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Original poster

Owl Babies - am I a complete wuss?

82 replies

MissM · 09/07/2008 19:47

Does anyone else get a lump in their throat (and at one reading tears in their eyes) when they get to the page 'AND SHE CAME'? It gets me every time.

OP posts:
Orinoco · 09/07/2008 22:42

Message withdrawn

halogen · 09/07/2008 22:40

Oh yes, the poor poor bear! He only wanted some friends...

seeker · 09/07/2008 22:38

If you think Owl Babies is bad, I suggest you avoid Once There were Giants and The Big Big Sea and In the Middle of the Night. That man should be arrested!

And how about that poor sad bear on the last page of Going on a Bear Hunt - he only wanted to play! I skipped that page for ages, until my foul sadistic children discovered it made me cry and made me look at it - peering into my face for tears as they did it!

ja9 · 09/07/2008 22:38

ok i know you've all gone off on tangents but i had to reply to op

yes yes YES - I LOVE THAT PAGE!!

CatIsSleepy · 09/07/2008 22:36

oh yes that line gives me goosebumps despite the fact that I am not that keen on the book

Peepo is lovely
Am sure dd has no idea what a hairnet is or indeed what a bucket of coal is for but she seems to like it anyway

halogen · 09/07/2008 22:33

'Are you my mother?' is another that always makes me well up.

BirdyArms · 09/07/2008 22:30

I love the illustrations in Owl Babies, a pleasant change from the pastel shades in other children's books eg the barfsome Guess How Much I Love You.

Peepo is the one that has me welling up though.

Pruners · 09/07/2008 22:23

Message withdrawn

UnquietDad · 09/07/2008 22:23

Daddy Owl is currently being denied access and is about to stage Owls For Justice protest on top of tree dressed as Superowl.

Califrau · 09/07/2008 22:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PinkTulips · 09/07/2008 22:18

ds adores owl babies.... he brings it up to me constantly and demands it read to him.

haven't yet cried at it though.

goodbye mog made me sob the first time though

Pruners · 09/07/2008 22:12

Message withdrawn

OverMyDeadBody · 09/07/2008 22:09

lol

Damn, I was so hoping it would be scientifically accurate! Of course owls talk, they just use tweets and hoots

Maybe daddy owl flucked off with a younger female owl? That would explain why mummy owl's always out, it's hard word being a single mum to three demanding owl babies.

NotQuiteCockney · 09/07/2008 21:51

(and if they didn't, well, the book is hardly meant to be scientifically accurate, anyway, unless owls talk . Oh, yes, and sibs don't care for each other much, sometimes they eat each other.)

NotQuiteCockney · 09/07/2008 21:50

I just checked, and as I suspected, male owls do care for their young - most male birds do, albeit to greater or lesser degrees.

MehgaLegs · 09/07/2008 21:17

Being nocturnal would an Owl night shift br the equivalent of a human day shift I wonder?

jura · 09/07/2008 20:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

UnquietDad · 09/07/2008 20:47

Daddy Owl is doing the best he can, while all Mummy Owl does is moan about how late home he is and how little he does around the tree when he gets in knackered at 6am.

SorenLorensen · 09/07/2008 20:46

I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't like Guess How Much I love You's irritating one-uphareship - well I love you to the moon and back. I so want Little Nutbrown Hare to say, "oh well, whoop-de-do for you, and you know what, I've gone off you actually, Big Nutbrown Hare...and anyway, have you never read Shakespeare? There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd. Now bog off and let me go to sleep."

Now...Goodbye Mog. That's a story to make you weep. And when they get older...Adolphus Tips...I couldn't speak for sobbing (luckily ds1 was too).

MehgaLegs · 09/07/2008 20:44

But UQD - little Bill has to sit on old bit of ivy. Daddy Owl is obviously not making that much .

Original poster
MissM · 09/07/2008 20:42

When DD started nursery and we were both in pieces one of the carers said to her 'Mummys always come back'. That's going with me to the grave. DD knows Owl Babies by heart too and she's only a bit over 2. She always turns round and smiles at me at 'AND SHE CAME'. God, am getting all blurry eyed just thinking about it.

OP posts:
notnowbernard · 09/07/2008 20:41

'Loveykins' by Quentin Blake a bit of a tear-jerker, too

treacletart · 09/07/2008 20:40

I'm sure Owl Babies featured heavily in "I dont know how she does it" famous chic lit from a while back - forgotten the author. Think it might have been enough to make her give up her job or something..

"Once There Were Giants" does it for me, I have never read it without chocking up. They grow up so fast! (Mind you there's some sort of weird menage a trois thing going on in that book I'd like to get to the bottom of... but that's probably for another thread)

notnowbernard · 09/07/2008 20:36

Great illustrations in Let's get a Pup, also... post-punk/Ska-esque Mum and Dad

Just very, very moving text at the end... am welling up just thinking of it!

UnquietDad · 09/07/2008 20:34

I don't get it, actually. You know she's coming back and it's never in doubt! Blue Rabbit, on the other hand...