One of the author's that I really enjoy reading to my daycare children is an author that lives in my home state of Wisconsin.  Kevin Henkes has written many books that we've enjoyed reading and one of them is Chester's Way.

The Story 
Chester is a little mouse who had his own way of doing things and had a mind of his own.

He and his best first Wilson did things exactly the same way and both were particular about how they did things, eating at the same time, making the same Christmas list and never throwing snowballs at each other.

"Chester and Wilson
Wilson and Chester
That's the way it was."

Everything was just right for the two best friends and then Lilly moved in to the neighborhood and she had her own of doing things too!

Chester and Wilson avoided Lilly as best they could because they didn't understand this unusual female mouse who carried a squirt gun, talked backwards to herself and waved at cars even if she didn't know who was in them.

When older boys were teasing the two young mice a disguised fierce looking cat jumped out of the bushes and scared them away.  From that point on it was Chester and Wilson and Lilly, Lilly and Wilson and Chester. .......and then Victor moved into the neighborhood.

The Illustrations

The pen and ink cartoon illustrations in this book are placed on a white background with the drawings being set in two, three or four sections on each page with the text running alongside or below each drawing.

Each snippet of illustration stands alone as each one helps to tell the story.  There is just enough details in each illustration to know what the story is saying but not so much that young children feel overwhelmed by it.

The black text is a small font that is always placed on a white background so even though it is rather small it is easily seen, even when I am holding the book up to read it to my group.

Our Feelings

I read this book quite a few times during the summer when I had not only 3 year old Cindy but also school agers Sammi (7) Dee (7) and Jake (6) and Sonny (5).  They all really enjoyed this quirky book and listened intently as I read it to them.

I really liked the characters in this book.  It was good to see these little mice with their own habits and ways of doing things and then it was good to see that they could open up to Lilly and begin doing things in a different way.  It reminds me, and hopefully the children too, that there is more than one way of doing things and because other people do things in a different way doesn't mean they are doing it the wrong way.

I think the spotlight on friendship is also a very positive message to give to young children.  This book focus's not only on the two boys that are best friends but also the way they slowly welcome a girl into their friendship and find that having another friend is okay too.

This morning as Dee was here before school she read it to our newest daycare child Dani (3) and was able to read it without having to ask about very many of the words. It is a good beginning reader for children who have developed some reading skills.  It is a book that will be listened to by children as young as 3 years and enjoyed by children up to around 8 years or so.

Nuts & Bolts

Chester's Way was written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes.

Greenwillow Books published this 32 page hardcover book in 1988 with a jacket price of $11.95 US and $16.95 CAN.

ISBN:  0688076076



This review is my first entry in to the 6th Resurrecting the Oldies Write-Off by MsMorvay, sorry it took me so long Rae!

This is also a Lean-N-Mean review coming in at 641 words.

Recommended: Yes