The Bubble -- found it!

The Bubble

by Brian D. McClure (2006)

Teach your kids to read, they'll want to go to the library and/or bookstore. Take them to get books, and they'll want to bring home an armful (and drop several between the door and the car -- Every. Single. Time!). Let them bring books home, and inevitably one will get lost among the shelves, stacks, and baskets of books... 

Anyway, found The Bubble and re-read it a few times.  It's a strange little story about the dangers of selfishness; a boy hoarding his toys has a good dream of wealth and possessions turn into a nightmare as everything he tries to keep for himself disappears (even the soil gets fed up with him and takes off) and he dies trapped in a lonely bubble.  A la Ebeneezer, he wakes up and realizes the error of his ways, and we presume goes on to lead a selfless, sharing life.

Very colorful art, great facial expressions, and an important lesson taught slightly in the traditional parental threat You better share or you'll grow up sad and and lonely but with a humor that should easily connect with children.  Good for kids of all ages too, not just the little ones learning how to share toys but with middle school/early teens developing connections to society, peers, and the world around them.




Previous Post: I would like to review this book, as I said I would when the publisher sent it to me, but I cannot find it.  It is somewhere in the chaos called "the boys' room" where I dare not venture without excavation tools, one of those cool helmets with the light on the front, and someone holding on tightly to the other end of the strong rope tied around my waist...

I did read the book before youngest Son #3 absconded with it, and it's a brightly colored story of selfishness resulting in loneliness -- lucky it's only a dream!  I'll revise this review after said Son returns from school and can be tossed into the morass that is his bedroom.