CCBC booklist are compiled from books we have recommended in various editions of CCBC Choices. Most of these booklists are updated annually. You can also select books from one or more booklists to create a custom list, which can also include additional books from the CCBC-Recommended Book Search.
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The Most Magnificent Thing
CCBC Review:
A girl has a vision of the most magnificent thing and sets to work making her idea a reality. “The girl saws and glues and adjusts … She twists and tweaks and fastens.” But her creation is all wrong. So she starts over. And over. And over. Nothing she makes is as magnificent as the vision she had in her head. Frustration ensues. Then a tiny little tantrum (“She SMASHES pieces into shapes. She JAMS parts together. She PUMMELS the little bits in … Her hands feel too BIG to work and her brain is too full of all the not-right things.”) She and her assistant (a pug-like dog) go for a walk, and there are all her cast-off creations. As she looks closer, she begins to notice something right about each one of them. The neighbors think so, too, repurposing her cast-offs while she combines the best of every one of them into a most magnificent thing indeed. Ashley Spires’s deftly uses humor in both narrative and art to explore the very real frustration — and elation — that comes with creativity, and sometimes just with being a kid. ©2014 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
Illustrated by Ashley Spires
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 4-8
Age Range:
PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7)
Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Format:
Picture book
Subjects:
Frustration
Girls and Women
Inventing and Inventors
On CCBC Booklist:
Literary Science 1: K-5 Mentor Texts
Publisher:
Kids Can
Publish Year: 2014
Pages: 32
ISBN: 9781554537044
CCBC Location: Picture Book, Spires
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Please send questions or comments about CCBC booklists to ccbcinfo@education.wisc.edu.