Tuesday, October 13, 2015

[BOOK REVIEW] Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes





Title:  Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

Author:  Kevin Henkes

Genre:  School / Animals / Manners / Creativity

Year Published: 1996

Year Read:  1997

Publisher:   Greenwillow Books

Series: Mouse Books #7

Source:  Library

Content Warning:  Ages 4+ (Some Rude Behavior)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 



I have been reading Kevin Henkes’ books ever since I was small, so it was a great day for me in discovering an old favorite of mine when I was small. “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse” is a children’s book by Kevin Henkes that details the relationship that Lilly has with her teacher Mr. Slinger and how one event almost causes a huge rift between them. “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse” is a truly beautiful book about having a great relationship with your teachers that everyone will love for many years!



Lilly loved going to school and she especially loved her teacher Mr. Slinger who was quite an extraordinary teacher. Lilly always wanted to be a teacher because of him and she always drew pictures of him. One day however, Lilly got a new purple plastic purse and movie star glasses and she wanted to show them to the class, but Mr. Slinger kept telling Lilly that she should wait until sharing time to share her purse. But Lilly would not wait and Mr. Slinger ended up taking her purse and her movie star glasses away. Lilly was so upset about this that she drew a cruel picture of Mr. Slinger and put it in his book bag.


Will Mr. Slinger find the drawing and will Lilly live with what she has done?





Oh my goodness! This is just as amazing as I remembered it! Kevin Henkes has done an excellent job at both writing and illustrating this book about the importance of good behavior and relationships with teachers. I loved the way that Kevin Henkes portrayed both Lilly and Mr. Slinger’s relationship with each other in a positive way as they clearly care about each other and I loved seeing Lilly’s enthusiasm in wanting to be a teacher based on her love of Mr. Slinger which is a truly inspirational moment of the book as Lilly truly wants to further express herself because of Mr. Slinger. I also loved Mr. Slinger himself as he is clearly a good natured teacher who was only doing his job and I also loved the way that he was still kind towards Lilly after the plastic purple purse incident and this is a really good example of how teachers should treat students who are often upset at getting into trouble for the first time. Kevin Henkes’ illustrations are extremely cute as the main characters are portrayed as mice which makes the illustrations look creative and the images that I loved seeing the most was of Lilly in her red and white starred boots and her creative outfits as she is clearly a very intuitive character.




Overall, “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse” is a truly memorable book for children who love their teachers and who are fans of Kevin Henkes’ works. I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.




* 1997 American Booksellers Book of the Year Award for Children




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