As I have said before, I LOVE hearing about your favorite books. I was thrilled when Amanda from One Mommy’s Thoughts agreed to do a guest post. I was even more thrilled after reading this post. I love it! It’s a must-get book I had never heard of before. I love the message. Thanks for sharing with us Amanda.

There are a few things I love about Tops & Bottoms by Janet Stevens. Right now it is extremely appropriate to read a story about growing your own food since our deck garden is flourishing to the point of over-kill. My son (who hates pea pods) claims he LOVES our “grown ones”. It is sweet really and I would be lying if I didn’t admit to an overwhelming feel of pride when he states this since I grew those very pea pods from seeds with my own two hands. I never thought I could grow anything! But I am digressing…..

Tops & Bottoms is a wonderful story about a lazy bear who had lots of money and land and a hare that had little money and lots of little bunnies to feed but he was a hard worker and clever. The story starts out with a little back info on both lazy bear with the father who gave him everything and the hare who made a bet with a tortoise and lost (I love this reference).

As the story goes, the clever hare cheats the lazy bear out of the prosperous part of every crop grown on his very land by growing things like carrots and radishes but telling lazy bear he gets the tops and hare keeps the bottoms. Lazy bear agrees of course because he is lazy and sleeps while hare prepares the field and tends to the growing crops. This goes on for 3 different crops until the lazy bear finally realizes he has been had.

Moral of the story is that being lazy never got you anything but hard work will get you everything you need. Not a bad lesson to teach your kids while entertaining them with a great story!

Did I mention that the book opens vertically, a play on the “tops” and “bottoms” title since you read from top to bottom?

I highly recommend this book for children of all ages and I know you will love the look on your kids’ faces when they realize just how clever that hare really is.

Enjoy!