Written and Illustrated By: Kevin Henkes
Greenwillow Books, 1996, Fiction
Suitable For: ages 4-8
Topics/Themes: following the rules, consequences
Opening: "Lilly loved school. Lilly loved the privacy of her very own desk. She loved the fishsticks and chocolate milk every Friday in the lunchroom. And, most of all, she loved her teacher, Mr. Slinger."
Brief Synopsis: (From Amazon.com Review) Lilly loves everything about school, especially her teacher, Mr. Slinger--until he takes away her musical purse because she can't stop playing with it in class. Lilly decides to get revenge with a nasty drawing of "Big Fat Mean Mr. Stealing Teacher!" but when she finds the kind note he put in her purse, she's filled with remorse and has to find a way to make things right again.
Links To Resources: Lilly Classroom Activites, Color Lilly, Lilly Maze, Lilly Dot-to-Dot, Make Your Own Purse & other activities, more Lilly activities (please scroll down past Chrysanthemum)
Why I Like This Book: Kevin Henkes perfectly captures the excitement of having something new and treasured to share with friends and the overwhelming difficulty of staying within the rules on such an occasion. Lilly's exuberance feels so perfectly real. Without preaching or moralizing this story shows the importance of behaving properly, that actions have consequences, and that it is within a child's own power to correct a mistake - that just because she didn't handle a situation quite right the first time doesn't mean she can't do it better tomorrow.
I love Lilly... :)
For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.
(And if you posted a Perfect Picture Book, please don't forget to add your link to the list below!)
Now, then, onto a couple other things.
First, the results of the contest poll have shown conclusively that you are inconclusive :) Only "No thank you I'm too busy" got only 1 vote :) Since everything else was pretty evenly split across the options, including the easy-going types who were willing to do whatever worked for everyone else, I think we'll do a contest every 2nd or 3rd month. We'll skip January to give everyone a rest, and then do one in February (Groundhog Day and Valentine's Day leap instantly to mind :)) and see where we go from there. Sound good?
Second, when I started my blog last year, I did a few author/illustrator/author-illustrator interviews along with book giveaways that people seemed to like. (Karen Orloff, Cori Doerffeld, Ryan Sias...) I'd like to get back to doing some of those because I always like meeting the creative minds behind the picture books we all love and we can learn so much from them! So once a month on Saturdays we'll have someone awesome over to chat. Of course there will be delicious breakfast items on offer (aren't there always?)
If there are any particular questions you'd like answered by our visiting authors or illustrators, please be sure to let me know! What are the things you secretly wonder about while browsing through the bookstore? I want everyone to get the most they can out of the interviews, so please don't be shy - shout your questions right out! :)
Have a great weekend, everyone! (And don't forget to post your Perfect Picture Book Link below if you have one!)
