Day 197: Penny and Her Marble

Kevin Henkes is one of our favorite authors, so whenever I see a new one of his books on a library shelf, I excitedly check it out and bring it home right away. We just love Henkes' classics like Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, Wemberly Worried, My Garden, and Kitten's First Full Moon, and Penny and Her Marble is no exception.  It's a early reader chapter book similar in style and reading level to the Henry and Mudge series (which we also absolutely love.)   I always love Henkes' darling illustrations of his mice protagonists and their friends, and his books always have a lovely message to which I think all kids can relate.  

In Penny and her Marble, sweet little Penny goes out for a walk and discovers a beautiful, shiny marble in the yard of her neighbor, Mrs. Goodwin.  The marble is so shiny and beautiful that Penny simply can't resist.  After deciding that it mustn't belong to Mrs. Goodwin, Penny picks it up, puts it in her pocket, and heads home.  Penny admires her marble all afternoon -- it's so smooth and fast, and looks like a piece of the sky -- until she sees Mrs. Goodwin standing in her yard, right where the marble had been.  Penny hides the marble in her dresser drawer and starts to worry.  Was the marble really Mrs. Goodwin's after all?  What should she do??  

All children face a finders-keepers scenario at some point in their lives, and I love the way this adorable story demonstrates how they might handle such a situation.  Penny's reactions and emotions throughout are so real in a way that is probably quite validating to children, I would think.  I also love how the story gently introduces the idea that sometimes people can feel sick just from worrying about something.  Fortunately, I don't think my children have ever had that experience, but as silly as it sounds, I like knowing that they now know that can happen sometimes.  Who knows, maybe that will help them make sense of their own feelings someday.  It's little things like this, along with Henkes' adorably charming illustrations, that make me love his books so much.  As a Kirkus review of this book claimed, "Henkes continues to plumb the emotional world of childhood as few authors/illustrators can."  YES.  I couldn't have said it better myself (which is why I didn't.)  

The ending is just perfect and my son (age 5) has been requesting to read this story each day since we brought it home from the library.  Although it is a chapter book, there are still illustrations on each page and the text is short enough that even my 2.5 year old daughter is perfectly content reading this story.  This is also a great book for children who have recently started reading independently but aren't yet ready for books without any or few illustrations.  I was thrilled to learn that there are several other books about Penny, as well.  Needless to say, they're at the top of our list for our next library trip.

** UPDATE:  We have since read the other two books in this series, Penny and Her Song and Penny and Her Doll.  While the other two are cute, Penny and Her Marble is our favorite of the three.  **

Day 189: King Jack and the Dragon

One evening last week, I had the pleasure of visiting the library alone.  Yes, alone!  Granted, it was 7:30pm and I was simply stopping by to return some books that were due that day, but even so, my brief visit was lovely.  Don't get me wrong, I love taking my kids to the library, but that night, I reveled in my opportunity to browse the shelves in uninterrupted silence.  Of course, I still spent my whole 15 minutes of solitude in the children's section.  Where else would I be?  I knew my kids would be excited to read some new books that night at bedtime, and with a big storm on the way, I knew I would be eager to have some new stories to snuggle up and read with them by the fire.  As I passed by the first shelf, this book instantly caught my eye.  Dragons?  I'll take it!  (We're in a huge dragon phase in my house right now.)  As I often do, I judged this book solely by its cover and title, though as soon as I saw that it was illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (of We're Going on a Bear Hunt fame), I felt confident that I wouldn't be disappointed. To the librarian who re-shelved this book right at the end of the row so that it happened to be in plain sight, thank you!!!  Both my children and I instantly fell in love with this adorable story, and my daughter (2.5) has asked to read it every night and naptime since.  (Ever the admiring little sister, she follows her brother's lead and loves knights and dragons, too.)

King Jack and the Dragon is a delightful story that is bound to remind you of your own childhood adventures.  The playful text rhymes wonderfully, and Helen Oxenbury's illustrations are beautifully charming, as always.  There is a certain Where the Wild Things Are quality about this book, too, which I just love.  "Jack, Zack, and Caspar were making a den -- a mighty great fort for King Jack and his men.  A big cardboard box, an old sheet and some sticks, a couple of trash bags, a few broken bricks, a fine royal throne from a ragged old quilt, a drawbridge, a flag -- and the castle was built."  The three valiant knights spend their day fighting dragons and protecting their stronghold, until, alas, giants (of the mommy and daddy variety) come to take the wee young knights home to bed.  I love the way this story captures the pure beauty of childhood creativity and imagination, and hope it inspires both children and their parents to get back to the basics and just play.  (Never underestimate the entertainment value of a cardboard box!)  We find it particularly perfect for bedtime, but it's a wonderful read at any time of day.  The next time you're at the library, take a look on the "B" shelf for King Jack and the Dragon.  It's one great story that you won't want to miss.

