Mr. Peabody's Apples by Madonna

Mr. Peabody's Apples by Madonna, illustrated by the one and only Loren Long

Rating: 3.5 stars

I searched high and low for a picture of Madonna with this book of hers, just because I thought it'd be funny--but somehow appropriate--to have a picture of her on a blog about children's books.  Of course, I only have so many minutes in the day to devote to blogging to my imaginary friends about books they might never read, so I only went through the first dozen pages from my not-so-exhaustive Google search. This is the only one I can find, and it's definitely not of this book, but...I couldn't resist! 

Let me get to the book, because it is surprisingly good--though surprisingly serious.  I'll say it's for 4-year olds, but only if they are mature and ready to really learn lessons from books, and not just lessons like "share your toys" and "poop in the potty." 

Mr Peabody wonders where everyone is.

Mr. Peabody is a beloved teacher and baseball coach of a Little League team that always has a good time losing.  After a game, he walks home and passes a fruit stand, where he takes an apple.  Without, it seems to one of his players from across the street, paying.  The little lookout tells everyone that Mr. Peabody is a thief, and soon no one shows up for a game.  Mr. Peabody shows that he has an arrangement with Mr. Funkadeli, the grocer; he takes an apple after the game but pays for it on Saturday, when he picks up his milk.  The little lookout boy feels pretty badly, as he should, and asks what he can do to make it all better.  Mr. Peabody tells him to meet him at the baseball field in an hour, and bring a feather pillow.

Once there, Mr. Peabody instructs the boy to cut open the pillow and let the feathers fly.  The boy is confused but eager to win back his coach/teacher's respect, so he does it.  Thousands of feathers fly everywhere.  "Now pick them up," Mr. Peabody says.  The boy is surprised and confused and states that that is impossible.  Mr. Peabody says quietly: "It would be just as impossible to undo the damage that you have done by spreading the rumor that I am a thief."  The last picture, shown here, is the pillow, restuffed, all sewn up.

Loren Long shines, of course.  Any book he's touched is worth reading a few times, or at the very least looking at and talking about the pictures.  This isn't my favorite of his book, but I love his drawings.  I love how the cover states "art by Loren Long" rather than illustrated by Loren Long.  So fitting.

A book by a pop star.  Not a home-run or chart buster, but a good one, and I think it's a good one with which to introduce the word "rumor."  Hopefully all our kids will understand the word and the damage done by them by middle school...before they get caught in one themselves.