PICTURE BOOK - Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch - Eileen Spinelli

Illustrated by Paul Yalowitz

1991 Aladdin Paperbacks

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.43

My rating: 4.5

Illustrations:  "The illustrations in this book were first drawn with ebony pencil on Bristol plate paper and then colored over with Derwent color pencils.  Because the artist is right-handed, he starts on the left side of the paper and moves to the right so that the picture won't smudge.  The paper is very smooth, and only the artist knows where that mysterious texture comes from."  Cool.

1^st line/s:  "Mr. Hatch was tall and thin and he did not simle.  Every morning at 6:30 sharp he would leave his brick house and walk eight blocks to the shoelace factory where he worked.  At lunchtime he would sit alone in a corner, eat his cheese and mustard sandwich and drink a cup of coffee.  Sometimes he brought a prune for desert."

My comments:  I'm going to use this for Annatude/ Owning Up/ Character Education immediately.  It will follow up perfectly with "being present."  It's SO easy to brighten up someone else's day.  Just a hello, a smile, a good word, a tiny gift, holding a door open for someone with a grin.  Kids are sometimes (umm...frequently) so absorbed in their own worlds that they don't realize how much little things make a huge difference.  This book with bring that idea home...LOUD, HARD, and FAST! (And although this takes place because of a valentine's day gift, it really isn't a valentine's story.)

In-Class Follow-up:   I will follow this up with brainstorming little ways that we can make days better for people.  Then we'll brainstorm (individually) people that have done kind things for us, or that are just great people in our lives.  I'll pull out some cool, cute stationary and we'll write notes to them and MAIL them, too!

When I read this book, I'm going to end with this poem by Bruce Coville:

Ripples

No one acts in isolation
And no act leaves the world the same.
Words and gestures ripple outward,
What shores they reach we cannot name.

All our lives end in a riddle --
A mystery without an answer,
For even gone we ripple on,
Like a dance without the dancer.

Did you extend a friendly hand?
Did you lift a battered spirit?
The one you helped helped someone else
Ah! Now we're getting near it.

That second someone dropped despair
Did not give in, instead revived
To teach, to love, to fight, to dare,
And what you've done lived on, survived.

On and out the circle widens,
Past all hope of comprehending.
The slightest touch can change the world
Healing, helping, lifting, mending,

Actions last for generations
Our fathers' mothers mold our hearts.
We in turn shape all that follows;
Each time we act, a ripple starts.

       ~Bruce Coville

Goodreads:  One wintry day, a postman delivers a mysterious package with a big pink bow to a lonely man named Mr. Hatch. "Somebody loves you" the note says.
          "Somebody loves me!" Mr. Hatch sings as he dusts his living room. "Somebody loves me!" Mr. Hatch whistles as he does his errands in town. "But who, " Mr. Hatch wonders, "could that somebody be?"
          After some time, Mr. Hatch discovers just who his secret admirer is and, in doing so, enjoys the biggest surprise of his life!