Penny and Her Marble (I Can Read Level 1)

Penny feels guilty about taking something that does not belong to her. Beautifully done.

This book is about a cute little mouse with a big imagination as she walks her baby doll up and down the street to the neighbors Mrs. Goodwins. While she is at Ms. Goodwins she finds a shiny, smooth blue marble and decides she wants to keep it since she decided Mrs. Goodwin is to old for a shiny

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blue Marble. The guilt of taking the marble with out asking sets in for Penny and she starts imagining things, her imagination makes it hard for her to sleep and the next morning she decides to go for a walk and puts it back in Mrs. Goodwins yard. Mrs. Goodwin sees that Penny puts it back and continues to tell Penny that she put it there for someone to take she had no use for it. Penny was happy and relieved that it was given to her instead of just taking it with out asking.

My personal reaction to this book was it gave a great lesson about taking things with out asking. I feel that the moral of the story was about honesty.

Extension Ideas: One could be where the students and teacher discuss times that they have done something similar or had done something dishonest. Another idea could be to act out a skit with a similar situation like Penny.

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Great book to read AND talk about with kids.

We get to see even more of Penny's world here as she begins by walking through her neighborhood. When Penny finds a marble, the temptation is too great and she scoops it up to take home. Penny's experience with guilt is very understandable, but the setup doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. If

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Mrs. Goodwin wanted someone to have the marble, why in the world would she leave it in her grass instead of just giving it to someone? Kind of weird honestly. Otherwise this is pretty good. I love that Penny's outfits are a different color combo each time with her headband matching the color of her polka dotted shirt and jumper. This remains a solid series for beginning readers.

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I love Kevin Henkes' work so much. Here is another entry into his early/easy reader series. This one discusses what Penny does when she finds a marble in a neighbor's yard and picks it up.

Such a cute story! I love how she gets excited over a marble. I love how this story recognizes right from wrong. Her guilty conscious got the best of her.

Author (Last name first): Henkes, Kevin
Title of the Book: Penny and her Marble
Publisher: Greenwillow Books and imprint of HarperCollins Date of Publication: 2013
ISBN# 978-0-06-208203-9
Price: $12.99 Grade Level: LowerEl Number of Pages: 48
VOYA Rating: 4Q 4P for Elementary

Highly Recommended

This is

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Kevin’s Henkes 3rd book about Penny. Penny is out walking her doll Rose and spots a blue marble in her neighbor’s lawn. Penny really wants the marble, so she looks around and when no one is looking, slips it into her pocket. However, Penny knows she did something she was not supposed to do and feels guilty. She feels so guilty that she is not really hungry, she does not want to make her favorite sugar cookies and she has dreams about the marble. So, the next morning, Penny goes to put the marble back where she found it. Mrs. Goodwin notices that Penny put the marble back and asks “why?” Mrs. Goodwin said she put the marble in her lawn so that someone who wanted it would find it. Penny gets to keep the marble and feels good about doing the right thing.

The illustrations really convey the emotions of Penny. Penny is such a cute little mouse that all young readers will feel drawn to her. The book is done in pastel colors. Perhaps the blue was purposely put in there to make the tone a little more somber (because of the guilt). Young readers will pick up on some of the rhymes in the text. This is a great book to use for character building. It does not sound preachy at all, but the message of making the right choice is very clear. The reader will be able to feel Penny’s guilt and it will be a good discussion starter with elementary students during a character-building lesson. This book makes a good read aloud. It would be good for a library display about character or something with a mouse theme. It is a good book for emergent readers. This book would be a great choice for school libraries.

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While out for a stroll with her doll, Penny spots a marble in her neighbor's yard. It is a shiny blue marble, and Penny instantly falls in love with it. Impulsively, Penny nabs the marble. And almost immediately, she is filled with regret and remorse and anguish. Should she have taken the marble?

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she asks herself. Has she done the wrong thing? Should she return it?

