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Reviewed by Golder Hazelton for Readers' Favorite
Billy Bloom’s Walter and the Wallet offers young readers a heartwarming opportunity to examine the constructs of honesty, conscience, and the power of a good deed. In its pages, young Walter Whippingdale, mired in a bout of self-pity after a less-than-perfect day including romantic rejection and repeated misfortune, stumbles upon an old brown wallet stuffed with cash. He immediately begins daydreaming about the extensive list of material possessions he will buy with his newfound wealth. A charming, imaginative, and achingly human reversal happens on his way home when he witnesses the wallet’s desperate owner appealing to a policeman for help and realizes that his gain is built upon another’s loss. Any further reporting would amount to a spoiler, which would be anathema to such an enchanting moral object lesson.
Billy Bloom delivers Walter’s tale in a series of jaunty and sometimes laugh-out-loud rhyming stanzas, reflective of both his personal flair and his time as an elementary school teacher. This man really knows how to connect with a young audience! Tanya Leonello’s whimsical illustrations are a perfect complement to Bloom’s panache, rendering Walter, the townsfolk, and the environs of Collingsworth, Connecticut, in simple lines and a visually appealing but never garish palette. Walter and the Wallet is a sensitively rendered, judgment-free allegory, ideal for encouraging meaningful conversation about personal ethics as children and the adults who care for them follow Walter’s personal journey to making difficult but positive choices that help him to grow. Any time exploring this delightful book is sure to be time well spent.
