The Most Important Gift of All

Written by David Conway 

Illustrated by Karin Littlewood 

No Awards

Following the custom of her village, Ama is looking for the perfect gift to offer her newborn baby brother, so she decides to go on the hunt to find it. Her grandma suggests that Ama give him the gift of love. On her journey to find "love", Ama has conversations with a weaverbird and a giraffe but finds that they aren't much help in helping her to understand. However, after getting some advice from a lion that you can't search for love, but simply know you have it when you have it, Ama spends the night in a tree searching for understanding. By the end of the book, it's not quite clear if Ama understands what exactly love is, but she does her best to show it.

I would recommend this book to elementary students, grades second and third. I wouldn't use this for whole group instruction but would have it available in my library for students.