Tuesday Treasure
To a very young child days of the week are a mystery. Added to this, once a year there is an especially amazing day of the week - your birthday. Splodge (I love that name) enjoys a wonderful birthday with presents, friends, balloons and cake but at the end of the day he just wished it didn't have to end. Thursday was a brilliant day. He knows tomorrow it will be Friday but he asks the important question:
"So, wondered Splodge, what happened to it during the night?
Where did it go?"
Where does Thursday go before Friday comes?' he asked his friend, Humbug."
Humbug (I love that name too) agrees to follow his friend Splodge out into the night hoping they can find Thursday and say goodbye before it goes.
They look over the bridge and down at the river - oogle, gurgle, oogle gurgle.
An owl flies over the park - Toowhit! Toowhoo!
They ask a silver fish, a train that passes by and the waves at the beach.
"Is that you Thursday?' called Splodge.
But again there was no reply."
Back home Splodge ponders this problem. He imagines Thursday - big and round like his birthday cake, bright like the candles and happy like balloons.
"There was the moon, big and round and bright, hanging like a silver balloon.
Just like Thursday."
In recent presentation at the CBCA National conference Mark McLeod talked about quiet books. Where does Thursday go? published in 2001 is a quiet book. Why oh why would this absolutely perfect book be now out of print? I do wish there was a way to alert publishers to titles like this that need to be revived.
I love everything about this book. The idea of looking for a special day; the friendship between Splodge and Humbug; the silver lettering on the front cover; and the luminous Stephen Michael King illustrations. Luninous is exactly the right word and it is used in the blurb.
I would pair this book with Bear and Chook by the Sea, On the night of the shooting star and the Houndsley and Catina series.
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