Kevin Henkes
Group 6
9331001 Jasmin
9331005 Ivy
9331037 Heidi
1
Contents
 Introduction
p.1
 Author
p.2~3
 Works
p.4~5
 Jessica
p. 6~8
 Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse
p.9~12
 Kitten’s First Full Moon
p.13~16
 Comparison Table
p.17
 Conclusion
p.18
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Introduction

Why we chose Kevin Henkes’s books?
Reading two to three children books per week, we gradually had explored the range of
varied children picture books.
We read the book called Kitten’s first full moon and Lilly’s
purple plastic purse, and accidentally found out that these two books were written by the
same author, Kevin Henkes. However, these two books were totally in different, not only in
style of drawing but also in design of layout.
This made us wondering why Kevin Henkes
has such varied styles in his books. Also, we are quite interested in his other works.
It was
the reason that we pick Kenvin Henkes’s books to be our topic of report.

What we did in this report
In this report, we would show you three picture books, Jessica, Lilly’s purple plastic
purse, and Kitten’s first full moon, in order.
First, you would get a short brief introduction
of each book, including publish year, ideas that author came from, whether the book carried
the prize or not, and so on. Second, after having rudimental information and comprehension,
we would analyze the character, plot, and painting.
about the story.
By reading this, you would know deeply
Third, we made a comparison chart of three books, so that you can easily
see the differences or similarities. At last, there is a conclusion for all this report.

The purpose of this report
We were so interested in Kevin Henkes that we chose three picture books from his
works for doing a research.
In order to learn more about Kevin Henkes, we look into his
works by comparing books, searching on the internet, discussing with group members, and so
on.
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Author
Kevin Henkes was born in Racine, Wisconsin in
November of 1960. He attended the University of Wisconsin
at Madison and makes his home in Madison with his wife,
Laura. When Kevin was a little boy, his parents and teacher
told him he was good at drawing.
He loves books, reading
and looking over his favorites many times.
He often
wondered about the authors and illustrators but never
imagined that one day he would be one.
A job he wouldn't trade for anything.
At nineteen,
he took his portfolio flew to New York, hoping to find a publisher. Susan Hirschman at Green
willow Books made his dream came true.
His first book, All Alone, was published in 1981.
Since then he has written and illustrated many picture books and written several novels,
liking the variety of trying new ways to fill he pages between two covers, experimenting with
words and paint and ink
In fact, Kevin’s first four books featured people. As his writing became more humorous, he
decided animals would help tap into this fun, so he used rabbit characters in Bailey Goes
Camping, in which a young rabbit is left behind when his older siblings go camping. Next, he
switched to mice in A Weekend with Wendell, and also in Chester's Way, in which Lilly
makes her debut.
Kevin's book, A Weekend With Wendell was named Children's
Choice Book by the Children's Book Council in 1986. In 1993 he
received the Elizabeth Burr Award for Words of Stone.
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Experimenting with words, paint and ink keeps his job interesting.
Now a Caldecott Honor-winning artist (the Caldecott Honor Book Owen, and the 2005
Caldecott Medal for Kitten's First Full Moon) and a critically acclaimed novelist (novels
include the Newbery Honor Book Olive's Ocean, The Birthday Room, and Sun & Spoon),
Henkes has carved out his own place in children's literature.

References
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/k6/henkes.html
http://www.bookpage.com/9609bp/childrens/lillyspurpleplasticpurse.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/6360/ref%3Ded%5Fcp%5F1%5F8%5Fb/10
2-8887362-2375365
http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/HarperChildrens/Kids/AuthorsAndIllustrators/Contrib
utorDetail.aspx?CId=16903
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Works

Picture Books
All Alone, 1981
Bailey Goes
Camping, 1985
Goodbye, Curtis,
Grandpa and Bo,
1995 (illustrated by
1986
Marisabina Russo)
Shhhh, 1989

The Biggest Boy, Circle Dogs, 1998
1995 (Illustrated
(Illustrated by
by Nancy Tafuri) Dan Yaccarino)
Clean Enough,
1982
Kitten's First Full
Moon, 2004
Oh!, 1999
(illustrated by
Laura Dronzek)
Jessica, 1989
So Happy!, 1995
(Illustrated by
Anita Lobel)
References
http://www.kevinhenkes.com/picture/picture.asp
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
Mouse Books
Lilly’s Big Day,
2006
Chester's Way,
1988
Lilly's Purple
Lilly's Chocolate
Plastic Purse, 1996
Heart, 2003
Sheila Rae's
Peppermint Stick,
2001

A Weekend with
Wendell, 1986
Chrysanthemum, Julius, the Baby
1991
of the World, 1990
Owen, 1993
Owen's
Marshmallow
Chick, 2002
Wemberly
Worried, 2000
Wemberly's
Ice-Cream Star,
2003
Reference
http://www.kevinhenkes.com/books/mouse.asp
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Julius's Candy
Corn, 2003
Sheila Rae, the
Brave, 1987
Jessica

Published in 1989

Summary
Much to her parents' chagrin, 5-year-old Ruthie has a
devoted invisible friend named Jessica. When Ruthie
accidentally spills juice, Jessica gladly takes the blame. When
Ruthie's parents plan to hire a baby sitter and go to a movie,
Jessica gets a tummy ache and needs them to stay home. “There is no Jessica,” her parents
keep insisting. “But Ruthie knew there was,” the author keeps repeating. Jessica is a friend
only Ruthie can see, follows Ruthie to school on the first day of kindergarten and then a real
Jessica appealed. As a result, Ruthie and Jessica became very good friends. In sum, this quiet,
comforting story reveals the extent to which a little girl will go to have a best friend and the
surprising moment when it comes true.

Character
Ruthie is a little lonesome girl with no one to accompany her. Therefore, she breaks off
her imaginations to create an invisible friend called Jessica. In this story, Ruthie is a dynamic
protagonist character, who is the central figure of the story.

Setting
This is a timeless tale for there is no identical time mention in the book. Therefore, this
book can be passed on time-to-time and ages to ages. In addition, this book was first
published in year 1989, and it was still a pleasant to read it.

Narrative Point of View
In this book, Kevin seemed to involve in the story when Ruthie’s parents came to say
there is no Jessica to Ruthie. Then, in that moment, Kevin would jump pout and said for
Ruthie that there was Jessica to both Ruthie’s parent and the readers. Therefore, I claim this
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book’s narrative point of view is under the statement of all knowing circumstances.

Plot
This is a progressive or dramatic Plot, and my supporting reason is that: At beginning of
the setting, we understand Ruthie is lonely. Therefore, Ruthie imagined a friend who causes
the conflict and later rising actions. Then after Ruthie was sent to the kindergarten, there
comes the climax so as the end.

Conflict
The conflict is caused by the character herself for she truly believes in what she had
imagined. However, it seemed most people are against her.

Theme
The theme of this story is about family caring and friendship. We all know Ruthie is
lonely. However, her parents seemed not to notice which later caused Ruthie playing alone in
her world of fantasy.

Style
Repeat sentence in this story is: “There is no Jessica,” said Ruthie’s parents. “But there
was,” repeated telling by the author. The main idea for the author to emphasis this sentence is
to claim “There is no Jessica in adults’ point of view, but from children’s perspective, there is
Jessica.”
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
Tone
The tone used in this story seemed little emotions like neither happy nor sad. It is a story
told by the author with little of his point of views. Therefore, the story sounds flat yet
touching.

Style of Illustration (Line, Space, Shape, Texture Composition and Perspective)
The way Kevin drew this book is much more real-life-like. I did not mean the picture is
realistic, but the things inside the picture are often found in daily life. Kevin uses lots of
bright but soft colors like green, purple, and pink to create a fancy world for children. In
addition, the lines are mostly carefully drawn but with lot of blanks along the main pictures. I
think the purpose for author to leave blanks is to leave spaces for imaginations. Besides, the
shape of each picture somehow differs. Some pictures are in a shape of ovals and some are in
rectangles. I believe it is do so to create a vivid vision for not being too ordinary.

Conclusion
I think this book was so true that it describe into all children’s heart. I believe all
children and even adult all wish to have friends that can share inner feelings with. However,
like the little girl in the story, she was so lonely that she is the only kid in her home.
Therefore, since parents are busy on their own works, the little girl seemed to lack of other
children’s accompany. Perhaps this story also tries to tell parents to spend more time on their
own kids. Besides, I believe spending a few hours with kid in having fun will make the
relations more intimacy.
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Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

Published in 1996

Summary
Lilly loved everything about school, especially her teacher, Mr.
Slinger.
All of these made her want to be a teacher when she
grows up, and so did her friends. One day morning, Lilly took her
new glittery glasses and purple plastic purse to school. She was so excited to show her new
things to her classmates that she ignored teacher’s warning to wait until recess or Sharing
Time and interrupted the class. When her teacher took away her things to keep until the end
of the day, Lilly was so furious that drew a nasty picture of Mr. Slinger and slipped it into his
bag.
As Mr. Slinger returned her purse which contains not only her original things but also
a note and a small bag of tasty snacks, he complimented on her new things.
Lilly felt like
crying after seeing the note and set out to make amends. By drawing a new picture and
writing a story about Mr. Slinger, she apologized to her teacher with a picture, a story, Mom’s
note, and tasty snack baked from Dad. Mr. Slinger agreed to Lilly’s decision which is to
throw away the old picture.

It was still a better day for Lilly.
Inspiration
Many years ago when Henkes was on a book tour, waiting in an airport.
He believes
he was in Boise, Idaho, when he spotted a girl with a pocket book just like Lilly’s.
“The girl
was driving her father crazy,” Henkes says. “It was on of those moments when the light bulb
really goes off.
I thought the pocketbook would be perfect for Lilly.
airplane and began writing.”
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So I got on the

Repeat sentence
“Wow” said Lilly/ Mr. Slinger/ her father that was just about all she/he could say.

Character
The main character is Lilly, who loves everything about school, such as the squeaky
chalk, the privacy of her own desk, and especially her teacher, Mr. Slinger.
cleaver, and brave mouse.
She is a lovely,
For example, although she made a terrible thing to Mr. Slinger
let her felt like crying, she tried her best to make up it and commit an error making apology to
Mr. Slinger.
The subordinate character is Mr. Slinger, who is Lilly’s teacher. He is as sharp as a
tack, wears artistic shirts, wears glasses on a chin around his neck, and greets the class with
“Howdy!” instead of “Good morning.” He is a special, patient, and kind teacher. For
instance, he always provided the tastiest snacks to pupils, and he was so patient to tell Lilly it
was not a proper time to show her purse.

Plot
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At the beginning of the story, we knew the setting is at school.
Lilly loved everything about school, especially her teacher.
The author told us that
The conflict is one day Lilly
brought her newly bought purple plastic purse to school, wanted to share it to her classmates,
but she couldn’t wait for the recess time; therefore, she kept interrupting the class. Thus, Mr.
Slinger kept her purse until the end of day. Following is rising action, Lilly was so sad, and
should thought, and she became angry, and she thought, and she became furious!
started to draw a horrible picture of Mr. Slinger, and drawing into Mr. Slinger’s bag.
Lilly
Before
going home, Mr. Slinger returned Lilly’s purse and made compliment on it. However, Lilly
was still mad and she didn’t want to be a teacher when she grew up. The climax is coming,
on the way home Lilly opened her purse, then found out that besides her original things there
are two more things in her purse: a note from Mr. Slinger and a small bag of tasty snacks. She
felt so sorry and wanted to do something as compensation.
She drew a new picture of Mr.
Slinger and wrote a story about him saying sorry to Mr. Slinger.
Besides, Lilly’s mother
wrote a note, and Lilly’s father baked some tasty snacks for Lilly to take to school.
Final,
Mr. Slinger accept Lilly’s apology, and joining in Lilly’s dance when she performed at
Sharing Time.
At the end of the story, it was good to see that the relationship between Lilly
and Mr. Slinger was as good as before. Furthermore, Lilly really did want to be a teacher
when she grew up.

Style of Illustration
The main painting style in this book is using cartoon art, I think it’s related to the main
character is animal, mouse. However, although the illustration is comic style, pictures are in
high coordination, especially the facial expression on the characters.
book differs from common ones.
The layout of this
It is more like icon graph but not actually is.
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Illustrator
uses watercolor paints and a black pen for the full-color art.
In color choosing, illustrator
uses more light and vivid colors to make it look colorful.

Theme
Confess one’s fault and make apology.

Reflection
This is a lovely book; not only children but also I love it so much. Readers can see
themselves mirrored in the story.
At the beginning of this book, we knew Lilly love
everything about school, and she wanted to be a teacher in the future. She pretended to be
Mr. Slinger at home to teacher her baby brother, Julius.
I bet most of children also had this
kind of experience, and I had no exception. After buying a brand new purple plastic purse,
she was so excited to share it to classmates, but she couldn’t wait for the sharing time and
then interrupted the class.
So that Mr. Slinger kept her thing until the end of day.
In my
opinion, this kind of situations was familiar to most of children and they might like to talk
about the event and the feeling at that moment.
Although Lilly was so furious to draw a
terrible picture of Mr. Slinger, she committed this error and made apology to him. I adored
what Lilly did after she made a mistake. She was very brave to face the problem instead of
running away, by make up his fault and say sorry to Mr. Slinger.
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Kitten’s First Full Moon
This book is the author’s thirty-forth book for children, published in 2004, and it is 2005
Caldecott Medal Winner.

Summary
This is the kitten’s first full moon in her life, but she did not
know what is that. Out of nature instinct, she thought that was a
big bowl of milk. As a result, she tried all sorts of methods to
reach that bowl of milk, for instance, she licked, sprang from the top step of the porch, chased
it, climbed to the top of the tree, and jumped into the pond. However, she could never make it,
poor kitten! She was so disappointed, so she went back home. Luckily kitten, she found a
great big bowl of milk on the porch.

Inspiration
Kevin Henkes has always drawn picture books for the youngest child. He becomes
interested in simple concept books. There was a book was all about circles-a ball, a bowl, a
button, a plate, and a marble, and a line from that book said “The cat thought the moon was a
bowl of milk.” The book idea didn't work, but he liked this line and it stuck with him. Over
time-several years-the line expanded in his mind and finally became the text of Kitten's First
Full Moon. Henkes secretly think of his heroine as Clare.

Characters
The main character is the kitten, and also the moon. These are protagonists. On the other
hand, the obscurities are the antagonists, such as the fireflies, the distance between kitten and
the moon, the long way to run, and the pond that reflected the moonlight. The kitten had to go
through these difficulties to get the moon.
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
Setting
From the illustration, we can tell it was a full-moon night, and the kitten was sitting on
the porch of its home.

Narrative point of view
Following the story, we can see this is an External-Omniscient-Narrator type, which
means the narrator is “all-knowing”. Because we can see from the context what happened to
the kitten and also the circumstances around her.

Plot
This story is Progressive or Dramatic Plot.
The setting is that the kitten saw the moon. The
conflict is according to her living experience;
she considered that was a big bowl of milk, so she started to take actions in order to get that.
With a series of actions (rising actions), the climax is that she jumped into the pond, due to
the reflection of the moonlight, because she saw another bowl of milk, which is bigger than
the other. She was very upset so she went home. Fortunately, she got a bowl of milk on the
porch, which is the end.

Conflict
That is the protagonist against nature, because the kitten did not know that is a moon, no
wonder she could not get the moon.

Theme
The kitten is reaching the moon, which is just like a person is reaching a goal. Although
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the process must be hard and tough, the ending would be as sweet as fruit.

Style
This book is for age three and more. The words author uses are not difficult, and
sentence are composed by two to twenty words. The author would cut the sentences in an
appropriate way in order to make us read easily. There are some repetitions such as, “Poor
kitten!” “Still, there was the little bowl of milk, just waiting.” Also, in an action that kitten
did, author used to repeat that word for many times which, makes the plot well knit, for
example, “So she raced down the tree and raced through the grass, and raced to the edge of
the pond ”.

Tone
The story includes the tones as the following:
1. Exaggeration: being a pet, the kitten is taken care by the human. There is no way she
would run so far for the moon.
2. Surprise: at the end of the story, there was a bowl of milk waiting for the kitten, which is
really a surprise not only for her, but also for readers.

Style of illustration
“From the very beginning I pictured the book with black-and-white illustrations, bold
sans serif type, a square trim size, and soft, creamy paper. I love to use color-even bright
color-in most of my picture books, but for this book color seemed unnecessary. I thought that
by keeping everything as simple and spare as possible, a better, tighter, more complete book
would result. I liked the idea of having a white moon, a white cat, and a white bowl of milk
surrounded by the black night.
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When I draw, I usually use a crow-quill pen, which makes a rather thin line. This time I
wanted a much thicker line, and I wanted the line to vary in thickness, so I drew with a
brush-a technique I'd never used before in any of my books.”
According to the author above, this is the first time he uses black and white to compose
the whole story. Henkes keeps everything as simple and spare as possible. He drew a white
moon, a white cat, and a white bowl of milk surrounded by the black night, which is a little
awesome, as if there was something danger in the darkness.

Conclusion
This storybook maintains a clear picture of what the kitten had done. Through the text,
we can obviously see what happened to kitten. Besides, through the picture, we can notice the
exact way that the things are going. With the composition of black and white, the moon and
the kitten become apparent, which we all concentrate on. Because the book titled Kitten’s
“First” Full Moon, the kitten become innocent no matter what she had done. We could
understand the as the result of the behaviors like that.
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Comparison Table
Book Cover
Lilly's Purple Plastic
Kitten’s First Full Moon,
Purse, 1996
2004
Ruthie, human
Lilly, mouse
Kitten
Family caring and
Confess one’s fault and
friendship
make an apology
Setting
Home, school
School, home
A full-moon night
Conflict
Against herself
Against society
Against nature
All knowing
All knowing
All knowing
Title, Year
Jessica, 1989
Main Character
Theme
Narrative Point
of View
Pursue the goal
Plot
Progressive or dramatic Progressive or dramatic Progressive or dramatic
Style of
Illustration
plot
plot
plot
Bright color
Watercolor paints and a
Black and white, as
Blank
black pen for the
simple and spare as
Different shapes
full-color art
possible
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Conclusion
According to the book, Jessica, although the title of the book is Jessica, but in fact, the
main character’s name is Ruthie. Ruthie is so lonely that she needs someone to play with. So
here is her invisible friend, Jessica. Her parents keep saying, ‘there is no Jessica.’ However,
Jessica insists. At last, there is really a Jessica becoming Ruthie’s best friend.
Human beings need to get along together. We can’t live along, especially for kids. They
need to be accompanied. Become a single child is very hard to overcome this hard time so
most of them would have a substitute, no matter a doll, a cat or even an invisible friend. It is
said, ‘a friend indeed is a friend in need.’
In Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, the Author wants to convey several points to children.
First, he wants kids to know that you need to share your treasures in appropriate time, should
be considerate of other people. Second, don’t judge a thing before it is not crystal clear yet;
otherwise, it is common to misunderstood people.
If you did some action to take a revenge
for this, you would not only insult someone but also make yourself into trouble or
embarrassed.
Last, since you did such a terrible thing to somebody, it is necessary to
confess your fault and make apology to the person.
Instead of running away, you should
confront the problem, so that you can make up for it.
In Kitten’s First Full Moon, the kitten pursues her dream no matter what others say. She
might get hurt, feel disappointed, sense sorrow, but the best part is all the hardworking pays
back. That is the moment she’s waiting for so long. So as us, settle down a goal and focus on
it. Try any kind of methods to achieve the goal. This is the most important message sending
out from the story.
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