Brave Irene by William Steig Read by Meryl Streep

The 411:
I had never heard of Brave Irene by William Steig when I received it. We are always looking for new family friendly books to read together. What drew me in instantly was that Meryl Streep was the reader on the audio book and that there was snow on the cover. We are entering winter so this seemed like the perfect book to settle down and read with my kids.

Handsome and I headed into his room for us to read. He looked at it and asked me to read it to him. I started and he settled into my lap. Next thing I know, Goddess comes in too and settles in to listen. Then he read it out loud to me. Lastly he read it along with the audio. The last two reads were on his own. I figured we would read together and than put the book on the shelf like so many others before it.

Honestly, this was confusing, what was it about Brave Irene that made him want to read it three times in a row? I don't know. Maybe it was the pictures. Or maybe it was because he, like Irene, tries very hard and always has. Being a child in therapy since he is two, his mannerisms, scholastic abilities and personality is always scrutinized. His perseverance, like Irene's is to just keep going.

In this book, Irene's mom makes a beautiful dress for a Duchess. Unfortunately she is sick and can't get it to the Duchess, so Irene, being the good girl she is does her best to get it there. She tucks her mother in and heads out into a storm to bring it to her.

No matter how hard the wind pushes Irene she must make it there. She doesn't want to let her mother or the Duchess down. Irene is a people pleaser like most of us. We don't want to be let down. She keep going and in the end, all roads led to something spectacular. If we don't give up.

Putting aside that no mother would allow her child to venture out into a storm to bring a dress to a duchess. And, that Irene could have potentially died by falling off a cliff or freezing to death. Or, the amount of stress put on a child to trudge through the wind, snow and bitter cold without letting anyone down borders on child abuse I think the book is a wonderful read of courage, love and never giving up!

Handsome loved the book so much that he is basing his first school book collage on it! We need to pick up some construction paper today!