“The Boogies and the Woogies” by Marianne Reed is just so cute, so colorful and so adorable that I enjoyed it immensely even though I’m no longer a little child. It just felt good to be young again and to see a world where everything is new and wonderful. This book has a certain way of conveying positivity and warmth to its readers through its vivid illustrations and smart narrative. In a simple but very effective way, it delivers a strong message to readers young and old, a message that the world badly needs today.
Sometimes it’s hard to see a solution without seeing our situation from another perspective. And that’s where this book comes in. It enables its readers to visualize through its magical pages how we sometimes behave and why we often can’t find the answers to our problems.
Haven’t we seen children fight over something they can’t seem to settle by themselves? (Well, it seems even adults also, but let’s talk about that later on). Many times, a fight can go on because neither side is unwilling to acknowledge who is right and who is wrong. This is very much like the Boogies and the Woogies!
Although these delightful little creatures look the same, the reader will soon find out how terribly different they perceived each other. In fact, they have become so distant that one day, there appeared a great crack between them! How would this crack affect their lives? How do you solve something when all that you can see is an enemy?
But to avoid misunderstanding the message of the book, we should keep in mind that the final message is not about whether there is a difference between right and wrong. Clearly, something was wrong when the Woogies refused to listen and to reconcile.
What then is right? It is love.
And what is love? It is thinking about and doing what’s good for the other. The opposite is pride. To stubbornly wish to appear like you’re right even when you’re wrong, even when you’re already hurting those around you. It’s when you’re so puffed up with yourself that you refuse to see the face of the person in front of you.
The message of this book is deeper than the usual lessons one could learn in picture books. And for this, a discussion between the adults and young ones may be needed. This is a golden opportunity not only to impart good values to children but to bond with them and to spend precious memories no one could take away.
For this reason, this story will have a lasting impact long after it has been read. It will be remembered as a strong message that can equip young ones with the key to solving many irreconcilable problems later on.
It is my hope that when these children grow up into the adults like many of us are today, they could find a better way to communicate with each other no matter how different they seem to be.
Oh, how I wish it were that easy to set aside our differences like the Boogies and the Woogies did. To see the face of the person in front of us and just start to love that person.
Maybe then we could truly realize what matters in life. Maybe then, this world can finally learn the way to peace.
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Book Author
MARIANNE REED
Currently living the country life in the woods of southwest Ohio, Marianne Reed is an artist, musician, former pediatric nurse, and mother to a wonderful teen daughter. She’s been an avid reader and keen appreciator of children’s picture books since first checking out a tiny copy of The Tale of Tom Kitten at the age of five from the local public library. Later in life she expanded her research spending countless hours in Powells bookstore with a good cup of coffee and a stack of lavishly illustrated picture books to peruse.
“Over the years I’ve accumulated many fun stories in my mind. Now that life has slowed down a bit for me, I’m finally getting some of them down on paper. I’m really hoping that children and adults alike will enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.”