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The Important Book (Paperback)
by Margaret Wise Brown
| Category:
Learning, Education, Ages 4-8, Children's book |
| Market price: ¥ 98.00
MSL price:
¥ 88.00
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| Stock:
In Stock |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A children's book that offers children simple, concrete information that provides them with security and a basic understanding. It is ageless and timeless! |
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Detail |
Author |
Description |
Excerpt |
Reviews |
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Author: Margaret Wise Brown
Publisher: HarperTrophy
Pub. in: March, 1990
ISBN: 0064432270
Pages: 24
Measurements: 10.0 x 7.1 x 0.1 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BC00020
Other information:
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- MSL Picks -
"The important thing about rain is/ that it is wet. / It falls out of the sky, / and it sounds like rain, / and makes things shiny, / and it does not taste like anything, / and is the color of air. / But the important thing about rain is that it is wet."
Goodnight Moon creator Margaret Wise Brown's The Important Book is a deceptively simple exercise-taking familiar thing like an apple, spoon, or shoe, and finding the most basic association with those things. The most important thing about an apple? It is round. A spoon? You eat with it. A shoe? You put your foot in it. But why, according to Brown, is the most important thing about grass "that it is green," while the most important thing about an apple is "that it is round"? Why is "that it is white" the most important thing about snow and a daisy? Whether or not you'd distill these things in the same way that the author does, Brown makes us think about the essence of everyday entities in new ways. The illustrations, by Caldecott Medal winner Leonard Weisgard (The Little Island), perform the same function-capturing the spoonness of spoons, the roundness of an apple, and the motion of wind.
Target readers:
Kids aged 4-8
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Few writers have been as attuned to the concerns and emotions of childhood as Margaret Wise Brown (1910-1952). A graduate of Hollins College and the progressive Bank Street College of Education, she combined her literary aspirations with the study of child development. Her unique ability to see the world through a child's eyes is unequaled. Her many classic books continue to delight thousands of young listeners and readers year after year.
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The important thing about The Important Book - is that you let your child tell you what is important about the sun and the moon and the wind and the rain and a bug and a bee and a chair and a table and a pencil and a bear and a rainbow and a cat (if he wants to). For the important thing about The Important Book is that the book goes on long after it is closed. What is most important about many familiar things - like rain and wind, apples and daisies - is suggested in rhythmic words and vivid pictures. 'A perfect book . . . the text establishes a word game which tiny children will accept with glee.'
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P. Tripp , USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
We like this book. It may have some flaws, as other reviewers have indicated, but it more than makes up for them by providing a background for some invigorating discussions. Discussions and learning that both my kids and I enjoyed!
What is great about this book is that because the topics are about nature, my children could offer up some of their own observations. While my 3 year-old did not offer up many ideas, he certainly listened attentively as my 5 year-old and I talked about each page.
And she and I did not always agree with the book's conclusion! We decided, for example, that the most important part about air was that it is necessary for life. But that is the great thing about The Important Book. It began a dialog in which we could each have our own input and opinion.
Four stars. I think it will be interesting to read this book every year to see how our answers grow and vary.
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L. Bond, Boston
<2006-12-21 00:00>
I love this book, and use it quite a bit in my kindergarten classroom. In fact, every year we are inspired to create a class "Important Book" with facts about my students. We've also made "Family Important Books." There is one thing I would change about this book if I could have a talk with Ms. Brown. There are two things mentioned in the book that are supposedly important because they are white. I teach in an inner-city school in Boston and almost all of my students are children of color. They are constantly bombarded in their lives by messages about how important the color white is, especially when related to people, in the media, in books, everywhere. When I read this book, I make it a point to challenge the author's opinion that the most important thing about snow is that it's white. I personally think that the most important thing about snow is that it is cold. The annual discussions that I have with my students about that particular page are rich with personal connections and fascinating insights. I hope you will have these same conversations with any children to whom you read this book. Cheers! |
Birdie, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
Hi, I just read the review below from the infuriated reader who said that this book talks down to children.
But once I went to a talk about children's books and they discussed this book and said that Margaret Wise Brown was not doing that at all. That the intent of the book is actually to invite kids to debate and have their own opinions. She sets up these statements on purpose to provoke and to get kids to think for themselves. She's playing with the reader because of course, how CAN you say that a daisy is important 'because it is white'? It's also yellow in the middle, and has petals, or whatever. Same with an apple. She says it's important because 'it is round' but what about because it's sweet? Or juicy? The whole joke is that she's announcing 'what's important' about something in order to invite thought and prompt argument. Her other stories reveal too much depth for her to have really been trying to control kids' minds with the 'important book.'
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A reader, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
We use this selection to teach the concept of the main idea. I start the entire year off using this book. I read the book aloud to the students. We discuss each aspect of the important or the main idea of each subject. After completing the book we then write a page about ourselves. Example: The important thing about Ellis is that he is a toehead, he loves computer games, he plays with his trucks and he always wears Carharts, but the important thing about Ellis is that he is a toehead. Ellis is a student that has the whitest hair you have ever seen...everyone always says something to him about his "toehead". The children (usually third graders) each do their own page and we publish our book for the classroom. We try to have this completed by our open house. The parents really enjoy it and they get to know their children's classmates in a special way. Just a thought. |
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