Brave Irene

Steig, W. (1986). Brave Irene. Illustrated by Wiliam Steig. Dongguan City, China: South China Printing Co. Ltd.

Brief Annotation: Irene is a young girl who is very brave. Her mother has made a beautiful dress for a duchess but becomes very ill and is not able to deliver it to her. Irene insists that she will bring the dress, but there is a terrible storm outside. She convinces her mother to let her go and she bravely sets off into the storm. She fights against the wind, having to scold it from time to time. At one point she loses the dress, and almost wants to give up. She finally sees the palace and races towards it on her sled (the dress box), where she finds the dress that was blown away! Thankfully she makes it inside and the duchess is so pleased with her new beautiful dress and with Irene. The duchess takes care of Irene for the night, before delivering Irene back to her mother. Irene was very brave and her mother was very proud.

Genre: Picturebook

Grade Level: K-3rd Grade

Readers who will like this: William Steig fans will love this one! Any student who is looking for a cute and uplifting story. It has a lot of words so the reader may need to be a bit more advanced. I think teachers would really enjoy this book during a read aloud, and I think that it would be great to do an author study on William Steig.

Response/Rating (1-4):4, Irene is a classic character. She is so sweet and loving and brave! I loved how she yelled at the wind, and how strong she was throughout the book. This story is beautifully illustrated and the story line is sweet and tender. I really enjoyed reading this book- it became a new favorite that I will absolutely share with my students and children some day.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: “Have you ever needed to be brave?”