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HEART IN THE POCKET by Laurence Bourguignon

HEART IN THE POCKET

by Laurence Bourguignon & illustrated by Valérie d’Heur

Pub Date: July 1st, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5343-1
Publisher: Eerdmans

From a Belgian author comes this utterly tender little story. “Mama Kangaroo loves her little Jo-Jo a lot, lot, lot.” Mama shows him the wind and the birds and the butterflies and the desert flowers, encouraging Jo-Jo to leave her pouch and see things he has never seen. Jo-Jo feels safe and warm in her pocket, and doesn’t want to leave. He wants to stay in her pocket forever where he can hear “his mama’s heartbeat.” Mama tells him her heart isn’t in her pocket, and gently gets him to climb up to her heart, into her arms, and then she puts him down—on the ground, outside. They chase the clouds, side by side, and Jo-Jo realizes “she will always hold his heart in her pocket.” The whole of this lovely growing-up tale unfolds in sweet, appropriately bouncy language; d’Heur’s illustrations are simple, pale washes of color landscape and anthropomorphized, lightly sketched (and slightly silly) animals. (Picture book. 3-6)