today’s children storybook summary is

Agate by Joy Morgan Day

Illustration by Nikki Johnson

Storyline: Agate, the moose, looks at his own image as reflected in the water at the edge of the lake. He doesn’t like what he sees. He thinks of himself as a “big brown mistake”, as a “Tinker Toy project gone wrong”. While Agate is contemplating himself, he thinks that all the other animals, his friends, precious, rare gems.

The crocodile is garnet

The elephant is amethyst

And the Penguin – aquamarine

Again, Agate wonders what good is a moose with its “loose lips and knobby knees”.

Oh, but the giraffe is a diamond

And a lion – an emerald,

Eagle is topaz

And the monkey nothing less than a pearl

A bear is ruby

A porcupine is a peridot

While a hippo is sapphire

And a bat, turquoise

Agate. The moose, thinks that she needs “some polish” for himself, to shine like the others. He feels like crying, but him friends tell him that he has a beautiful heart, and he is just as precious and rare as everybody else.

At the end of the book there’s a page dedicated to the Agate stone, followed by a short description of all the gems in the book, in the order of the calendar.

Day herself is an aquamarine while Johnson, an amethyst.

Characters: Agate, the moose and her animal friends

Illustration: Nikki Johnson is the illustrator of this book. She is doing a wonderful job portraying the animals with a few stroke of her brush, in a watercolor style. The book is designed to present one character per page, in a vivid color of the very gem it represents. This is a very original illustration.

Medal/Awards: numerous medals and awards that can be seen at agatethemoose.com

How many stars would you give this book? See the votes bellow.