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208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
Though still a collection of short stories, this book has an anomaly that I really liked. One of the children suffers from "Afraid to Try"; he's shown to be a good kid, responsible and careful, but he likes to hang back and watch others do things (sometimes for a long time) before he's willing to try (if he's ever willing to try) and the other children make fun of him for it. If this were the usual, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and her magical cure would show up and help change the child's mind so they wouldn't want to do whatever-it-is anymore; but not this time. This time, the boy shows the world that all his care and attention has in fact given him a great head start for when trouble comes and, though he also learns to not hang back completely, it could be argued that it is the rest of the children that receive the cure. As one who likes to understand what I'm doing as much as possible before I attempt, I love that this wasn't shown to be a fault, but rather a useful trait!
No content issues, though some of the cures involve the kids having nightmares, there are no injuries, just words/things yelling at them.