A Sick Day for Amos McGee

A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead (2011 Caldecott Medal)

Let's take a journey through a typical day of zoo keeper, Amos McGee. He has a very specific pattern to his day. He makes tea, he gets dressed, he rides the bus to the zoo, then he spends time with each of the animals-play chess, reading stories, and many other things.

One day Amos gets sick and cannot go to work. His friends at the zoo miss him, so they take the bus to Amos' house to visit him. Amos gets to enjoy all of the activities that are usually only enjoyed at work, and it helps him feel much better.

Stead is both writer and illustrator, and the illustrations are breathtaking and yet simple. Stead does a great job of telling the story through the art and making the visuals compelling. Not everyone can act as author and illustrator, but Stead does a fantastic job with this story.

We used this with preschooler when we were talking about being thankful and talked about being thankful for being healthy, but you can also hit on friendship and the things that friends might do. It would also be great to combine with a trip to the zoo. You can talk about the animals you might see at the zoo, or what animals you had seen at the zoo after you had already been there.

*A quick correction-The Caldecott list shows Erin E Stead as the illustrator, and I just noticed that so does the picture of the cover I have listed. Sorry for the confusion.