Book No. 77.

There is more here, in 1993's When This Box is Full, than I first thought to give credit. And it came when I thought about what I was doing in 1993.

I was helping my little sister get ready to start school. The sister whom I used to watch Sesame Street with. Whom I walked to the playground with after school to play on the slides. Whom used to collect things with and store in our pockets when we went around the neighborhood.

In this simple story a child counts through the months, adding an item to her box to remind her of something special.

A snowman's scarf for January.

A wild daisy for May.

A red leaf for September.

It begs the question, What would you keep in a box to remember the year?


I wonder what she would have kept... and what we would have rediscovered as we explored the contents at the end of the year, when her box was full.

- Matthew

Book No. 41.

Oh, for the love of speech impediments! I was introduced to Wodney Wat when I first became a teacher librarian and it was wove at first wead!

Poor Rodney gets teased endlessly because he can't pronounce his L's or his R's. So much so that he pulls his shirt up over his head and hides himself from further embarrassment. But then along comes Camilla Capybara, a bully if there ever was one and quite a boastful child at that. But she doesn't realize what she has coming to her when Wodney's name gets selected to be the day's playground leader of Simon Says.

Helen Lester's got a lot of children's books to her credit and she recently released a Wodney sequel called Wodney Wat's Wobot, which I'm very excited to read.

If you've already read it, let me know what you think!

- Matthew