Brave Irene

Sweet story of a little girl who braves a fierce wind and snowstorm to help out her sick mom, a dressmaker, by delivering a dress to the duchess. Particular highlights included the little girl's caretaking of her mom, and the descriptions of her trudging through the snow despite the efforts of the wind -- including the wind literally sweeping the dress away from her. I also liked the drawings, which are not fairy tale glamorous, but funny lumpy. [return][return]All the characters were white, and the "kind nobility" thing is not my bag. But this is certainly a good substitute for a lot of fairy tales.

Brave Irene is Irene Bobbin, the dressmaker's daughter. Her mother, Mrs. Bobbin, isn't feeling so well and can't possibly deliver the beautiful ball gown she's made for the duchess to wear that very evening. So plucky Irene volunteers to get the gown to the palace on time, in spite of the fierce snowstorm that's brewing-- quite an errand for a little girl.

But where there's a will, there's a way, as Irene proves in the danger-fraught adventure that follows. She must defy the wiles of the wicked wind, her most formidable opponent, and overcome many obstacles before she completes her mission.

After reading Dominic I wanted to include a William Steig book in my collection. This is the story of Irene, who decides to deliver a dress that her mother has made to a duchess. Irene’s mother has taken ill and the duchess needs the dress for a party that evening. Unfortunately for Irene, there is a terrible snowstorm and it is very difficult for her to get to the duchess’ home.

Steig’s writing once again impressed—inspired is a better word—me. His word choice (coaxed, whirled, woe) is of course perfect. But I was also taken with his sentence structure. Steig knows how to tell a story. One example is near the beginning when Mrs. Bobbin, Irene’s mother, is trying to dissuade her from making the trek. “It’s cold out show more there, and windy,” she says. The addition of “add windy” after a comma at the end of the sentence is unusual and more complex syntax than is ordinarily found in many children’s books. Its effect is the give the character and the book voice and it just sounds better! Another example of Steig’s complexity is this sentence: “Then—oh, woe!—the box was wrenched from her mittened grasp and sent bumbling along in the snow.” Here we find words such as woe, grasp, and bumbling along with the insertion of an exclamation (showing Irene’s emotion) within a declarative sentence. Wow! This is the kind of writing I think we should all be privy to reading. Perhaps my favorite line in the book is on the penultimate page when Steig most directly assumes the role of storyteller and asks his reader, “Would you like to hear the rest?”

I want preservice teachers to revel in this book’s writing and then I want them to talk about what examples of great writing it yields they might lift within a writing workshop. How would they distill its brilliance into examples for minilessons? And how would they do so while still maintaining the book as a piece of wonderful literature, first to be enjoyed? I think there are many lessons we can learn from reading William Steig, but his books also deserve to be savored. show less

Brave Irene is Irene Bobbin, the dressmaker's daughter. Her mother, Mrs. Bobbin, isn't feeling so well and can't possibly deliver the beautiful ball gown she's made for the duchess to wear that very evening. So plucky Irene volunteers to get the gown to the palace on time, in spite of the fierce snowstorm that's brewing-- quite an errand for a little girl.

But where there's a will, there's a way, as Irene proves in the danger-fraught adventure that follows. She must defy the wiles of the wicked wind, her most formidable opponent, and overcome many obstacles before she completes her mission.

Neither snow, nor snow, nor more snow, nor hella snow shall keep the dressmaker's daughter from delivering a commissioned gown. It's a slow slog for Irene and me both.

Brave Irene is a cute story of a little girl full of tenacity that is not going to let a little snow storm get in the way of delivering a dress to a duchess. What is interesting about this book is that the vocabulary doesn't always seem to match the grade level, which I'd put at 2nd grade. This might look like a typical children's story, but on careful review, there are some words that don't seem to fit the level of this book; delirious and hastening just don't seem to fit the level this story would be most appropriate for. An enjoyable story, despite it small flaws.

This was one of my favorite stories that I have read. Irene wants to help her mother in any way that she can, even if it means walking for miles in the middle of a snow storm, and that shows real love and devotion. Her trek through that blizzard shows that she never gives up for what she believes in, even if it means risking her life. Irene is someone to look up to, an example for all who read this book, because she shows that we must always do the right thing, even if it means making sacrifices, for if we help people out (like her mother), we will in turn get helped out in the end (like the duchess's kindness).