Day 167: The Carrot Seed

The Carrot Seed is another one of those classic books that I have heard about for a long time, but never managed to actually bring home from the library until recently.  I absolutely love Harold and the Purple Crayon (by Crockett Johnson), and am amazed by its simple brilliance every time I read it.  The Carrot Seed, like Harold, demonstrates the beauty and power of children's literature to tell a great story in very few words.  Everything about The Carrot Seed is simple, from the text to the illustrations, but there is something wonderful about this story of a little boy who plants a carrot seed and patiently waits for it to grow.  Everyone tells him it won't; his mother, his father, his brother.  But every day, the little boy pulls up the weeds around his seed and sprinkles the ground with water.  Nothing comes up.  And nothing comes up.  And people keep telling him his seed will not grow.  But the boy still pulls up the weeds and waters his seed every day.  And then, sure enough, one day... a carrot comes up, "just as the little boy had known it would."  Nothing fancy.  Nothing grand.  But there is something about this book that I adore. Perhaps it is the simple message about the value of persistence and perseverance, or the importance of believing in yourself even when no one else does.  Or perhaps it is the simply the way this story reminds me about the wonderful way in which children view the world differently than adults.  I think the editors put it best on the back cover of the book when they write, "When you are very young, there are some things that you just know..."  The simplicity and repetition of the story makes it a great book for beginning readers, too.  I still love Harold and the Purple Crayon more, but any book that is republished in a special 60th anniversary edition must have staying power for a reason, right?  Short and sweet, The Carrot Seed is worth a read.

Day 136: The Snowy Day

Well, it's finally here.  Our first real snow of the season.  I've been quite happy about its absence up until now (in some ways, I think I'm still recovering from last winter), but it sure does look pretty covering all of the trees and branches outside.  Early this morning, long before the sun came up in the sky, I woke to the sound of the snow plow going down our street.  As I looked toward our windows, I could see the faint orange flashing of the plow's lights passing by, then again a few minutes later as it returned to plow the other side of the street.  Although still half asleep, I was reminded about how much I loved hearing that sound as a child, and how upon hearing it, I would immediately turn on the radio to listen for school closings and delays.  I'd stay snuggled up under my covers with the lights off, admiring the snow on the rhododendron bush outside my window and anxiously waiting to hear my town's name on the list. These days, we get a phone call if there is no school, though given that my husband and I are both teachers, we still get excited about the possibility of a snow day every once in a while.  We only got a few inches of snow over the night -- not enough to cancel or delay school -- but the kids and I have been enjoying a cozy morning inside.  When we cuddled up on the couch to read stories, I reached first for Ezra Jack Keats' classic, The Snowy Day.  This wonderful story, perhaps more than any other, perfectly captures the childhood bliss of waking up to a fresh snow fall.  Putting on your snow suit right after breakfast and heading out into the cold.  Crunching through the snow, making all kinds of footprints and tracks along the way.  Snow angels!  Smiling snow men!  Snow balls!  Who hasn't smacked a snow-covered tree, only to have a huge pile of snow plop down on his head?  And I'm pretty sure I tried to sneak snow balls into the house a few times.  I love Keats' descriptions of Peter's adventures that day, for although they are simple, they ring so true to all of my childhood memories of winter, such as the feeling of walking into my warm house and having my mom help me take off my wet socks.  His illustrations are brilliant, too, and earned this book the Caldecott Medal in 1963.  I just love the cutout collage-style, the contrast of the colors, the swirling clouds in the sky as Peter slides down a mountain of snow.  Somehow, when I read this story, I feel warm and happy and cozy all over, even though I'm thinking about how much fun it is to play in the snow.  I'm sure later, we'll be doing much the same thing as Peter, bundling up to go explore and enjoying the excitement of the year's first proper snowfall.  If you've ever experienced snow yourself, you'll immediately appreciate and love this book.  If you haven't, reading it will give you a glimpse of what it is like to wake up to snowy day.  I have a feeling we'll be reading this book even more now that a white winter has officially arrived.  The Snowy Day is one classic that is not to be missed.