Owen by Kevin Henkes

Owen by Kevin Henkes

Rating: 5 stars

Owen is one of those humbling books that just impress the heck out of me. It is so clever, so well written, so full of quirky little pictures, so charming that you think MAN that Kevin Henkes is GOOD! And MAN did the Caldecott people get it right that year! If you've not read it, just stop what you're doing and order it up from your local library. Actually, this is one you can buy without reading it first. Trust me--it's that good. Right up there with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, but for toddlers and preschoolers.

Here's the gist of the story: Owen is a little mouse who is fiercely attached to his blanket, which his nosy-but-lovable neighbor, Mrs. Tweezers, suggests he cannot take to school with him. Mrs. Tweezers proposes three ways of helping Owen get rid of the blanket, but Owen outsmarts them all in cute preschooler ways. (For example, they try to take it away from him at night, a la the tooth fairy, but Owen stuffs his beloved Fuzzy down his pants.) In the end, Owen's mother has a perfectly brilliant solution of snip, snip, snipping and sew, sew, sewing the blanket into a bunch of little handkerchiefs. I don't know how Henkes makes Lorelei and me and all the other readers out there fall in love with little Owen within the first few pages, but he sure does. We are BIG fans of this book!

There are two other noteworthy things about this book: First, the illustrations are not just great, but there are a lot of them. They are interesting and chock full of little tidbits that you miss on the first, second, third, fourth....eleventh readings. So each time we read it, Lorelei finds some other little thing we've not seen before. This makes it a great book for her to read and look at on her own.

Second, Henkes obviously spends time thinking about how his books sound when read aloud. This is super important (of course) for this age bracket, and something that green authors usually miss. His great books have that sing-songy quality that have a rhythm and pattern that make them fun and interesting to read aloud. He doesn't have to do this, but it's this added bonus that makes his work--especially Owen--just priceless.

Three cheers for Owen!