8 June 2022 TEN OWIES by Tony Johnston and Annabel Tempest, ill., HarperCollins/Greenwillow, June 2022, 40p., ISBN: 978-0-06-264460-2

“Yowie, Zowie! I've got an owie!

Owie! Owie! Ouch, ouch, ouch!”

–learned at a long-ago, early childhood workshop

True story: So, I was in Whole Foods the other day, and the pineapples were on sale. I saw a big, juicy one toward the back of the pile, but when I reached out to grab it, a sharp, pointy leaf in its crown sliced my finger. It didn’t bleed, but it really, really stung. Owie!

“Anita picked some posies.

She picked a pink sweet pea.

She chose a rose

and–uh-oh–

got stingered by a bee.

FIVE OWIES”

We love sharing our tales of woe, especially young children at a circle or sharing time. The rhythmic and rollicking TEN OWIES by Tony Johnston features a catchy series of rhymes about the delightful variety of owies that befall ten kids in the book.

You could easily read this book on a monthly basis, and the kids will be forever ready and excited to recount their own latest experiences with scrapes, bangs, bites, itches, sprains, or hair pulls.  And err...I guess plenty of us grownups with our own aches and pains like to talk about the same things too.

TEN OWIES will reassure kids that occasional pains are just a normal part of life and will go away. Talking about owies may make them less scary.

I would follow up by encouraging them to illustrate their owie experiences. Older kids might even try writing a verse about themselves in the same A-B-C-B pattern.

Richie Partington, MLIS

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