I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen a lot of children’s books about contentment recently, have you?

That focus on quiet contentment is what makes Waiting by Kevin Henkes stand out from the crowd.

There is a beautiful simplicity about this book. Five toys sit on a window sill. Four wait for particular things like the moon or rain. But the rabbit just enjoys waiting. A new friend joins them, and it turns out she is waiting for something extra special. But, in the end, they all end up waiting happily together, just “to see what would happen next.”

The illustrations are just so sweet and simple. They look like they could be hung in a nursery.

This book is a sweet reminder to us all to keep our eyes open to the little miracles of life happening around us. What a lovely virtue to instill in our children.

Let’s just wait and see what will happen next.

(I wrote and scheduled this post before this happened, but Waiting by Kevin Henkes was named both a Caldecott Honor book and a Geisel Honor book. Well deserved, I say! Click here to read more about it.)

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Carolyn Leiloglou

Carolyn Leiloglou is the award-winning author of the middle grade fantasy trilogy The Restorationists. She is the granddaughter of art collectors, daughter of an art teacher, and homeschooling mom to four wildly creative kids, two now graduated. She’s been reviewing her favorite children’s books on House full of Bookworms for over a decade. Carolyn and her husband Demetrios make their home in San Antonio, Texas, and you can find her everywhere online as House full of Bookworms.

www.carolynleiloglou.com