I sure do love a story that takes place in my hometown, there is just something so special about a story that showcases the place you love.  Elliott the Otter: The Totally Untrue Story of Elliott, Boss of the Bay is a fantastic story about an otter who lives in Elliott Bay, he is one very busy otter making sure that all the happenings in the bay are happening on schedule as planned.  This story by John Skewes and Eric Ode with illustrations from John Skewes copyright 2015;  will be the perfect addition to your petites shelves.

The illustrations are so fantastically done that my five year old kept say, hey, I know where that is.  The cover art is just gorgeous, yes, another thing I love about this book is that even the spine has a picture of Elliott waving at you just saying hello, come and read me please.  Elliott has a lot of responsibilities, ensuring that the cargo containers arrive safely at the port, that they are unloaded and loaded quickly.  Elliott even helps to direct the ferry boats as well as some of our favorite visitors here in the Pacific Northwest, Orcas and of course the salmon.  This book does a wonderful job of relating just how critical Elliott bay is, not only for the port of Seattle, but the ecosystem of the bay as well.

There are so many things I love about this book –  one really fun aspect that my petite took to heart is Elliott’s incredible amount of responsibilities.  Elliott has a lot of responsibilities in his bay, even if some of them are completely untrue, the petite kept saying wow, he is really busy, we loved that he has a clipboard.  Shortly after we read this book, my daughter dug out a clipboard and made a list of things she needed to do.

Time management, oh my goodness this is something that is so critical for future success and this book and Elliots’ punctuality will help petites start to think about being on time and keeping track of what you need to do.  I love that Elliott is constantly checking his pocket watch to ensure everyone and everything is on schedule.  I love a book that provides you with an opportunity to talk about bigger things like time management and responsibilities, but in an incredibly non-invasive really fun way.

I did want to mention in case you did not see the previous post, this book was given to us through a book hunt, of sorts, check out the blog to find out how we tracked down this treasure from Sasquatch Books.  As you can see my petites adore this book and I am sure, even if you aren’t a resident of this incredibly fine city, yours will too.