A very simple, fun and clear view about life, purpose and search for fulfillment.
I believe this book was really intended for adults. A must have! ( )

The book begins "it was missing a piece, and it was not happy." A round pacman-looking character searches for "the missing peice" (a partner to fill the void). All through it's search, the "best time of all" is when a butterfly perches on it. It finds many peices. They are too small, too big, too sharp, too square, etc. Sometimes it breaks or looses a seemingly perfect piece. When it finds "the perfect peice" it can no longer sing, and it rolls too fast for a butterfly to stop on it. It realizes that it is happier looking for a piece than having one. Beautiful story, fun simple illustrations.

shel Silverstein is such an amazing poet. And his illustrations are amazing as well. ( )

A very adult poem disguised as a child's book. I have used this in storytimes when I used to do storytimes - would always sing when the character sang and no matter who was in the audience, adult or child, they would 'bounce' along with me. Love this poignant look at finding one's self and being okay with being alone. ( )

The book which I want to be careful with forever. ( )

This book is poetry because of the way that the writing is set up. There is some rhyming and a definite rhythm to the reading of this book. Sentences are all split up and not read in the way a normal book is read. This book could also be seen as fantasy because it breaks some of the common boundaries of poetry such as creating characters, setting, and a plot. The main character in The Missing Piece is simply called it and sets out on a journey to make himself whole. The plot of this story starts with the conflict of it not being whole. It looks for a piece to fit. The building action comes through the unsuccessful attempt of trying to get pieces to fit, however they do not. Once it finds a piece that does fit, it is happy, but then cannot sing it's song, so it leaves the piece and goes off singing it's song. This is the resolution. The climax comes with it finding the correct piece, but then realizing that it cannot sing. ( )

I absolutely love this book!!! I only recently discovered it and had to read it over and over (and over and over). This is really a book that people of ALL ages will love. ( )