Ten Old Pails - Hardcover

Heller, Nicholas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688124208 ISBN 13: 9780688124205

Publisher: Greenwillow

Synopsis

A boy tells how he got each of ten pails and what he is going to do with them

About this title

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 1-A young boy proudly explains the origin of each of the containers in his collection. The first was a milk pail, until it was dented by an angry cow's kick. The second is an old water pail, now too leaky to make the trip from the well. There is an ancient-looking, cast-iron coal bin, a garbage can missing its lid, a fire bucket that has been replaced by an extinguisher, and a flower-covered pail found at the beach. A feed pail, a golf-ball bucket, a sap container with a broken handle, and an empty paint can finish off the assortment. Of what use can all of these vessels possibly be? Well, with just a bit of imagination, they can take the narrator to the moon. Pleasant watercolor and black-pen illustrations depict a variety of farmyard scenes and add humorous details to the simple plot. The boy's cat and dog, found on most of the pages, become an amusing part of the story. With their cartoon style and muted colors, the pictures are friendly and inviting.
Joy Fleishhacker, New York Public Library
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 3-6. A boy with 10 pails of various types, colors, and sizes shows where each one came from; for example, one is an old milk pail that the cow kicked and dented, another is a water pail that began to leak, still another is a sand pail left at the beach, and there's even an old paint can. All this leads up to why he has collected them--to make a space suit. Putting two on his feet, one on his head, and three on to his back, hanging one around his neck, holding one in his hand (to collect moon rocks), and using one as his launch pad, he leaves the last one full of flowers for his mother, with a note reading "GONE TO THE MOON. BACK SOON." This simple saga of a kid working intently at his imaginary play features appealing ink-and-watercolor illustrations whose pleasing air of informality is well matched with the direct, childlike narration. Parents and teachers may find this a good lead into imaginative activities, a pleasant change of pace for a generation whose idea of fun tends toward the electronic. Carolyn Phelan

About this edition

• Publisher: Greenwillow
• ISBN 10: 0688124208
• ISBN 13: 9780688124205
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 1
• Illustrator: Abolafia Yossi