The Button Box

"Simple toys are best, and when they're done as well as this, simple books as well."—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

An imaginative little boy explores the many pleasures that can be found in—and made from—his grandmother's button box.

NCSS-CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies


"Chamberlain's bold linoleum cuts, with gentle color added, portray the buttons in loving detail and give the book an appropriately old-fashioned flavor."—Kirkus Reviews

"Besides inspiring some flights of fancy for readers, the book will suggest many uses to parents and librarians for games, history lessons, and puppetry."—Booklist 

Margarette "Marty" Reid was a teacher for many years and is the author of The Button Box,  A String of Beads and Lots and Lots of Coins. She died in 2015.

Sarah Chamberlain has illustrated books from Aesop’s Fables to Margarette Reid’s The Button Box. She studied under renowned printmakers and illustrators Barry Moser and Leonard Baskin, and from the 1970s to the 1980s ran the Chamberlain Press.