Owen: A Caldecott Honor Award Winner

by Kevin Henkes, Kevin Henkes (Illustrator)

Overview

A Caldecott Honor Book

“Owen is everychild” —Booklist starred review

Owen’s fuzzy yellow blanket goes where he goes, even when others think he is too old for it. Will Owen’s blanket go to school? A classic, evergreen, Caldecott Honor and Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor picture book about comfort and compromise from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kevin Henkes.

“Owen had a fuzzy yellow blanket. He’d had it since he was a baby. He loved it with all his heart.”

Owen’s blanket is his favorite possession. Everywhere he goes, Fuzzy goes with him. Upstairs, downstairs, in-between. Inside, outside, upside down. Everywhere! When Owen is about to start school, their neighbor offers advice to Owen’s parents about how to get rid of Fuzzy, but Owen foils each attempt. Then his mother comes up with the perfect plan that makes everyone happy.

Any child who relies on a comfort object will instantly relate to Owen. This is a story about compromise that speaks both to those not yet ready to let go and those who have moved on. The repetitive, rhythmic text is perfect for reading aloud and story times, and the artwork, in Owen and in all of Kevin Henkes’s mouse books, is playful, funny, inviting, and timeless. School Library Journal says, “Most children have a beloved possession that adults expect them to give up, and Owen is sure to become their champion.”

Kevin Henkes is a #1 New York Times bestselling author who has been awarded the Caldecott Medal for Kitten’s First Full Moon, two Caldecott Honors, two Newbery Honors, two Geisel Honors, the Children’s Literature Lecture Award, and Children’s Literature Legacy Award, among numerous other honors. Favorites from his body of work include the picture books Waiting, A Parade of Elephants, and The World and Everything In It, and the novels for middle grade readers Olive’s Ocean, Bird Lake Moon, and the Miller Family Stories.

Kevin Henkes’s classic and bestselling mouse books include:

• Chester’s Way
• Chrysanthemum
• Julius, Baby of the World
• Lilly’s Big Day
• Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse
• Owen
• Sheila Rae, the Brave
• Wemberly Worried
• A Weekend with Wendell
• Penny and Her Marble, Penny and Her Sled, Penny and Her Song, Penny and Her Doll (Level 1 I Can Reads)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780688114503
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/15/1993
Series:	Kevin Henkes's Mouse Books
Edition description:	1st ed
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 9.88(h) x 0.25(d)
Lexile:	510L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Kevin Henkes has been praised both as a writer and as an illustrator and is the recipient of the Children’s Literature Legacy Award for his lasting contribution to literature for children. He received the Caldecott Medal for Kitten’s First Full Moon; Caldecott Honors for Waiting and Owen; two Newbery Honors, one for Olive’s Ocean and one for The Year of Billy Miller; and Geisel Honors for Waiting and Penny and Her Marble. His other books include The World and Everything in It, A House, A Parade of Elephants, Chrysanthemum, and the beloved Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. Kevin Henkes lives with his family in Madison, Wisconsin.

Kevin Henkes has been praised both as a writer and as an illustrator and is the recipient of the Children’s Literature Legacy Award for his lasting contribution to literature for children. He received the Caldecott Medal for Kitten’s First Full Moon; Caldecott Honors for Waiting and Owen; two Newbery Honors, one for Olive’s Ocean and one for The Year of Billy Miller; and Geisel Honors for Waiting and Penny and Her Marble. His other books include The World and Everything in It, A House, A Parade of Elephants, Chrysanthemum, and the beloved Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. Kevin Henkes lives with his family in Madison, Wisconsin.

Hometown:

Madison, Wisconsin

Date of Birth:

November 27, 1960

Place of Birth:

Racine, Wisconsin

Education:

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Website:

http://www.kevinhenkes.com

Editorial Reviews

Like the kids in "Jessica" (1989) and "Chrysanthemum" (1991), Owen the mouse is a sturdy and vulnerable individual, and he is everychild. This time Henkes' droll, gentle picture book is about the toddler's fierce attachment to his security blanket. Simple, lovely words with pen and watercolor illustrations show and tell us that Owen loves his fuzzy yellow blanket with all his heart. "He carried it. And wore it. And dragged it. He sucked it. And hugged it. And twisted it." Fuzzy likes what Owen likes and bears the proof of it, from chocolate milk to peanut butter. When busybody neighbor Mrs. Tweezers suggests to Owen's parents that Owen is old enough to give up Fuzzy, Owen is terrified, but he outwits all their tricks. The blanket goes where he goes: in the bathtub, at the dinner table, to the dentist. But then comes the crisis: How will he go to school? There's no condescension or sentimentality. With a few simple lines, Henkes can transform Owen's nonchalant play into a shocked stillness, his terror expressed in his wide-staring eyes. Perhaps the most memorable frame of all shows Owen snugly enfolded with his scrappy blanket in the heavy, embracing curves of his bedclothes. Henkes' story takes us into the physical immediacy of a small child's day, and kids will recognize both the screaming anguish and the mischief.

Hazel Rochman