The Most Magnificent Thing
By Ashley Spires
Kids Can Press, 2014.
Looking to tie into teaching/exploring/learning about Science, Technology, Engineering & Math?
Award-winning author and illustrator Ashley Spires has created a charming picture book about an unnamed girl and her very best friend, her dog. This girl has a wonderful idea.
She is going to make the most magnificent thing! She knows just how it will look. She knows just how it will work. All she has to do is make it, and she makes things all the time. Making this magnificent thing is anything but easy. She tries and fails and is frustrated and mad and then quits. While taking her dog for a walk, she comes back to her project with extended enthusiasm, and yes, manages to get it “right.”
This entertaining and fun book demonstrates a segment of character education and explores the rewards of perseverance and creativity. The book is dedicated “For all the little perfectionists of the world.” The girl’s frustration and anger are depicted in Spire’s detailed art, and the story offers good options for dealing honestly with a myriad of feelings. Readers are reassured that it’s okay to make mistakes. Shires also creates a world of verbs [in groups of threes] and offers opportunities for vocabulary enrichment. The girl doesn’t just “make” her magnificent thing — she “tinkers and hammers and measures,” she “smoothes and wrenches and fiddles,” she “twists and tweaks and fastens.” These precise action words are likely to fire up imaginations of those eager to create their own creations.
Not to be missed are the rest of the books in this series: The Most Magnificent Idea (2022),The Most Magnificent Maker’s A to Z (2023), and The Most Magnificent Team (2025).
Submitted by Karen Kosko
