The mark of any great children's book surely must be the "read it again daddy!" factor. I believe this book has that potential. Now I will be the first to admit that upon the very first read I was left a bit underwhelmed, confused even. I found the font to be confusing and overly complicated, I thought. The artwork is cool but maybe a bit overdone and busy, especially for a smallest of smalls. However, upon further readings I enjoyed the book and was delighted with the ending and the overall story. Lucado creates a wonderful tale bringing in the full range of human behavior: grass is greener on the other side, envy, pride, bitterness, class struggles, depths of despair, heights of success and probably many more nuances that I missed. Where you may miss them in the text you will certainly catch them in the detail and unique perspectives in the artwork. For example, my favorite page of art is the foot page. All you see is a view from the top looking down at Ollie's and Jesus' feet. Its very emotive and really captures the whole message of the book in a single image. Here is where Ollie, who has been looking up his whole life wishing he could look down on others, now looks down in this defining moment of repentance and true humbling. Don't climb up to look down but look down from being knocked down and you will see a Savior who was humiliated in every way beyond our imagination.
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