An excellent read-aloud for grade 2. I used it as part of an author study. Lilly appears in several books. ( )

A fun book about a fashion loving talking animal! ( )

My favorite part is the note the teacher gives her: "Today was hard. Tomorrow will be better." Some days I really need a note like that. ( )

Independent Reading Level: Preschool - 4th Grade
Awards: Notable Children's Books (1997)

Lilly loves all sorts of things. She loves school, she loves dressing up, she even grows to love her stinky baby brother, Julius. In fact, Lilly loves everything! But when Lilly brings her purple plastic purse to school and can't wait until sharing time to show off the purse and her movie star sunglasses, her teacher, Mr. Slinger, has to take away her prized possessions. Lilly's fury leads her to draw a mean picture of her favorite teacher. It isn’t until Mr. Slinger gives her belongings back to her with a kind note and snacks that Lilly realizes she owes Mr. Slinger an apology.

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Wow. That's just about all you can say when it comes to this Henkes classic. Lilly is so wonderfully relatable. Her enthusiasm for school, her love of her teacher, her inability to leave her new plastic purse alone, her sending herself to the uncooperative chair when everything goes sideways. One of my favorite Kevin Henkes stories, and certainly one children everywhere can relate to. ( )

Lilly loved going to school until another love of hers got her in trouble! This story is a great way to teach lessons about remorse and forgiveness. The illustrations are great and the language used in this story is amazing! Would recommend this book! ( )

This is the cutest book ever, my students loved it. It was a random one that they had at the library that one of the students picked up for the week. It is a great addition to my wish list. ( )

I would recommend this book to any teacher wanting to teach descriptive words. There are many stanza that have fatastic word choice. This book also teaches about good morals as well as realizing your mistakes and choosin to make amends toward people. ( )

In my opinion this is a great book. The language was very descriptive. It talked about Lily and her purse, how here teacher felt, all about the purse and more. It was language you could vividly picture. For example, it says “She was even too sad to eat the snack.” The writing was organized in a sequence that made sense for the story. It started out with the purse and how much Lily loved it, then the teacher not approving, then the loss of her purse. The character is well believable for children who are in school. Children love to share and show off things they love, and to an extent they can be taken too far upsetting and hurting others. Every illustration went in style with the text and set the mood for the story. For example, it says” Lily ran all the way home and told her mother and father everything.” The image that goes along with this Lily running home with her purse flying in her hand. This allowed the readers to interpret that Lily was upset about what happened at school today and would make the readers think about these issues and the negative perspectives given by Mr. Slinger and positive perspectives given by Lily. The theme of this book focuses on consideration and being able to recognize when you are wrong to apologize and forgive others. ( )

A formidable librarian makes readers not only out of the once-resistant residents of her small town, but out of a tough-talking, television-watching motorcycle gang as well. ( )

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes is intended for students between the ages of four and eight. In the story, a student begins by talking about her favorite teacher, then she brings her purse to school and disrupts the class with it. She then dislikes the teacher for taking her purse away for the school day before giving it back with a note about the next day being good.
I believe this is a perfect book for introducing show and tell in the classroom in addition to discussing classroom behavior and expectations in the beginning of the school year. The book also discusses how the teacher took the purse away and gave it back for good reason, rather than doing it out of spite. It gives students insight into why teachers do things and the productive routine of the classroom. Lastly, although the main character idolizes the teacher, the author also notes that the student has numerous aspirations for what she wants to be when she grows up rather than just being a teacher because she enjoys her teacher. I believe it can be relatable and insightful to students as a good resource for class read aloud. ( )

Lilly loves school and wants to be a teacher when she grows up until she comes to class with her new plastic purse that she wants to show off but cannot. She gets upset with her teacher and leaves him a mean note that she immediately regrets, apologizes and hopes for forgiveness. Teachers can teach students about apologies and forgiveness. ( )

When Lilly brings her purple purse to school and distracts the entire class, Mr. Slinger is not amused. Mr. Slinger holds her belongings until the end of the day, making Lilly extremely upset. She draws a mean picture and sneaks it in his bag. After realizing Mr. Slinger left a kind note and some snacks in her purse when she got it back, she feels bad and tries her hardest to make it up to him. The illustrations in this book are phenomenal, and are definitely my favorite part of the entire book. ( )

One little mice loves her teacher so much she even wants to be a teacher when she grows up too. However when the little mice gets in trouble for not following the rules, she does not like her teacher anymore. However she starts feeling remorseful and wants forgiveness from her teacher. This book is a great way to teach students about consequences and following the rules. ( )

