Gifts of the Magpie

by Sam Hundley

Overview

A big-hearted bird, who loves to find things and loves to help, gets tripped up by homonyms and gets everything wrong! Will she ever get it right? Then the bird’s friends take a second look at the goofed gifts and realize that, with a little creativity, the magpie gave them just what they needed. Scrap-illustrations provide a feast for the eyes, and silly word mix-ups tickle the funny bone, letting readers discover the delights of found objects and true friends.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684462148
Publisher:	Capstone
Publication date:	03/01/2021
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD480L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 7 Years

About the Author

Sam Hundley is an American scrap artist who uses found objects that he collects wherever he goes. “Beautiful things are all around us,” he says. “And there’s no limit to what they can become in one’s imagination.” Retired after 39 years as a newspaper artist, Sam now resides in Norfolk, Virginia, with his wife, Lynndale, and their squeaker-loving beagle, Theo, upon whom Tag is based. “Theo is an amazing juggler with his squeaker ball,” says Sam. “But when it rolls under the couch, he howls like a baby until I retrieve it!” (See a photo of Theo on the following page.) Sam’s first children’s book, Gifts of the Magpie, was published in 2021.

Interviews

Encourages social emotional learning and resilience by turning a negative into a positive;

Editorial Reviews

★ 2020-12-15
Asked to find specific items for her friends, a well-intentioned magpie seems to get it all wrong—or does she?

Adept at “finding things,” the magpie asks her friends if there’s anything she can find for them. Weary of winter, the goat asks for “spring!” but is not amused when the magpie presents a metal spring. Feeling lonely, the mouse wants “another mouse” and is very disappointed with the computer mouse the magpie locates. The homeless hog wants “a pen of my very own” to live in, not the ballpoint pen the magpie finds. The hungry squirrel asks for a “nut” to eat, not the bit of hardware the magpie retrieves. After asking for a “pair of glasses,” the farsighted owl’s surprised when the magpie returns with drinking glasses. And the boy who asks for a baseball “bat” is terrified with the live bat the magpie tosses him. How could the magpie get everything so wrong? But with some “creative thinking,” the magpie’s friends eventually “turn blunders into wonders!” With its clever wordplay, the text humorously introduces the concept of homonyms. These are explained in a “Did You Know?” section in the backmatter while the “About the Art” section details how scrap artist Hundley assembled found objects on white backgrounds to produce the intriguing, striking illustrations, which appropriately reinforce the magpie’s penchant for finding things.

A unique celebration of playful creativity. (Picture book. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews