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The Most Magnificent Thing

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

Publisher: Kids Can
Publish Year: 2014
Pages: 32
ISBN: 9781554537044

CCBC Location: Picture Book, Spires

The Most Magnificent Thing