treated to useful concepts about manners.

Nell reprimands Doc for speaking sharply to Cora.

Nell: "You shouldn't have said that about the clothes."

Doc: "Why not? It's true."

Nell: "It's true, but it isn't kind."

In Part Two we meet the rabbit who was thrown away by accident.

Fellowes sets the scene: We learn, "it was a bright sunny day at the rubbish dump. Even the rats seemed to be taking things easier and looked less shifty than usual."

The author's imagination is delightful; just enough anthropomorphism for my taste.

More delicious social satire concludes with the Julian's portrait of Cora -- reminiscent of Violet in "Downton Abbey," but young and fetching and fascinatingly nuanced.

Although, unlike other life forms on earth -- real or stuffed, we humans do have karma happen to us, not merely "life."

To learn more about what the ancient concept of karma might mean now, since the world shifted into the Age of Awakening on Dec. 21, 2012, you might find it helpful to google on this:

"Karma Made Spiritual But Not Religious"
Be sure to include the quotation marks in your search.