Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes

Even from the cover page and the first endpages, the reader knows that Lilly wants to make herself visibly known. Both the cover page and endpages are covered with stars. Lilly is the star of this book, but she has to come to realize that the attention can't always be about her. She's can't alway be the girl shining in the spotlight. This is hard for any child to understand right away, especially in the setting of school. A teacher is responsible for addressing the needs of all of his students, not just the one who considers herself the star. Lilly's loud presence, overflowing energy, and excitement for school were good, but when she brings her purple purse to class, she takes it too far and must face the consequences for her actions. Her purple purse is taken away. When Lilly acts rashly because Mr. Slinger took her purse away, Lilly soon regrets her actions because at the end of the day, she discovers a handwritten note from Mr. Slinger and bag of "tasty snacks." Lilly learns the importance of apologizing and evaluates her own behavior. Intermixed within this fun, lively story are moral messages of forgiveness, the control of emotions, guilt, and the importance of apologizing.

Besides the words from the story, Lilly's own voice comes through as blurbs that emerge from the pictures of her. She announces her thoughts such as, "I love school" or "Straws make everything taste better." These side comments add life to the story and show the random thoughts and expressions of young children, or in this case, young mice. I also liked how Henkes showed Lilly's handmade drawings that contributed to the development of the story. Her angry picture has a drawing of Mr. Slinger with the words, "Big fat mean Mr. Stealing teacher! Wanted by F.B.I." These elements create humor and further entertainment for young readers, but the picture also reveals the wrongdoing of Lilly's actions in visual form.

As an adult reading this children's book, I personally found it entertaining how kids' emotions can switch so quickly. One second Lilly hates everything about Mr. Slinger, and the next moment she loves Mr. Slinger and wants to be a teacher herself. As a future teacher, it brings into perspective the fluidity of kids' emotions. Kids sometimes speak before they think through what they're saying because of the variability of their emotions. Teachers should not take these comments to heart because students often talk and act rashly. As Lilly does in this story, she moves on to the next bigger and better thing knowing that tomorrow will be a better day.