Thursday, April 16, 2009

Prayer for a Child


For her second birthday (in December) Sadie received this sweet book.

Awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1945, it is a simple prayer that covers all the comfort basics of a small child - family, friends, soft bed, bread, milk, etc. Even a "little painted chair" which we have (and I wrote about almost three years ago!).

The cadence of the words is perfectly soothing for right before bed. And while the book really can apply to either gender, I love that the girl praying has a cherub face and blond hair. In fact, Sadie started requesting a "white bow in my hair like the Prayer Book."

Sadie loves to turn the big pages and recite the whole thing.



I came across this site that had a bit of history on the book. The poem was first published in 1941, and appeared in an old NYC magazine called This Week. I loved this copy of the page.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My grandmother read this to me as a child, and I love this story! We bought an extra copy and tore it all apart and framed the prints for Annie's nursery. Great read.

Ali O said...

ooo, Kate, I love that idea!