November is
Picture Book Month--Yay! Thinking about some of my favorite picture books, I realized that many deal with the experience of being lost. The classic
The Story About Ping, for instance
, tells how a little duck winds up spending a scary night along on the Yangtze River before he is reunited with his family. And then there's William Steig's
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble in which poor Sylvester the donkey turns himself into a rock and can't switch back. You can't get more lost than that!
No picture book explores this theme better than
The Tub People by Pam Conrad and illustrated by Richard Egielski. When my daughter was in preschool I bought a copy at my local bookstore and had it with me when I went to pick her up. Seeing a new book peeking from its wrapper, she demanded to hear it there and then. Since we weren't in a hurry, I found a quiet spot and began to read. Around us four-year-olds and their parents milled about packing up and putting on coats. Slowly, one by one, kids drifted over, plopped down, and listened, spellbound, to the story of the little tub boy who is sucked down the drain. Until he was rescued and back safe and sound with his family you could have hear that proverbial pin drop.
As demonstrated, the power of the picture book is mighty. What are some of your favorites?
