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Dad Diary

 I've written before that Jerry Pinkney seems especially drawn to tales of compassion and mercy.

Pinkney finally won his Caldecott Medal for "The Lion and the Mouse"; he said that the thought of the lion freeing the mouse (wielding power for good) was a thought that especially moved him.

Soon after, Pinkney wrote a "companion piece," another Aesop adaptation--"The Grasshopper and the Ants." In Pinkney's re-telling, the ending is reimagined so that the Queen Ant welcomes the undisciplined Grasshopper for tea. (Like the lion, the ant shows mercy.)

An additional companion volume--a re-telling of the Norwegian fairy-tale "Three Billy Goats Gruff"--again looks at power and kindness. After the ogre is defeated, many writers suggest that he just goes away or dies. But, in a wordless scene, Pinkney presents an alternate ending. He shows the ogre building a house--building, not destroying--and he shows a now-powerful billy goat providing assistance. The billy goat doesn't have to do this; the goat would be within his rights to run far, far away. But he puts the past aside and offers help.

It's a subtle, mysterious choice.

P.S. I'm off on a trip for a few days. I will write soon!



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