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Lost Toy
A child has lost their favourite toy. They are so sad. Will some kind strangers help?
32 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2020
1 person want to read
About the author
Sam Beckbessinger
15 books138 followersSam Beckbessinger is the author of the bestselling Manage Your Money Like a Fucking Grownup and the novel Girls of Little Hope (co-authored with Dale Halvorsen). Her interactive story about climate change, Survive the Century, was featured in New Scientist and Gizmodo. She teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University, writes kids' TV and picture books, once wrote for Marvel, and is weirdly obsessed with spreadsheets. Her perimenopausal werewolf novel Femme Feral is coming in summer 2026. She grew up on a farm near Durban with a pet donkey named Mr Magoo, but now lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 18, 2022
When I was small, I had a stuffed buddy named Moo-Moo the Moose (four-year-olds should not be allowed to name things). And one of the most entirely dramatic and heartbreaking events of my young life was when I lost him, and couldn't find him for days.
My heroic Mum eventually tracked him down (he'd somehow gotten jammed under the folding backseat of our car) but I tell you, the experience SCARRED ME FOR LIFE. Can you imagine? Poor Moo-Moo, out there in the world, all lost and alone! My poor aching kid-heart!
This story is an attempt to turn this dramatic childhood tale of woe into a more hopeful story where a kid's beloved toy isn't actually lost, but is just going on a little adventure without them. Amy's illustrations are the damn cutest things you've ever seen, and Natalie's design just brings the whole thing to life.
This charming little book exists thanks to an organisation called Book Dash. Book Dash is on a mission to make sure that every child owns a hundred books by the age of five. Owning books really matters. Studies have shown that having books in the home gives kids an advantage at school that's equivalent to 3.2 extra years of schooling, even when you control for things like income and parent's education. So giving away books to children is one of the most low-cost, high-impact things we can do in a country like South Africa, where 78% of Grade 4 (age 10) children can't read for meaning in any language, and 58% of South African households don't own a single leisure book.
But books are really expensive. Far too expensive for most low-income families in South Africa.
Book Dash's solution to this problem is pretty ingenius: they designed a publishing model that makes it possible to create a beautiful, high-quality kids' book in one (extremely exhausting) day. Professional writers, illustrators, designers and editors donate one day of their time and expertise, and the result is a brand new African storybook. Every book is released for free, under an open license that lets anyone translate, adapt or distribute the book however they like.
Just like the stuffed giraffe from the story, when you put something out in the world for free, it's amazing what adventures it can go on without you.
And yes, if you're wondering, of course I still have Moo-Moo (there's a photo of him here: https://www.sambeckbessinger.com/lets...).
My heroic Mum eventually tracked him down (he'd somehow gotten jammed under the folding backseat of our car) but I tell you, the experience SCARRED ME FOR LIFE. Can you imagine? Poor Moo-Moo, out there in the world, all lost and alone! My poor aching kid-heart!
This story is an attempt to turn this dramatic childhood tale of woe into a more hopeful story where a kid's beloved toy isn't actually lost, but is just going on a little adventure without them. Amy's illustrations are the damn cutest things you've ever seen, and Natalie's design just brings the whole thing to life.
This charming little book exists thanks to an organisation called Book Dash. Book Dash is on a mission to make sure that every child owns a hundred books by the age of five. Owning books really matters. Studies have shown that having books in the home gives kids an advantage at school that's equivalent to 3.2 extra years of schooling, even when you control for things like income and parent's education. So giving away books to children is one of the most low-cost, high-impact things we can do in a country like South Africa, where 78% of Grade 4 (age 10) children can't read for meaning in any language, and 58% of South African households don't own a single leisure book.
But books are really expensive. Far too expensive for most low-income families in South Africa.
Book Dash's solution to this problem is pretty ingenius: they designed a publishing model that makes it possible to create a beautiful, high-quality kids' book in one (extremely exhausting) day. Professional writers, illustrators, designers and editors donate one day of their time and expertise, and the result is a brand new African storybook. Every book is released for free, under an open license that lets anyone translate, adapt or distribute the book however they like.
Just like the stuffed giraffe from the story, when you put something out in the world for free, it's amazing what adventures it can go on without you.
And yes, if you're wondering, of course I still have Moo-Moo (there's a photo of him here: https://www.sambeckbessinger.com/lets...).
October 28, 2024
I love the concept of this book because it doesn't have any words. The book follows the story of a giraffe, a dog, and a boy. As a future teacher, I would love to introduce this to my classroom because I would like to see how my students would interpret the book since it doesn't have any words. This would make them focus on critical thinking and show us that pictures can enhance a story.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews