Lizzie happily basked in the daily spotlight by entertaining everyone who would listen with her stories. However, once her little brother Marvin came along, it felt like no one but the dog had times to listen to Lizzie's any more. Lizzie slowly loses her inspiration and can't think of a story for her school assignment. And she is running out of time. This is a wonderful tale for a child with younger siblings, because they can relate to many of the feelings Lizzie experiences throughout the story. She believes she wants her little brother to just go away for good, but when he is gone for several days visiting Grandma, Lizzie realizes she loves him more than she thought. The watercolor pictures are filled with humor in their details and depictions. For instance, Lizzie introduces readers to her little brother by only showing his bare bottom crawling away from a dirty diaper.
Lizzie has many wonderful lessons for your little one. The most obvious one is adjusting to having a younger sibling. Lizzie experiences the typical thoughts of jealousy, frustration, and feeling a bit left out. However, she deals with those feelings in a healthy manner by applying herself even more to her passion of writing stories. Lizzie's dedication and creativity used for her stories is quite inspiring and can help encourage children to express themselves creatively. Finally, Lizzie learns to embrace her new role of big sister, which requires setting a good example with lots of patience and love.
My five year-old niece, Emily, just became a big sister for the first time. She's been so excited throughout her mother's pregnancy to meet her new little sister. However, despite our many warnings, she was still surprised after Sophie was born to learn that Sophie was too young to do all the things Emily wanted to do with her, like have a tea party and play dress up. Emily was feeling a bit disappointed and frustrated at always having to be quiet when Sophie naps, so when we read this book we changed the title from 'brother' to 'sister' and Marvin's name became 'Martha.' After reading the story, I asked Emily if she ever feels the way Lizzie does. She thought for a moment and said, "Yeah, I totally know how she feels. . . But at least Sophie is much cuter than Martha."
--Audra
