Henkes, K. (1996). Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. New York: Greenwillow Books.

Brief Annotation: Lilly loves everything about school, especially her teacher Mr. Slinger. One day Lilly was even more excited to go to school. She had gone shopping with her Grammy and bought a new pair of sunglasses and a purple plastic purse that played a tune when you opened it. Lilly was so excited to show everyone that she kept interrupting Mr. Slinger during class. Eventually she interrupts Mr. Slinger one too many times and he confiscates her purse for the rest of the day. Lilly was so upset that she drew a terrible drawing of Mr. Slinger and put it in his book bag. Lilly learns a hard lesson that night and finds a way of her own to apologize to Mr. Slinger for what she has done.

Genre: Animal Fantasy

Grade Level: Pre K-2

Readers who will like this: Kids who are learning to read, Kids who are reading on their own, Kids who has a cherished possession, kids who love animal characters like Lilly, kids just starting school, kids who have regretted something that they have done in the past.

Response/Rating (1-4): 4. A cute mouse teaches us a hard lesson learned. We all make mistakes, but learning from our mistakes is what is so important and Lilly does that in this fun, creative children’s book.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: Have you ever done something that you regret? How did you make amends for what you did?

Reading Strategies Connection: Grand Conversations (Tompkins, p. 43). The students will discuss the big idea that was brought up in the book. Students will take turns connecting to the story through their own views, experiences and other stories they have read. The Grand Conversations is primarily done among the students with the teacher facilitating when needed.