More: A Timely Illustrated Fable About Materialism and Conservation for Children (Ages 4-7)

This book is a favorite bedtime story in our home for a great many reasons. For one, it's simple. Beautifully so! Simple quantitative language, excellent vocabulary words for young listeners and readers. Sometimes less is more and this book SO gets that. Second, it's so richly illustrated. The book really doesn't even require the words it has, the story is in the images. SO much to point out, seek, find, search and count with little readers. So many observational discussions to have with emerging readers which also makes this brilliant. Third, it features REAL species. Magpies are known for the collecting behavior shown in the book. It's been fun to explore nature with this book with my child and she's asked so many great questions.

A couple of weeks ago, my four-year-old son, completely on his own, picked out MORE from our local library. The book looked good, so I let him check it out. It wasn't until I was reading it to him that evening that I realized that this books was so much MORE than good. MORE is a concept book -- It teaches quantities, from one item to a hoard to just enough. The text is clear, simple and basic. Exactly what is needed. The artwork, however, is anything but basic. And it, too, is exactly what is needed. About halfway through this book, I realized we needed to own it. The illustrations were so staggeringly beautiful that I stopped reading and flipped to the cover to find out who created them -- Brian Lies. Brian Lies later told me that this book was years in the making, four, I think, and worth every second. I'm a former children's librarian so I could never desecrate a book by taking it apart and framing the pages, but this book sorely tempts me.

I love this book. Images are beautiful and the story is amazing in its simplicity/complexity! I like thay there are items pictured that every child has around the house. My boy would spend forever just looking at the pictures. Simple so kids love that they can "read" it to me. Im not a tiny house type person like the author but the book is not pushing that kind of agenda in an annoying way it just gives food for thought about what we have/need and how even beautiful useful items can pile up till everything is just unmanageable and unuseful. This book should be a classic and in every childs library. (Ironic lol!)

Great tale for our consumer culture. A sad magpie starts with a little gift from a friend and then collects anything that catches her eye. As she flies back and forth to her tree several nests fill up and the possessions weigh it down. Each object she collects is interesting and seems to have its own story, but the magpie becomes a hoarder. With a little help from her friends she escapes her self-made prison, and flies free and happy again. The illustrations are amazing, and tell as much of the story as the simple prose. The stark one word sentences engage the reader and convey an important moral: friends are what matter and too many things weigh us down. Post Script: geeks like me will appreciate the Magpie's band number!

Sent this to my grandson for a present and he loved the pictures (he is three years old). The message is pretty appropriate for a guy his age, too...we don't need to have it all to be happy! At least, not STUFF. Good one for toddlers who are old enough to be careful with paper paged books.

Good book for recyclers.

This book was perfect for my acquisitive grandson! The bird starts collecting more and more things until he has no room for any more and comes to the conclusion that he has too much and starts giving things away to all his animal friends. In the end he is down to two things I think it is (the book is 950 miles away with my grandson) and of course that is perfect! The artwork is excellent and my daughter said that the lesson got through to her son and they started packing up toys he didn't play with and giving them to a shelter which they now do once a month.

With vivid illustrations and few words per page - perfect for young children - this book shows a bird collecting treasures until its nest is overflowing. A mouse narrates the experience with words that employ simple math vocabulary: some, more, plenty, enough, etc. I am a preschool teacher and we use this book at school to launch discussions and activities about counting, quantity, and other math concepts.