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Amy's Three Best Things

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Amy's Three Best Things
by Philippa Pearce, illustrated by Helen Craig
Candlewick, 2013.  Unpaged.  Picture Book

     Philippa Pearce, writer, and Helen Craig, illustrator, were neighbors, had grandchildren in common, and were both  They are also two grand ladies of British children's literature. Pearce died in 2006, and Amy's Three Best Things has just been reissued to everyone's delight.  Amy has decided she is old enough to spend the night with her grandmother--and not just one night, but three nights in a row.  Amy feels confident that she will have a great time at her grandmother's, but just in case, she takes her three best things.  When she wakes up missing her family, she takes out one thing after another:  a magic mat that flies her over her home, a tiny horse which grows up to just her size and gallops past her window at home where she sees her mother, brother, and dog, and then flies back to Grandma's house. On the last night of her stay, a small boat takes her through a rainy, thundery night to make sure everything is okay, but no one is there?  Why not?! Pearce's gentle story reminds us that home is never very far away, and that sometimes, it comes to us.

    
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