Product reviews for Little Owl's Book of Thinking

Little Owl's Book of Thinking is cleverly and attractively packaged in the style of a children's "Ladybird' book. The author tells us that the book was conceived on a train journey to Reading (spot the clever play on words) and that the basic idea was to present information about thinking and learning in a way that no one else has. The idea is not in fact new - The Tao of Pooh, for example, and Counselling for Toads are both based on classic children's books albeit with different subject matter. In this case Ian Gilbert appears to have been inspired by Jill Tomlinson's classic The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark - if so he has set himself quite a task in attempting to replicate the style of that wonderful little book.

Gilbert is right about the plethora of good books on thinking and learning on the market and, as he says wryly, "some of them are so good they have been written many many times'. However it does not follow that an original idea is always a good one. Gilbert has identified seven thinking skills and devotes a short chapter to each of them. So basically, Wise Owl explains that we each have a powerful learning tool (our brain), we know what to do, we need to do things in our own way (shades of Jonathan Livingston Seagull here) we should think flexibly, know our own strengths, brainstorm ideas, and be aware that our thinking abilities are deep within us waiting to unfold.

Although it is a reasonably enjoyable and quick read I found Gilbert's word plays to be somewhat irritating as though he was trying too hard to be witty ("Are you dead?' he asked curtly. "No I'm just sleeping,' replied Curtly.) There is nothing wrong with the basic substance of the book but I am really not sure quite who he had in mind as his audience when he was writing it. Little kids won't get it; big kids will probably just think it's silly.