Will I love A Sick Day for Amos McGee?

Another cornerstone of kindness is being in community. This is something I try to highlight in my own books. At its heart, this is about a community—one comprised of animals of various sorts, including a human.

Zookeeper Amos McGee spends so much time taking care of his animal friends every day. When he gets a cold, his friends know they need to step up and show him the same kind of care attention he shows to them. We’re all in this together. 

I fell in love with this book because of its sweet and simple message: caring for others is what true friendship is all about.

The animals’ efforts to help Amos when he’s sick reminded me of the importance of showing up for the people (or animals!) we care about.

I loved this book because Amos McGee was such a kind, wonderful man. When he got sick, it warmed my heart to see that the love he gave was returned to him. I really liked the illustrations, too.

Some of the story is told in wordless pages of art. I felt that the book worked well to teach children as young as two about compassion and empathy. Also, I think they’re young enough to absolutely accept all the fantasy of talking animals. 

This beautifully illustrated book struck me because of the deep caring demonstrated throughout the book. I liked how it showed that when you show caring to someone (in this case a variety of animals), it can be reciprocated in kind. I believe that love is shown through acts of kindness which this book points out to the young reader.

In his debut picture book, Philip C. Stead relates the tale of kind-hearted zookeeper Amos McGee who goes out of his way to care for his charges in ways that are special to them: running races with the tortoise, keeping the shy penguin company, and reading bedtime stories to the owl. But it isn’t until Amos is too sick to go to work that his animal friends band together and show him how much they care. As a picture book author, I was delighted when Snead’s gentle, lyrical writing earned the 2011 Bank Street—Best Children’s Book of the Year award… show more.