The Grudge Keeper by Mara Rockliff - ESSENTIAL

Rockliff, Mara The Grudge Keeper, illustrated by Eliza Wheeler.  PICTURE BOOK.  Peachtree, 2014.  $17.  

When someone in his town is hurt or angered, they write down their grudge and hand it off to the Grudge Keeper, whose house is stuffed and overstuffed with everone else’s anger.  One day a fierce wind blows through and scatters the grudges all over the fields.  As the townspeople work to clean everything up, they realize that the grudges they wrote were miniscule problems that should just be forgiven or ignored.  

A nice short lesson about harboring ill feelings.  The old-fashioned look to the illustrations actually works very well with the story, though it could have easily been set even on the moon!  

EL (K-3) – ESSENTIAL.  Cindy, Library Teacher