Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue
Written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak
The PIERRE YouTube video is on the right sidebar of this blog. Carole King sings the entire book as a song.
This story is the perfect story to read when a child says, “I don’t care,” or is apathetic. Pierre answers every question his parents ask with, “I don’t care.” Finally a lion eats him up! The parents rush him into town, the doctor shakes the lion upside down . . . and Pierre falls out safely. From then on, he CARES!
Early readers could chime in with every, “I don’t care!” Children who have heard the story several times can sing it (see the YouTube video). Several of my classes from first to fourth grade enjoyed this story, although at first they were a little alarmed by the lion. This is a lesser known Maurice Sendak book. Also highly recommended, along this same story line, is Where the Wild Things Are (post book 20).
