The Dress in the Window

by Robert Tregoning, Pippa Curnick (Illustrator)

Overview

A young boy longs for a dress that he sees in a shop window and rejoices when his mother gifts it to him for his birthday.

That dress! It shimmers, so radiant and red. As the boy stares at it, full of wonder, he has just one wish: to put on that dress and to swirl and to swish. He’ll do anything to earn enough to buy it from the secondhand shop, but he’ll have to hurry. There’s just one red dress in the window!

This playful and imaginative story of self-expression brims with the infectious joy that comes when a child’s individuality is met with wholehearted support and love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781947888463
Publisher:	Presbyterian Publishing
Publication date:	03/19/2024
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	764,314
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 10.75(h) x 0.47(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Robert Tregoning performed in London’s renowned West End theaters before he began writing children’s books. Robert writes the stories he wishes he’d read as a child, hoping to provide a voice of recognition, validation, and kindness. He lives in the United Kingdom.

Pippa Curnick is the author and illustrator of numerous children’s books, including the award-winning Indigo Wilde series. When Pippa isn’t painting or drawing, she enjoys walking in the woods near Leicestershire, United Kingdom, where she lives with her husband and their two children.

Editorial Reviews

"Sweet and uplifting." - Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2023-12-16
A boy saves his money to buy the perfect red sequined dress from the secondhand store.

The boy sees the dress in the shop window and immediately begins to fantasize about the life it had before. He starts doing odd jobs for the neighbors to save up for it, but by the time he goes to buy it, it’s gone. Little does he know that his mom has a birthday surprise for him. The rhyming text reads well for the most part, though there are a few clunky moments. The words and bright illustrations depict the boy’s growing excitement, but the pacing and storytelling drag. Many pages are spent describing the jobs he does and the various neighbors, who are named and reappear as guests at his birthday party. The protagonist, however, is unnamed, apparently to make sure that readers never forget that he is, in fact, a boy. The scene in which the boy discovers that the dress is gone shows him looking crushed, yet the very next page shows him smiling and serving tea, which deflates the most emotional moment of the story. With one more page turn, however, the problem is solved; then there are two spreads of the boy frolicking in his dress. The boy and his mother are light-skinned; his community is a diverse one.

Sweet and uplifting, though clumsily told. (Picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews