We borrowed a wonderful book from a friend this week — her old, hardcover copy of The Real Hole by Beverly Cleary, illustrated by Mary Stevens. It’s out in print now but with a different illustrator — my guess, mainly to update the 1960 illustrations. (Personally, I find the fins on the back of Dad’s car, the hat that the dad wears to go out, and the mother’s apron and skirt charmingly antique, and why can’t a story be set in 1960?!? why?) Maybe you can find the old one if you look around; maybe the new illustrations are good, too. I don’t know.
If you have a little boy at home, and are looking for a good realistic storybook about a little boy, this will fit the bill. The premise: Four-year-old Jimmy likes to do real things with real tools, and one day he is given a real (but small) shovel and sets out to dig a real hole in the yard. By the end of the day it’s a bigger hole than his parents thought he could dig, and they have to think of something to do with it.
I like it because it simply and without preaching tells a story of a still-very-small boy who works hard at something he wants to do and accomplishes something unexpected, something that turns out to be useful and beautiful for the whole family. I like it because the little boys in my life have also loved real tools. I like it because of the contrast with Jimmy’s twin sister Janet, who likes pretend things (and no, there is no implication in the story that this is necessarily a boy-girl thing, nor that there’s anything wrong with liking pretend things, it’s just that Jimmy is the protagonist and this is a difference between him and his sister).
And there aren’t very many excellent books that are so obviously aimed at little boys. Well, this is one. So check it out if you can.
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