Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

Wow there is so much hidden in the layers of this story. We read it through recommendation of Sonlight P 3/4 in [b:The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury: Celebrated Picture Books and Stories to Read Aloud 238068 The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury Celebrated Picture Books and Stories to Read Aloud Janet Schulman https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1411333628s/238068.jpg 230604] and I can tell that some pictures must have been left on in this condenced version but it still works well. Although I wouldn't mind an individual copy.Reprinted and/or excerpt included in [b:The 20th-Century Children's Book Treasury: Picture Books and Stories to Read Aloud 238068 The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury Celebrated Picture Books and Stories to Read Aloud Janet Schulman https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1411333628s/238068.jpg 230604].Update – Own little book copy. Paperback size of chick-fil-a books, no ISBN.

Sylvester finds a beautiful red pebble, and he soon learns that the pebble will grant wishes. Suddenly Sylvester is confronted with a lion. Sylvester is so frightened that he wishes he were a rock, and he is. The lion, bewildered, walks away, but Sylvester is unable to change himself back into his true form, a donkey, as he is not touching the magical pebble. He is gone for a long time until one day his parents go for a picnic and his mother sits upon his rock self and wishes Sylvester were with them, and, of course, magically he returns.

I love author/illustrator William Steig's wonderful vocabulary in his children's books.

I also love this book because Sylvester, like my husband, collects “pebbles of unusual shape and color.”

I reread this book this week because of Banned Books Week. Police associations in twelve states encouraged libraries to ban Sylvester and the Magic Pebble because police in the story are depicted as pigs.

My husband assured me that he was not offended by the depiction of a rockhound as a donkey and would not seek to have this book banned because of it.