Title: Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns Too Much of  a Good Thing Is Bad
Author: Howard Binkow
Publisher: We Do Listen Foundation

That lovable bunny, Howard B. Wigglebottom, is once again learning a valuable life lesson in the most entertaining way in Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns Too Much of  a Good Thing Is Bad. It’s Howard’s birthday, and he gets to have whatever he wants for breakfast. Howard, of course, chooses a massive ice-cream sundae, and got a belly ache. His mom sent him with a bag of gum to share with his class, and Howard stuffs the whole bag in his mouth, saying “you can’t have too much of a good thing.” Howard ends up missing an opportunity to walk with the nicest girl in class because his mouth is too stuffed full of gum to answer her when she asks if she can walk with him. Then he takes too many balloons from the man selling them (mostly because he still can’t speak because his mouth is still full of gum) and floats away, only to run into a flock of geese, which pops his balloons.

More bad things happen when Howard overindulges in “good things,” until the end, when Howard is finally safe at home with his mom. When Mom offers Howard him unlimited pieces of cake and television to celebrate his birthday, Howard thinks back over the rest of the day and realizes that too much of a good thing can be very bad. The moral of the story is that it is okay to indulge in a good thing, but overindulging can turn that good thing into something very unpleasant. It’s an important lesson for kids to learn, because I think they naturally assume that if a little of something is good, then more is better, and tons of it is best. In fact, I think this is also an important lesson for adults to learn as well.

As always, author Howard Binkow captures the spirit of young children perfectly and crafts a story that they can easily relate to. I love the animated version of this book on the We Do Listen Foundation website. If you haven’t already checked out the site, I highly recommend it. You can watch all of the Howard B. Wigglebottom books as animated stories for free, and download posters or lessons to go along with them.