“That night just as Sarabella was about to give up, a whale of a thought appeared on the horizon. The closer it go, the more beautiful it became. And though it was the most enormous creature she had ever seen, Sarabella felt unafraid. ‘Do you know what I think?’ asked the whale. ‘I can see what you think,’ replied Sarabella. ‘And so should everyone else,’ said the whale. ‘To share it, you’ve just got to wear it.’
Then the whale blew Sarabella a kiss before she swam off.”
(Click to enlarge spread)
Today’s post is a bit of a preview. This September (from Dial Books), readers will see
Judy Schachner’s Sarabella’s Thinking Cap, a picture book that is an explosion of color, as well as a tribute to those deep-thinking, philosophically-minded students in class who have trouble focusing, all on account of the boatloads of thoughts in their heads.
I’ve an F&G, and I like it. It’s more than a tribute to a child’s imagination; it’s a story that shows the reality of how challenging it can sometimes be for students like that to fit into the traditional classroom mold.
“Sarabella had no time for small talk,” the book opens. “In fact, she never talked much at all … because she was too busy thinking.” Sarabella, as her (similarly creative) family likes to put it, has her feet on the ground and her head in the clouds. She has “daydreams in her DNA,” her mother tells her. She comes home with report cards from her teacher, Mr. Fantozzi, who appreciates her creative mind, yet also feels the need to curtail the imaginative wanderings. In other words, he consistently notes, she needs to learn to focus.
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