A Pocket Full of Kisses
by Audrey Penn
Paperback, 32 pages
Published: 2004
By: Scholastic
ISBN-10: 0439696682
ISBN-13: 978-0439686167
ASIN: 0439686164
Book Source: Bought
Rating: 5 stars
Book Description: A follow up to The Kissing Hand, Audrey Penn’s A Pocket Full of Kisses has Chester Raccoon working through feelings of jealousy when he becomes a big brother.
Mary’s Review: A very sweet and loving book touching on the issue of sibling jealousy.
Chester wants to send his baby brother back where he came from. His baby brother takes his toys, his swing, and anything else that is his. But most of all he is taking his “hand kisses” and his mother’s love. Chester is hurt and jealous and just does not want to share. Find out how Mother Raccoon solves this problem and helps Chester understand how there is always enough love to go around.
This is a very timely and clever book addressing this issue. The illustrations are beautiful.
I highly recommend it for ages 4-8.
Author Bio: I started my first career as a ballerina dancing with the National Ballet, New York City Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, and the Danny Diamond Dance Theatre. I also served as alignist and choreographer for the U.S Figure Skating Team in preparation for the Pan American Games (1973), and for the 1976 Olympic Gymnastics team. In 1980 I became too ill with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA) to continue dancing. Because I had done a lot of children’s theatre and children’s dance, and I have always enjoyed children’s literature, I turned to writing children’s books for my creative outlet.
But my writing career actually began much earlier than 1980. When I was a young girl, I had two older brothers who took great joy in teasing me.
When I was in the fourth grade, I began keeping journals of the silly things they would say and do. Then I began adding things my pets did. Finally, I began to write down everything I saw and heard every day.
When I was in my early twenties, my mother found my journals and I turned the stories into my first book called, Happy Apple Told Me. But, I learned a very hard lesson writing that first book. I learned that you don’t just write a book; you rewrite, and rewrite, and rewrite, and rewrite a book. Thirty years later, I am still learning.
My passionate advocacy for children continually molds my writing style and subject matter. I have taken my one-woman educational program, The Writing Penn, into schools, libraries, and children’s hospitals, where I shape and refine my story ideas in partnership with kids.
My favorite part about being a children’s author is meeting my readers when I speak at a school or at a store. I get so many wonderful ideas from you, and you, and you. So, thank you for your inspired ideas, and letters, and emails. Now, it’s your turn to keep a journal.
I live with my husband, my youngest daughter (who inspired The Kissing Hand ), and two dogs in Olney, Maryland. We have three children and one foster child.
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