THE LITTLE RED CHAIR

A chair and a child form a bond that lasts over many years.

“The little red chair tightened its buttons, fluffed its tufts, and straightened its tiny brass wheels. Squeakity-squeak! Maybe today, thought the little red chair.” Just as Hans Christian Andersen brought to life an evergreen tree, the author does a fine job revealing the innermost thoughts of a chair. (Though, unlike Andersen’s tale, this one ends happily.) A girl named Mia persuades her mother to buy the chair, which has been languishing in an antiques shop and is in poor condition. Mia’s mother adeptly reupholsters the chair, and the child happily shines its brass wheels to perfection. A series of delightful illustrations accompany text that shows the chair’s many roles for Mia, including playing “tuffet to Mia’s Little Miss Muffet” and gradually becoming a repository for the teenage Mia’s belongings. The chair’s feelings are sometimes expressed in physical terms: its tufts fluff up with Mia’s vow of friendship and deplete when she hugs it farewell and leaves for college. More often, italicized phrases show the chair’s feelings, including exclamations such as “Squeakity-squee!” and “Squeakity-squish.” The clever latter phrase describes its moving-van trip when Mia’s parents move to a smaller home. The chair endures years of lonely attic time until the sweetly predictable, multigenerational ending. Simple but lyrical prose features the judicial use of repetition. Both Mia and her mother are light-skinned.

A gentle read-aloud or independent read at day’s end.