Young Eli gets to spend a whole day with his eight adoring uncles—each one bigger and taller than the last, and each with an outsized personality to match, from Aman the dancer to Riz the joke teller. Even better, every one of the uncles sports his own unique set of whiskers! Short or long, curly or straight, bristly or soft, whatever the style or texture, every especially elegant beard is a sight to behold (and a sleepy-time aid for Eli as he says his good-nights one by one). With delightful warmth and whimsy, author Jehan Madhani and award-winning illustrator Rashin Kheiriyehpresent a hilarious, hirsute countdown to bedtime that will have young readers and listeners dreaming of woolly beards instead of woolly sheep.
- Books
- Kids Fiction & Indies
- Kids Fiction
- Eli and the Uncles
Eli and the Uncles
Author(s)
Publisher
Age Range
4+
Release Date
November 12, 2024
ISBN
978-1536228113
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Editor review
1 review
So many uncles... and so much hair!
(Updated: June 04, 2026)
Overall rating
3.5
Plot
3.0
Characters
4.0
Writing Style
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
3.0
Eli's mother drops him off at the house of his eight uncles for the day, and it's quite the adventure. The uncles, each bigger and taller than the last, all have spectacular but very different beards. We meet each one, and get an overview of his special capabilities, from joke telling to cooking to sleeping! They eat dinner together, and all too soon Eli's mother returns. Eli kisses each of the uncles good night, marveling in the difference in their beards, and is soon on his way home in the car to go to sleep.
Good Points
The text of this is simple, and with different illustrations, would be a much more sedate book. The brightly colored illustrations, however, really amp up the wackiness, with beards taking over many of the pages, and the uncles' activities portrayed in a very silly fashion. The variety in types of bears is rather amazing!
I was a little surprised that the boy was willing to kiss all of his uncles goodnight; I remember always having to greet my grandparents with a kiss, but there's been more talk about bodily autonomy and not forcing children to do this. The boy does it willingly, and children who are from demonstrative families or cultures won't find this odd at all.
Children's picture books tend to focus heavily on grandparents, and there's not a lot of books I have
found about uncles. I had so many uncles (20, with in-laws!) that my mother's cure for hiccups was to ask me what my uncle's middle name was; I could never get them all, and by the time I tried, my hiccups were invariable gone! It's great to see a book featuring this special family bond. Put this on a literary family tree along with LaRocca's Mauntie and Me, Tarpley's Keyana Loves Her Family, Numeroff's What Uncles Do Best, and even Lucido and Demirag's Pasta, Pasta, Lotsa Pasta.
I was a little surprised that the boy was willing to kiss all of his uncles goodnight; I remember always having to greet my grandparents with a kiss, but there's been more talk about bodily autonomy and not forcing children to do this. The boy does it willingly, and children who are from demonstrative families or cultures won't find this odd at all.
Children's picture books tend to focus heavily on grandparents, and there's not a lot of books I have
found about uncles. I had so many uncles (20, with in-laws!) that my mother's cure for hiccups was to ask me what my uncle's middle name was; I could never get them all, and by the time I tried, my hiccups were invariable gone! It's great to see a book featuring this special family bond. Put this on a literary family tree along with LaRocca's Mauntie and Me, Tarpley's Keyana Loves Her Family, Numeroff's What Uncles Do Best, and even Lucido and Demirag's Pasta, Pasta, Lotsa Pasta.
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