Kevin Henkes has done it again. He has dropped us right inside the mind and heart of a small child. He has bestowed on us a main character so genuine, so palpable, and so human that she might be playing right now in the house next door to us. In Penny we see a child who is all at once both self-seeking and generous, both gently naughty and deeply contrite, a child who, yes, might take something that isn't hers and yet who also has the courage to return something taken to its rightful owner. A charming little story with big ideas for small people, all told in a mere forty-eight pages.

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I think this was much better than the other "Penny" book I read. I thought the plot of this one actually had a good point, that you shouldn't take something without asking and if you do it will make you feel guilty. I also enjoyed the illustration of this one a lot better. I like how some of the

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pages had 3 pictures on top of each other showing when Penny was doing. I think this would be a good book to read for the whole class because it is fun and also had a good moral to it.

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I thought this book was great for students transitioning from picture books to chapter books. Readers have the comfort of Henkes’ familiar mouse art work and story line while being challenged to read a chapter book. Similar to his other works, Henkes creates a well-developed center character that

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is relatable to the readers at that interest level. The writing is completely reflective of Penny, the main character, and how she perceives the world from her eyes. This allows the reader to enter into Penny’s inner thoughts and feelings and empathize with what she is going through. Additionally, the illustrations of Penny and her marble interjected onto the pages helps transition readers because it provides a break in the text as well as a visual that accompanies the words on the page. This break allows them to practice their reading fluency and build confidence. This book helps readers to see that it is important to not take what is yours because it displays (through Penny’s character) that it is not always satisfying to steal. The main purpose of this book is to transition younger readers into chapter books and expose them to self-development through respecting others as you wish to be respected.

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This book is about a mouse who finds a "treasure" in her neighbors yard, and what she does about it.

I picked this book up because I was immediately attracted to the mouse illustrations. This was obviously a Kevin Henkes book. This particular book was different because the author separated the pages up into four chapters. It was a picture book as well as a chapter book. It was a cute story which I

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think really connected to children. The story was about a girl named Penny who was one day walking her doll and came across a blue marble on her neighbors lawn. She picked up the marble and brought it home with her and put it in her drawer for safe keeping. She really loved the marble, but one day saw her neighbor, Mrs. Goodwin in her yard, and Penny thought she was looking for her marble. She began to feel very bad about taking the marble and couldn't stop thinking about it. She started feeling "sick" and kept having bad dreams about it, and even started seeing the marble in her food at dinner! That next day she decided to go put the marble back on Mrs. Goodwin's lawn. Mrs. Goodwin saw her and asked her if she had seen the marble she had put out the day before. She explained "I found the marble yesterday. It was in the back of my kitchen drawer. I thought someone would love it. That is why I put it on the grass by the sidewalk". Penny ended up getting to keep the marble and she had never been happier! I think that this story is very good because it teaches children not to take things that are not yours, and if you are honest, then something good can happen! The font was broken up into short paragraphs on every page which made it easy to read, and the illustrations were all mice. I love Kevin Henkes stories because they all have a deeper meaning than just entertainment.

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This fantasy book follows Penny - a little mouse - who is walking down the street with her baby, Rose. When she reaches the the house she is allowed to walk to, Penny spies a bright blue marble sitting in the grass. She wants it so badly that she snatches it up and runs home! Once she gets there,

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Penny shuts herself in her room and begins to look at the marble lovingly. As she goes to look out the window, there was Mrs. Goodwin (the owner of the house that she found the marble at) and began to panic! Would she want her marble back? Would she discover that Penny was the one who took it? The rest of the day, she stayed with her mama; Penny helped her make cookies, which helped distract her, but her mind soon wandered back to the marble and she began to feel anxious and guilty. Penny could not finish her dinner. She slept fitfully during the night, dreaming that Mrs. Goodwin was angry with her. The next morning, Penny woke up early and ran back to the house to place the marble back where she found it, but Mrs. Goodwin saw her! However, she was very nice and told Penny that she could have the marble all to herself! The little mouse thanked her neighbor and noticed that the marble was even better now that she had been given it.

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Definitely exactly what we've come to expect from Henkes - he sure does understand children.  Especially suburban children from happy families.  And I guess the only reason I'm not rating this even higher is because it's almost too old-fashioned goody-two-shoes.  That being said, I do want to

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read the other Penny books.

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