Kevin Henkes introduces a new mouse character named Penny for a spot-on beginning reader series.
Penny comes home from school with a song she can't wait to share. But she gets only as far as the first phrase before her mother asks her to wait until her baby twin siblings wake up. After two phrases, Papa, too, asks Penny to keep the peace. So she sings to herself in the mirror and plays with her glass animals. "She almost forgot about her song," Henkes writes. But after dinner, Penny sings her entire song, which counts up to 10 and rhymes beautifully. Mama and Papa praise Penny, then join her in performing her song. (Even the babies make their "baby noises.") Penny gets the last laugh when all the excitement tuckers out the twins.
Henkes's deceptively simple text and illustrations convey a great deal about Penny and her family. Even though his young heroine must wait for nearly half the book to sing her song, the author-artist shows that her parents love her. While Penny waits patiently, Henkes conveys a child's boundless imagination and rich emotional life. He gives newly independent readers two chapters to encourage a sense of accomplishment, and the last line of the first chapter resonates with the final line of the book. Just as Penny feels a sense of accomplishment and joy in the creation and performance of her very own song, so will newly independent readers feel a sense of accomplishment and joy in the completion of this exuberant picture book. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness
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