Richard Scarry’s Egg in the Hole Book

Copyright 1967 

I’m always on the look-out for interactive board books for the youngest children.  Fortunately, these days there is an abundance of high quality books for infants and toddlers and I have a difficult time narrowing down which ones to purchase for my library.  I was surprised when I found this board book from 1967 at a used book store recently, since I didn’t think there were many from that time.  This is a great interactive story for babies and toddlers that is also, importantly, fairly indestructible.

One day, Henny lays an egg up in the hayloft. It rolls through a hole in the floor and poor Henny runs off to find it.  The egg continues to roll, past many of Henny’s farmyard friends.  All along the way, a child can poke his finger through the hole in the pages to anticipate and feel what is coming at the end.  For after the long journey the rolling egg takes, Henny finds not the egg she was expecting, but her sweet little chick, just hatched!

It is an unexpected happy ending to a harrowing day for Henny.  Hopefully she learned her lesson to keep a closer watch over her unhatched babies!

James and the Giant Peach

By Roald Dahl

Copyright 1961

 James, a young orphan boy from the English countryside, desperately longs for friendship.  He fondly remembers a time when he lived with his parents and had playmates and laughter in his life.  But there he is, stuck now with his two abusive aunts, with seemingly no way out.  One day, a mysterious man gives him a bag full of magical iridescent crystals that are sure to grant him all the happiness he desires.  James trips while running with the bag and tragically spills all the magic out upon the ground.  He again resigns himself to a life of misery and loneliness.  The magic was not all lost, though.  The crystals soaked into the ground near an old peach tree which magically grew a great, enormous peach.

The peach, which grew to the size of a house, was a marvelous way for the cruel aunts to make money.  That is, until the day it fell off the tree and rolled over the aunts, flattening them dead.  Little did anyone know that just before that happened, James had entered into the peach through a tunnel and was firmly in the middle of the pit as it rolled away. 

What James found in the peach was his dream come true, for sitting inside that peach house was a group of friends.  They happened to be giant talking insects, some even larger than James, but they were friends nonetheless.  Giant Grasshopper, Ladybug, Centipede, Earthworm, Glow-worm, Spider, and Silkworm made for a diverse, sometimes argumentative, but all around supportive family group.  They had many harrowing adventures, travelling the world in a difficult to control peach house, and ultimately landed safely in New York City.

James and the Giant Peach gives an important lesson for today.  Diversity is a wonderful thing!  James and his diverse group of friends accepted each other, relied on each other’s different strengths and talents, and lived together peacefully as friends.  Without relying on each other, they would have surely died on their journey.  Banded together, they formed a strong alliance that was able to overcome all obstacles.

When the Wind Blew

By Margaret Wise Brown

Pictures by Geoffrey Hayes

Copyright 1937

Margaret Wise Brown is best known for the classic children’s books, Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny.  Her books have pleasant, soothing text and a simple storyline.  The author had extensive education in child development and education and seemed to have an intuitive understanding of a child’s thoughts and feelings. 

When the Wind Blew was her very first book for children.  It is the simple story of an old woman who lived all alone, very happily, by the sea.  She wasn’t lonely though, because of her 17 cats and one little kitten.  Each day, she milked her cow so she and the cats could have fresh milk for breakfast.  She washed all their dishes, put them out to dry, and then went out in the sunshine to watch her cats.  One day, the wind began to blow so hard that the little old lady carried all 17 cats and one kitten inside her little house so they could nap by the fire.  It was then that her tooth began to ache.  The poor old lady had no medicine, no dentist, and no one to help her.  She didn’t even have a hot water bottle.  She curled up in her bed, cold and sad, with the wind tearing through the cracks in her house.  

But then, suddenly, she heard a little purr and felt something soft and warm against her cheek.  It was as warm as a hot water bottle.  What could it be?  It was the little kitten, curled up cozily against her face and purring gently into her ear.  Soon, even though the wind continued to howl, the little house became warmer and the little old lady’s toothache went away.

This lovely story of a contented “cat lady” shows the companionship and healing a pet can bring to a lonely person’s life.

Anastasia Krupnik

By Lois Lowry

Copyright 1979

Anastasia Krupnick is a strong, smart, original 10 year old girl, caught in that often painful spot between childhood and adulthood.  She keeps a private list of her likes and dislikes and often changes her mind about which side people and things are on.  

Her parents move back and forth between the two lists, depending on the day.  When they have the audacity to announce to Anastasia that they are going to have a new baby, she is appalled and lets them know it.  Then, when they tell her she can have the honor of naming the new baby, she secretly decides upon One-Ball Reilly and adds babies to her growing list of dislikes.  However, her parents move back to the list of likes when her father soothes her hurt feelings after she receives an F on a poem she wrote for a school project. With her father being a poet himself, she works extra hard on the project and proudly recites her lovely poem to the class. Her teacher scolds her for the lack of rhyme and in front of the whole class writes a big red F on the paper.  A wonderful moment in the book happens when her father, after reading the poem, changes the F to Fabulous.

Her grandma begins on the likes list, but is crossed off.  Anastasia’s grandma is very old and in a nursing home and often doesn’t know who her granddaughter is.  Anastasia feels very uncomfortable around her grandma and doesn’t like visiting her.  As she matures over the course of the book, she begins to feel compassion for her grandma and the losses she has endured.  The evolution of the relationship between the two is very touching, and by the end of the story, Grandma is firmly back on the likes list.

Anastasia is growing up and that means leaving her selfishness behind.  It means seeing the world from someone else’s point of view and having compassion for them.  It means taking the time to fully understand something before passing judgement.  By the end of the story, her heart has expanded and babies have been written onto the likes list.  And fortunately for her new baby brother, Anastasia has changed her mind about the name One-Ball Reilly!