This delightful little book is full of great illustrations in each chapter that are just as beautiful as the cover. While the book only took me perhaps 10 minutes to read, I lingered over the illustrations. I believe this book will appeal to small kids for the illustrations alone, and for the silly names and adventures also. Built into the story line are lessons on various polite manners, such as chewing with your mouth closed, along with the more serious theme of bullying. I also enjoyed that the three authors are a family team in creating this story.

For me personally, as an adult in my 30s, I enjoyed how many mushrooms (delectable, not hallucinatory) that the Nibblings cooked & consumed in various ways. For each malevolent group of bullies they came across, they met the problem a different way each time, showing inventiveness and the ability to flex with the circumstances. And then there are the illustrations. I know. I keep coming back to them, but they truly are gorgeous.

If I must talk about the short comings of the book, there is only one that comes to mind. As an adult reading this, the obvious lessons in manners and on bullying occasionally eclipse the adventure story of making it safely through the woods. I myself prefer more subtlety, but this is a book written for small kids and subtlety would probably be lost on that age group.

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