Henry Hikes to Fitchburg

Care to stop and smell the roses? Henry hikes to Fitchburg is a great picture book explanation of Thoreau's message. Henry is a bear and he and a friend are getting ready to journey to Fitchburg, a town thirty miles away. Henry chooses to walk to Fitchburg and along the way will take time to look at the nature around him, the plants and animals and especially the honey. Clearly good things will be found if one takes the time to seek them out in our natural world. Meanwhile, the other fellow is trying to earn money to buy a train ticket so he does NOT have to walk to Fitchburg. According to Open Wide, Look Inside, a great blog for teachers at blog.richmond.edu, this is a great picture book for teaching economics to children. You have to earn money to pay for things including train trips. Our train traveler does odd jobs for Mr. Hawthorne, Mr. Emerson and Mrs. Thoreau to earn his dollars. But that train trip pales in comparison to the leisurely, inspiring journey on foot.