REVIEW: What Wesley Wore
With the kids being off on school holidays it’s been a super busy week, however it has given us a Fab chance to spend time together reading this New Children’s Book called “What Wesley Wore” that we have been sent and asked if we would share our honest thoughts of it, with you.
“What Wesley Wore” is the newest title from Owlet Press written by Samuel Langley-Swain and is inspired by the prejudices he received as a child, simply for his choice of clothes.
This book is aimed at children aged 4 to 6 years old, although it is a lovely book telling a story about resilience and forgiveness which we think older children will enjoy just like our 8-year olds did.
This book is also written with a cool rhyming structure to it, which the kids enjoyed and was actually a good little learning point for us for as the kids enjoyed seeing how certain words rhymed with others.
The Storyline
The story is set in Westburrow Woods and is about a weasel named Wesley. Wesley is mad about clothes, however weasels are not supposed to wear clothes and in Westburrow Woods every weasel is supposed to follow the rules, so Wesley’s love for them creates quite a stir.
All the weasels got quite annoyed and could not understand why Wesley could just not be normal and not wear crazy bold clothes, to the point that they all started picking on him and saying not nice comments to him.
All these mean words really upset Wesley and makes him feel like he has to stop being him and stop wearing his clothes he loves so much. Wesley’s dad tries to encourage him to continue to be himself and wear his clothes, but still all the bullying from the other weasels continue and Wesley decides to move away from his home to somewhere he feels he will be more accepted.
The thing is once gone all the other weasels quickly realise, they were wrong for driving Wesley away and they fill with guilt for what they had done to him, actually realising how much they miss Wesley and his awesome clothes in their woods.
This got them thinking about how they should be more open minded about being different and they try wearing some of Weasleys old clothes, to see what it was like and guess what they like it!
Wesley uniqueness helped Westburrow Woods to become a happier place and he was able to return and happily visit his Dad.
The Illustrations
The illustrations are by Ryan Sonderegger and are really good, the kids thought they had good detail like how the weasel wears 2 watches and thought some of the weasels looked funny and some grumpy like when they were all looking at Wesley, especially the one in the tree!
They also loved Wesley’s Rubber Ring and thought he was lucky to find matching yellow flippers for his feet
They were also a big fan of the Pink Dungarees, we too have pink dungarees lol!
About the Author
What Wesley Wore is written by Samuel Langley-Swain who is an adoptive Dad from a two-dad family, and this book was inspired by his own childhood and has given him the prime opportunity to help promote acceptance.
Sam’s world changed in 2014 when he became a Dad. It had never crossed his mind to write books before, however as a new dad, he was dramatically inspired by his children and the new universe he’d entered into and after taking his books around schools and family events, it became important to him to be able to create positive change for children through stories.
Sam’s books are all inspired by the challenge’s children face and he cleverly takes these big issues and delivers them in his books in a way that small readers can digest and discuss these issues with friends and families.
Sam has personally found his writing journey a truly life changing experience and wishes that his stories can bring joy and strength to the children who need it most.
Would we Recommend this Book?
Well we have to say that our kids all loved “What Wesley Wore”. On opening the book, it reads “For Everyone who dares to be different” and we all enjoy being different in our families and funnily enough have some pretty wacky clothes we enjoy wearing so there was an instant connection for us.
That aside this book is amazing in helping parents start conversations around bullying and getting kids to think about why people bully, and the affect bullying can have on individuals. All of our kids felt sorry for Wesley and his Dad as Wesley felt the need to leave his home, so this book worked well in building empathy in kids and getting your little ones to be more accepting of different points of view.
We have already read this book several times now and can see it be it one that will be read much more times and therefore we would definitely recommend it as a good read for other families.
What Wesley Wore is brand new out released on 25th May 2019 and you can order your own copy at Waterstones as well as Amazon for £7.99
