Book #10 - Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

"LILLY loved school."

Title: Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

Author: Kevin Henkes

Illustrator: Kevin Henkes

Publisher: Greenwillow

Date of Publication: 1996

Genre: Fiction

Readability Lexile: 540L

Summary:

Lilly loved school and everything about it especially her teacher, Mr. Slinger. At school, Lilly wanted to show everyone her purple plastic purse and other new things but Mr. Slinger kept telling her to wait. Eventually she couldn’t take it any longer. She jumped up and showed everyone. Mr. Slinger was not amused. Mr. Slinger took her new things until the end of the day. Lilly must learn to say that she is sorry to someone that she never thought she could be angry with. This book would most interest kindergarten through second grade students.

Evaluation:

This is a very good story about a spirited young mouse who gets in over her head when her patience runs out. This is a story that definitely relates to the trouble-maker in the classroom. It is easy to compare Lilly's eagerness for show and tell to any child because kids loves to talk about themselves and show off their new things. Lilly grew a lot throughout this story. She learned how to apologize to someone who means a lot to you. 

The setting in this story shift from Lilly's home life to her school life. Both places are authentic and make sense in this story and with the characters. The language in this story also fits with the characters. Lilly could easily be a young, enthusiastic students who loves her teacher, instead the author chooses to portray her as a mouse. Lilly is quite the individual, as we learned in other books like Chester's Way or Julius: The Baby of the World. The author does a nice job of developing her character in those books and continuing the story in her very own book. 

This book doesn't use any offensive, degrading, or stereotypical language and like other Kevin Henkes mice books, it shows mice children of all colors - not just white. 

Literary Elements: 

1. Theme: The theme of this story is one that all students show experience through text; this book does an excellent job of doing so. The theme of this story is to respect those around you and if you are disrespectful to apologize. This is a hard thing for many students and adults alike to do and so this book helps to plant the seed. 

2. Alliteration: The title of this book is a great example of alliteration. The words purple plastic purse are also use throughout the book. 

3. Repetition: The author uses many reoccurring ideas and phrases in this story which makes it a good book for younger children. It allows students to focus in on the familiar parts and eventually move on to the rest of the text.

Illustrations: 

 One interesting thing about the illustrations in this book is that many of them are in frames like a comic book and show different emotions and reactions. Another thing I like about this book is that the illustrator shows the pictures, stories, and letters that Lilly write to Mr. Slinger. They look exactly like something a 2nd grader would write or draw. 

Mini-Lesson:

I would use this book to teach the use of illustrations to add to the meaning of the text. This story would be pretty boring if not for the pictures to go along with it. The author wrote this book knowing that the pictures would further the thoughts that the text express. I would have students look through this book to get some ideas after doing a read-aloud and picture walk. Then students would begin their own story about their own mouse character. They would have to write the book and illustrate pictures to further the meaning of their words.