Oskar searches the streets of Vienna for "the perfect gift" for his mother's birthday in this sweet story of good intentions and coincidences.
Alison Jay (Picture This...) takes readers back to a time when men doffed top hats, women wore petticoats, and people traveled by stagecoach. We first spy Oskar peering through the window of a millinery shop. But he has "only a single coin." Aha! A flower seller's beautiful yellow rose will make the perfect present, Oskar thinks. But a painter thinks the rose Oskar holds would be perfect for the portrait he's painting, so he trades Oskar for a paintbrush. Now a conductor who's lost his baton thinks Oskar's paintbrush would make the ideal substitute, and trades him a newly minted melody. And on it goes, with Oskar's "perfect gift" always needed urgently by someone else. Jay portrays other things gone astray, such as a runaway Dachshund pilfering a sausage, then chasing a black-and-white cat. But just as the errant pup returns to its owner, so, too, is Oskar reunited with his perfect gift--under the watchful eye of the black-and-white cat, just as dusk falls. Jay provides points of reference for readers, such as the shifting position of a Ferris wheel, depending upon Oskar's location, a green carriage that arrives in the morning and departs at dusk, and the shifting play of light as the day progresses.
This lovely story rewards Oskar's noble purpose and celebrates Vienna's many gifts as the boy does present his mother with the perfect acknowledgment of her birthday. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness