One Bright Penny

by Geraldine McCaughrean, Paul Howard (Illustrator)

In this clever tale, Pa gives his three children a challenge. He declares with a chuckle, "If one of you can fill the barn for a penny, I'll give you the farm and go sleep in the chicken coop!" Clearly, Pa doubts any of his children will succeed. Of course, that just makes Bill, Bob, and Penny even more determined to win. Each of the children thinks long and hard and comes up with an idea-but only Penny's plan is ingenious enough to restore harmony to the family.

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 2002

About the author

Geraldine McCaughrean is a British children's novelist. She has written more than 170 books, including Peter Pan in Scarlet (2004), the official sequel to Peter Pan commissioned by Great Ormond Street Hospital, the holder of Peter Pan's copyright. Her work has been translated into 44 languages worldwide. She has received the Carnegie Medal twice and the Michael L. Printz Award among others.

Reviews

[Kate Hastings · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book, told in folktale style. Three children are challenged to fill a barn spending only a penny. They each try a different method, and the winning solution is a surprise. Great riddle.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a terrible book. The father is mean to the point of abusiveness (and name-calling is abusive, especially when done to one's children). He also cheats on the challenge. I am so sick and tired of books glorifying and normalizing this type of bullying behaviour.

UGH! I will not be reading any more books by this writer.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Old Pa bets the children that they can't fill the barn in exchange for one penny, the stakes are high -- if they lose, it means no more pocket-money for them. Ever!

The first boy fills it with feathers, which are free, but must use his penny to rent the bags in which to haul the feathers. The barn is packed tight with feathers, and it looks like Old Pa is bested -- until he sneezes, creating an empty hole.

The second boy buys wax and makes hundreds of candles, filling the barn with light. The sight is amazing, until one candle burns down to nothing but a puddle of wax, leaving a small spot of darkness in the barn. Old Pa gleefully suggests the children will never succeed!

The last child, a girl named Penny, takes her penny to the junk shop and spends it on something she has always wanted. She takes her prize home, cleans and mends it, and sets it to work.

Eventually, Old Pa finds a bunch of his neighbors in the barn, dancing and having a wonderful time. He laughs at Penny, telling her she's a fool to think she could truly fill the barn with people.

Penny corrects him -- of course the barn isn't filled with people. It's filled with the music she's making with the banjo she bought for a penny.

Old Pa concedes the win to Penny, and everybody lives happily ever after!

Cute little fable, nice illustrations.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this story for its clever children with their brilliant solutions to the difficult problem presented to them by their own father, but I wasn't a big fan of the father himself. I kind of felt that a better story would have included the father coming to some kind of realization about the wrongness of his earlier treatment of his kids. For that reason I can't give it any more than three stars despite the story being creative and beautifully illustrated.

[TwoDrinks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found the dad in this book really annoying. He's a mean old man whose meanness would have been less ugly if it weren't for him being mean to 3 quite small children. The story's predictable but it's quite nice the way the children come up with ways to meet their goal. However, at the end, I really felt that Penny should have lamped him round the face with her banjo. Seems that his children have much better manners than he does.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure how we discovered this book, but we all loved it.

G: "I would have taken the farm, I'm just saying."

J: If Pa hadn't have sneezed, Bill would have won the farm.

Mom: I loved that the story ending wasn't just about "winning the farm" but in a very cute way, family unity.

[Katie Sicking · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was decent. I noticed that the pictures did match up with the words on each page, and it had a clever ending.

[Jolynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever little tale with a spunky little girl. A natural for predicting.