I love this guy. He has written one of my all time favorite kids books: Amos and Boris. There are no girls in this story (and girls don’t feature prominently in many of his wonderful books).
I am updating the rest of my post. Kim comments Steig has a book called Brave Irene (LOVE the title) about a girl who brings a dress through a snowstorm (OK, it’s a dress, probably being delivered to a princess for a ball or something, but still, this is good news and I will read the book.)
Kim also mentions The Amazing Bone, about a girl pig who discovers a magic bone who helps her escape a hungry wolf. I do know this story, and certainly a girl is featured prominently, though I do beleive the bone is the star. Pearl, the pig is pretty smart and cool, and loving, and thanks to Kim’s comments, Steig gets upgraded to one G, maybe more after I read Brave Irene.
I orinially blogged about Steig just because he is such a beautiful writer; his books are poetry, Amos and Boris especially. I do teach my kids about narrative, language, and story telling when I read to them (or when we make up stories) I tell theam “Every story needs a problem and a resolution. In a story, the problem is called the plot.” I use Steig to teach them about great writing though they just want me to shut up and read so mostly I do, they get bored when I’m talking– they are 3 and 6, after all
LOVE Brave Irene, and Sylvester is good too. Glad to know about Amazing Bone.
I have loved other Steig books: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, in particular, about a donkey who turns into a rock and his parents can’t find him so they are heart broken but never forget him. Then one day they have a picnic on the rock that is Sylvester and he turns back again and it is so emotionally joyful. Steig’s character’s often go through some real hardship and suffering (like Brave Irene). I am reading Abel’s Island to my 6 & 8 year olds at the moment. It has lots of descriptive long words in it that the boys have never heard before but it is part of the poetry of his writing and it’s lovely to read to them, especially to lull them to sleep. It is about an uppercrust mouse who gets cast adrift on an island in the middle of a stream and has to survive without all the trappings of his regular life (satin-lined slippers leather armchairs and the like) and comes to appreciate the beauty of his surroundings and the wildness of nature. He pines for his wife but we haven’t found out yet whether or not she has missed him as much. Don’t know how it would rate on the G scale
Viv,
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is so good and so sad in parts. I love it. Abel’s Island sounds great, I will order it. The wife charcater intrigues me too.
Margot
Steig is my favorite too, and there are a few good girl centered Steig books: “Brave Irene” (intrepid girl hikes through a windy snow storm to deliver a dress to a duchess), “The Amazing Bone” (cheerful pig named Pearl befriends a talking bone and with his help manages to escape a fox planning on eating her).