Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

Title: Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

Author & Illustrator: Kevin Henkes

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Awards: ALA Notable Children's Book

Age Group: Pre-K–1st

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse tells the story of Lilly, who absolutely loves school and everything about it, especially her teacher, Mr. Slinger. But one day, Lilly brings her new purple plastic purse, some shiny quarters, and movie star sunglasses. This was a rough day for Lilly. She became very distracted by these objects and, in turn, became a disruption to the class. Mr. Slinger took her things and put them aside for the rest of the day. This made Lilly very angry, and she drew a mean picture of Mr. Slinger and put it in his bag. When he returned her purse, quarters, and sunglasses at the end of the day, Lilly realized that he had left her a nice note and the snack that she was too any to eat that day. Lilly felt terrible about the mean note she left, and made it up to Mr. Slinger the next day with an apology letter and a new drawing (and a yummy snack). In the end, Lilly decided that she still wanted to be a teacher.

I will use this book in my classroom for sure! It was a cute book that offered many valuable take-aways for students. It shows an amazing example of a teacher who acts with patience and kindness and of apologizing when you do something to hurt someone.

I would recommend this book for Pre-K through 1st grade, because it is a very simple story with a lesson that especially applies to younger children. Lilly seems to be in this age-range, which I think the students will like and will be able to relate to.

A few lesson ideas for Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse...

• Reading Comprehension Worksheets: This link will take you to some great resources to use for reading comprehension activities to go along with this book. I especially like the worksheet that asks students whether or not they think it was the right thing to do for Mr. Slinger to take away Lilly's purse. This allows the students to see from the perspective of the teacher, and may make them think twice before labeling him as just a mean old teacher who likes to punish students. 
• Vocabulary Study/Journal Prompt: Another cool idea I saw was to take a vocabulary word from the story such as "fiercely". The slip of paper has the original sentence from the book and what the word means. The students glue this paper on the top of their journal page and then answer the question that has to do with the vocabulary word.