Will You Forgive Me?

by Sally Grindley

Figgy Twosocks, Jefferson Bear, and friends return in a new adventure that explores the timeless and universal themes of friendship and forgiveness. Figgy Twosocks has lost Jefferson Bear's favorite scratching stick, and she's too scared to tell him. What if he doesn't want to be her friend anymore? Then Figgy learns that if you're truly sorry, friends will forgive and forget.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Health

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

I came into children's books originally as Editorial Director of a nationwide children's book club, though I had written and directed a children's play while a student at Sussex University, which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. I wrote my first two children's picture books in 1984 and was lucky enough that Anthony Browne wanted to illustrate the second - Knock Knock Who's There? It was published in 1985, is still going strong today and is one of my most successful.

Shhh! was published in 1991 and has known great success in France/Belgium in particular (close on 300,000 copies sold). It's success in the UK - it won the Children's Book Award - was hampered by the liquidation of its original publisher.

I became a full-time author in 1995 and now have some 150+ titles published, the most recent being L'Histoire du Soir in France, Belgium and Italy.

Feather Wars, published in 2003, was my first sortie into young fiction and was followed by the very successful Spilled Water, which has been published in some ten different languages and is very popular in schools as a class reader. It won the Nestle Smarties Gold Award (and I wound up being a 'Pointless' answer on the back of it!) Broken Glass came next and was a Sunday Times Book of the Week.

I'm currently working on picture books again and have plans to illustrate one of my own in the not too distant future - watch this space!

Reviews

[Rose Rosetree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Right away I feel welcomed into this book by the friendly (and gorgeous, and lively) illustrations; plus, how Sally Grindley gets the action going in medias res. That is, in the middle of the action. Very unusual to move full speed ahead like this with a picture book.

Right away I start meeting the characters, who have uncommonly winsome names, like Big Smudge and Floppylugs. And Figgy Twosocks!

Pretty soon, when asked "Where's my tickling stick?" uh-oh. Figgy prevaricates, evades, and basically, lies.

This sets in motion what we might call an educational mess.

CUTTING TO THE CONCLUSION

Learning not to lie might make a better title for this book. But I can see how some readers might prefer to broach the difficult topic with a title like, "Will You Forgive Me?"

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute story about two friends. There are a couple lessons you could pull from this book to discuss with your child: not playing with other’s things without permission and asking for forgiveness. Overall, this is a simple story to enjoy together. The character names were a bit different in my opinion but didn’t take away from the actual story.

[Gätlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it together with my son. Lovely book!

[KhiN’Millie Friesen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"He just needed to say sorry"- Khi 3

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this book because it involves a fox that misplaces his friends stick. The whole book he is trying to find the stick instead of admitting to what he did. At the end, he realizes its easier to tell the truth and ask for forgiveness than lie.

[Rae · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really get why it was the fox's fault when her brother took the bear's stick and hid it. Why is it the fox's responsibility to keep the stick safe for the bear?

[Calinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a sweet story about forgiveness and how to treat friends with honesty and kindness.