Acorn Was a Little Wild
This story was a bit difficult for me to place into a category.
The story is cute, and clearly the acorn is the author’s little one. We too have a bit of a wild one from time to time, as I imagine almost every parent does.
But that theme to the story may make some parents want to skip the story altogether. The acorn’s wildness is celebrated. Which I think in some situations, it should be. Children should be carefree and free to play and explore and just go crazy and be themselves. But we have also spent an exorbitant amount of time trying to tame some of that wildness in certain situations. Wildness can blur into being naughty. This is something every parent has to decide on before reading the story. The clearer negative to the story is mentioned in the cautions below but can easily be skipped without impacting the story.
Positively, the story is fun and the drawings are cute. There is a lot of action and the story moves well and in a manner as to be very entertaining. The acorn is expressive and funny. And as the acorn grows into a tree, there is an educational aspect to the book, of which my little one spontaneously asked questions about this due to the illustrations. We were able to talk through seeds and how they don’t look like whatever plant they are and how they grow. We were also able to talk through the seasons and how plants and trees (and other things) grow and mature.
Cautions: I didn’t like the comment about the fox peeing on the tree and in return the tree hit him with a stick. I didn’t like the language or that it teaches a child to hit or retaliate in some manner for an action the child may not like. It’s something that as I read the first time I didn’t catch and it impacted my little one’s brain. She had me read those two sentences repeatedly, maybe 30 times. However, this is the piece that can easily be skipped and not impact the story. It’s only two sentences.
