Official Review: the gift of haley

Post by Juliana_Isabella » 16 Mar 2020, 12:35

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "the gift of haley" by
Rosemary Lyn and Terri Bene'.]

The Gift of Haley by Terri Bené and Rosemary Lyn is a children’s picture book about
a puppy named Haley. Emily is a little girl who had her heart broken by her
Valentine’s Day crush. Her parents get her a puppy, Haley, to help heal her heart, but
Haley turns out to be a mischievous thief! She steals from everyone in the family,
even the baby, but Haley vows that the one thing that won’t be stolen is her heart.
Will she stay strong in her resolution, or will Haley manage to get ahold of her most
treasured possession? Pick up a copy of the book to find out!

This book caught my eye straightaway with the adorable pictures of Emily and Haley.
The story falls into a pattern where one page is about an item stolen by Haley and
features a member of the family looking for it, while the next shows Haley using the
item in an adorably creative way. The illustrations by Marty Peterson made me fall in
love with both Emily and Haley and made this book truly memorable.

The story is also cute and full of surprises for children. I enjoyed how the authors
indicated that time was passing by talking about different things Haley stole on
different holidays, like when she took the pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. This
timeline element allowed the authors to begin and end the story on Valentine’s Day,
which made the plot circle back around and feel complete.

Overall, I would rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. From the story to the characters to the
illustrations, I loved everything about this book. It looks extremely professional, and I
didn’t find any issues with the writing or pictures.

I would recommend this book to parents of children ages five to nine. This would be a
great book to read on Valentine’s Day, but be careful! Your kid might just want a
puppy like Haley to steal their heart too.