When school begins the children bring gifts of "cinnamon tea, lace handkerchiefs, and heart-shaped boxes of potpourri" for their teacher. Well, some of them do but Velvet, the new girl, brings "an egg carton filled with seven rocks, her favorite red shoelaces, and half a sparrow's egg."
Clearly Velvet is odd. Or is she?
As the days go by, Velvet just seems odder and odder. Instead of dolls that wet and cry, Velvet brings a milkweed pod for show and tell. Velvet is different and "no one wanted to be different the way Velvet was different."
Surrounded by unwritten rules, these children are coloring inside the lines and trying to fit in. Velvet is free to be the child she was born to be. She is having a childhood that is about simply being yourself and expressing yourself.
Turns out every child has something uniquely special and wonderful deep inside and when the classmates see Velvet's specialness they are very surprised.
This is a brilliant book about what really matters in life. Read it aloud to sixes, sevens and eights to plant the truth that everyone in the classroom is odd in their own way and special in their own way too.
32 pages 978-0811820042 Ages 5-9
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com