Me... Jane
A teacher’s look at why this book belongs in the Read-to-Me, Read-by-Me stage.
Why it fits Read-to-Me, Read-by-Me (for the kindergarten-ready set, between being read to and reading alone)
Little Jane Goodall watches, wonders, and dreams with her toy chimpanzee. It shows that a world-changing career begins as a child's curiosity. The final photograph lands like a thunderclap.
What makes it special
McDonnell tells Jane Goodall's origin as a childhood spent watching — the career arrives in a single devastating photograph on the last page. His minimal cartoon line, borrowed from the comics page, keeps the focus on a girl and her stuffed chimpanzee. The message lands without being spoken: your obsession is your beginning.
From the publisher
Holding her stuffed toy chimpanzee, young Jane Goodall observes nature, reads Tarzan books, and dreams of living in Africa and helping animals. Includes biographical information on the prominent…
About Patrick McDonnell
Patrick McDonnell draws the beloved comic strip MUTTS, syndicated worldwide since 1994; his picture books carry the strip's Zen brushwork and animal tenderness, and Me... Jane earned a Caldecott Honor.
A lifelong Jane Goodall admirer, McDonnell ended Me... Jane not with a drawing but with a photograph of the real Jane stepping into Gombe — a page turn he has called the best edit of his career.
Also by this author: The Gift of Nothing · A Perfectly Messed-Up Story
More from “True Stories, Big World”
This book is part of The Best Books for Beginning Readers: 30 Teacher Picks (Read-to-Me, Read-by-Me) in our guide The Best Children’s Books by Age — 120 books chosen by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX. Come see how we build readers →
Nobody paid for this review — not the author, not the publisher — and the store link above earns us nothing. Our only interest is the reader this book fits.