Gus’s Garage, by Leo Timmers

My obsession with Leo Timmers is well (self) documented. Because of this, I want to spread the love around and try to give his books as gifts as often as possible.

In case I need to state the bleeding obvious,  a mother of 4 young children can get busy. One thing that can easily fall by the wayside is the quality of gifts given to kids in our sphere. The reality is that between (soon to be) 13 cousins under 13 years old, plus school and church friends we wrap a kids’ gift pretty often. I just don’t have the energy or time to race to the shops that many times a year to buy one gift, that almost always goes over budget or is not the type of thing I would want to give.

So earlier this year I decided to get myself in order and pre-buy good gifts. I bought a whole stack of kids books that we absolutely love. I tried to get some baby books for use at a baby shower or birth, I got wonderful picture books, some with audio recordings, I also got some for older children. Books that you wouldn’t normally find in the big retailers.

It has worked out really well. Each time there is a kids birthday we pull down the ‘birthday box’, which is stocked with all the books and a few toys/craft items and the kids can choose a book and a toy for the friend/cousin.

As a part of this process, I got ‘Gus’s Garage‘. We hadn’t as yet read it, but I had no doubt it was going to be amazing. Of course, as soon as it arrived I had to open it and read it and I was blown away. It took great self-control to put it into the ‘birthday box’ where it was originally destined to reside. Fortunately, we have had it from the library and it has been read and re-read many many times.

The pictures are truly beautiful. I don’t know which other adjectives to use as none seem to do justice to the quality and creativity of the illustrations. Here is a teeny-tiny sample. Alternatively click here and get some great sneak peeks.

The story is simple, great for very young children. But I can tell you that my 8 year old boy also loves this book and is still noticing new things in the pictures, even after dozens of readings. I would absolutely recommend this for any family with a kid under 9 yrs.

And who got the copy of ‘Gus’s Garage’ from our birthday box? One very special 4 yr old who visits us every few weeks and lets me read to him for longer than any of my own kids do.