purple book cart
  • BOOKS
  • STORYTIME
  • About
  • Contact

Waiting

10/30/2018

2 Comments

 
Picture
TITLE: Waiting
Author/Illustrator: Kevin Henkes
Publisher: 
Greenwillow Books (September 1, 2015)​
Language: English
ISBN: 
978-0062368430​
Sometimes I'm not so fond of being an adult. On days like that, I can always count on my Purple Book Cart to provide just the book I need in order to love my life again. Kevin Henkes' Waiting is just that - just the book I needed on a day like today.
Waiting is about a group of five friends who are waiting for the things that they love to happen outside their window. The pig with the umbrella loves the rain while the puppy on a sled loves the snow. The bear with a kite wants the wind to blow while the owl is the luckiest of all, because the moon that he's waiting for comes along every night.
I wish I could be more like the rabbit. The rabbit is also waiting patiently, but not waiting for anything in particular. If I was this rabbit I would be wringing my hands, maybe enrolling in more graduate school because this concept of waiting is something that grown-ups are really quite terrible at doing.
My life has been thrown a little off kilter recently with a major international move, and in this book too, not everything is smooth sailing. The visitor who comes from far away falls off the shelf and is broken into pieces. The rabbit peers over at the visitor with a tear in his eye. But there is nothing to be done. More waiting is the only option. Outside the window, some wonderful and things happen, all illustrated in Henkes' soft pastel style. It's such a beautiful book and the passage of time is illustrated so gently that it is impossible to stay sad for long. It will most likely mean something different to every child (and unwitting grown-up) who reads it. 
Children (and sometimes grown ups) can feel as though like the toys in this window, they are powerless to do anything but wait. As we grow up we are told we have to follow our dreams - we have to get things decided so we can leap along the path to success. Nobody ever thinks about the wisdom of waiting, and that things will sort them out if you give them time. Thank you Kevin Henkes for making the world a softer and kinder place with this book.
2 Comments
Maggie
10/31/2018 06:12:19 am

Waiting is so vital and something I am not good at. I’m always in a rush I will try to wait more.

Reply
Bethany
10/31/2018 07:23:16 am

Love this. Very much waiting here and no idea how long it will be. Finding lovely bits is mandatory to survival, and peace. Love and miss you immensely. Xoxo

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    An Australian who lived in Japan with my bicultural family  now living in the USA, I believe that there are more different realities than there are books to be written.

    Archives

    August 2020
    March 2020
    February 2019
    October 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015

    Categories

    All
    2015 Books
    2016 Books
    Antique Books
    Bilingual Books
    Board Books
    Books Not From The USA
    Cultural Understanding
    Japanese
    Middle Grade
    Multimedia
    Non Fiction
    Non-fiction
    Poetry
    Reading Advocacy
    Thoughtful Books
    Translated Books
    Visible Thinking
    Wordless Books

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly