By: Claudia Mills
Pictures by R.W. Alley
Ziggy hates track and field day, but he makes the best of it. Between races Ziggy cheers for his classmates while he decorates the envelope that will inevitably hold his gray last place ribbons. When one of Ziggy's classmates sees his artwork, she wants him to decorate her envelope in exchange for one of her blue ribbons. And so begins the best track-and-field day Ziggy has ever had.
The general rule for bedtime stories is that we pick two unread books from the library bag each night. Little Brother loved Ziggy's Blue Ribbon Day so well that he didn't want to choose anything new for three nights in a row. If that wasn't evidence enough that this book was a keeper, Dad raved about it to me too.
"Ziggy hated track-and-field day. He wasn't good at running races. He wasn't good at high jumping. He wasn't good at throwing balls. Ziggy was good at sitting still and drawing pictures."
And with those few lines, I was sold too. Self-esteem building picture books can go one of two ways in my opinion. They can be clever and heartening (like Ziggy) or they can be sappy and a little condescending.
Claudia Mills' writing is charming and real and funny. I had no problem believing that Ziggy and his classmates were real kids. Their interaction, words, and thoughts were authentically grade school, but amusing rather than silly. We all loved the pictures by R.W. Alley. The characters are expressive and colorful and compliment the story perfectly.
Ziggy's Blue-Ribbon Day gets an official BOOKSHELF stamp of approval, and I wouldn't be surprised if we find it under our tree this Christmas.
Story: 5 bookworms
Pictures: 5 bookworms
Overall rating:
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