Books with title Every Monday Morning

A boy's imagination brings new friends into his life in Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator and author Uri Shulevitz's picture book One Monday Morning."One Monday morning the king, the queen, and the little prince came to visit me. But I wasn't home . . . "On a dreary, rainy day, a boy playing with a deck of cards looks out his New York City tenement window and begins a story. A royal family pays the boy a visit, only to find him not at home. Every day, the royals return with a grander, more colorful entourage in their wake, but still the boy isn't there to greet them.When they finally do gather in the tiny space of the boy's room, the sun appears to shine down upon the new fellowship.

Life in a tenement during the 1930s is difficult for anyone. No wonder Mama is homesick for the sunny south of Italy, where flowers bloom and the sky is always blue. Her little daughter tries everything to cheer her up, from hand stands and jokes to a trip to Coney Island. Nothing seems to work. But at Coney Island, the child wins a packet of seeds. Although it isn’t the stuffed toy she wanted, it turns out to hold a treasure. When the seeds are planted, they become morning glories. Their beauty reaches Mama, and everyone else who sees them.Based on a true episode in New York’s Lower East Side, where the residents of 97 Orchard Street cheered up their bleak homes with morning glories, this is a story with universal appeal. By introducing simple beauty into our daily lives, even the grayest of places, and hearts, can be transformed.Arlene Alda’s lyrical text is perfectly complemented by Maryann Kovalski’s marvelous art, which evokes the great illustrators of the 1930s.