Sarabella's Thinking Cap

PreS-Gr 2—Sarabella daydreams constantly but doesn't communicate her thoughts. Her parents, creative types themselves, don't share her teacher's concern that she needs to focus more in school. Her puppet-loving older sister suggests she "take deep breaths and squint" to facilitate concentration, but this just results in a dizzy spell and visit to the school nurse. Finally, a weekend assignment requiring students to draw their thoughts prompts the youngster to follow the advice of the beautiful whale living in her imagination: "To share it, you've/ just got to wear it." After much coloring, cutting, and pasting, she arrives at school wearing a hat containing "the most spectacular collection of doodles and daydreams." The lengthy text includes phrases like "Seeds of ideas" printed in grass and words such as "reason," "reflect," and "ponder" in a flower pot. The colorful illustrations, executed in acrylics, gouache, collage, and mixed media, depict Sarabella's daydreams in huge bubbles containing a cornucopia of objects. Her hat is so remarkable that it stretches across a spread. In humorous contrast, her cat appears repeatedly sporting the same thought: fish. This child has "a green thumb for thinking." Yet this is problematic in school where her teacher, though kind, repeatedly requests that she focus on her work instead of allowing her to learn in her own way. The scene in which she draws her thoughts reveals a distressed girl with "an upset tummy."