4 stars

I remember reading this book when I was in first grade and today, I find it to be a great book to read during the first week of school. It can teach students to always listen to their teacher and how to be respectful to everyone in school (teacher and classmates). I would definitely use this book as a shared reading in the classroom because there are many opportunities for students to make predictions and answer questions by making text-to-self connections. Some questions you can ask during reading are, "What is your most prized possession that you would share with everyone?" "Why is it important to listen to the teacher?" "What are 3 items you are not allowed to bring with you to school?"
In the book, Lilly writes a letter to her teacher, Mr. Slinger, because she is mad about having her favorite purse confiscated. As a follow up activity, you could have students practice writing letters (go over why it is wrong to write a mean letter to someone) ( )

I'm not the target market. That said, there are some picture books which would garner 5 stars from me, no question. From an adult perspective, this was a pleasant enough, brief story, with some charming drawings, but nothing so spectacular, so moving, so deft in execution, or so spellbinding in story, as to warrant a more enthusiastic response.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). ( )

I've really come to appreciate Kevin Henkes, from his simple, yet whimsical illustrations to his equally simply-plotted stories filled with the imagination of youth. While "Kitten's First Full Moon" is still my favorite, "Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse" was not far from the top of the list of my favorite books by Mr. Henkes. If I hadn't chosen Donald Crews for my author/illustrator study, I would have loved to have seen more books by Mr. Henkes. ( )

Cute story and wonderful illustrations ! ( )

Lilly absolutely loved school until one day Mr. Slinger took away her "purple plastic purse." All she wanted to do was show the class, but Mr. Slinger would not let her. She decided that she did not like Mr. Slinger or school anymore. But when she got home and read the nice note from Mr. Slinger, she felt bad about being mean and apologized to her teacher. ( )

To me, Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse is a five-star children’s book. The characters are a significant aspect of this book. All of the characters are mice, which removes need for race and ethnicity. However, human traits were still incorporated to the mice’s characters. For example, Lilly’s teacher, Mr. Slinger, has a mustache, glasses, and dresses in fancy shirts and ties. This allows for subconscious understanding that Mr. Slinger is a male adult, but also allows for mouse characteristics. Another aspect of the book I liked was the message. Being kind, even if you are angry, is one lesson from the book. Lilly becomes angry and upset when Mr. Slinger takes her purse and sunglasses for part of the class. Due to her strong emotions at that point, Lilly draws a mean picture of her teacher. When she finds a nice note from Mr. Slinger in her purse, she feels horrible for even making that mean drawing of him. Afterwards, she apologizes to her teacher and he forgives her. This is a great, simple example of accepting and making up for your actions. ( )

I had mixed feelings before reading this book, but at the end I liked the book because of the life- lesson it teaches children. First, I like how the author mixed the writing and illustrations together. This was not your typical children's book because the way the author mixed the writing with the illustrations was that he made sure he didn't use the whole page to make it super colorful, instead he had small squares sometimes, similar to a comic, and then the writing underneath. But he also had event illustrations that were small and he split them up in one page and then have 2-3 sentences underneath. So he mixed up his illustrations with his writing throughout the book which I thought was pretty neat. It also somehow reminded me of the Arthur books. I also like the message of the story because it can happen to any student in a classroom what happened to Lilly. This is why I would read this to my future students as a read a loud because it goes with classroom rules and what happens when students do not follow the rules. This is why I really enjoyed this book, because it was interesting to see the outcome of the main character Lilly after receiving her toys back and what she ends up doing at the end. I would definitely recommend this book to students and teachers. ( )

Lilly loved everything about school, but what she loved the most was her teacher, Mr. Slinger. He was sharp as a tack, wore artistic shirts, glasses on a chain around his neck, and a different colored tie for each day of the week. Mr. Slinger provided the most tasty snacks. Lilly loved her teacher so much that when she was home, she pretended to be him. At school, during free time, the students were allowed to go to the lightbulb lab in the back of the classroom. Here, students expressed their ideas creatively through drawings and writing. When Lilly went to the lightbulb lab, she would write stories about Mr. Slinger and share them with the class. One day, Lilly went shopping and bought a new pair of movie star sunglasses with glittery diamonds and a chain like Mr. Slinger's. She also had 3 shiny quarters. But, best of all, she had a brand new purple plastic purse that played music when it was opened. Lilly was so excited, she wanted to show everyone. Mr. Slinger told Lilly, "Not Now," a total of three different times during class. Finally, Mr. Slinger took Lilly's new belongings away and put them in his desk. He told Lilly that she could have them back at the end of the day. Lilly felt like crying. She was even too sad to eat Mr. Slinger's tasty snack. Lilly went to the lightbulb lab, still sad. As she thought about what she wanted to write and draw, she became angry, then furious. Lilly drew a picture of Mr. Slinger, entitled, "BIG FAT MEAN MR. STEALING TEACHER." At the bottom of the picture said, "Wanted By The F.B.I.," and "PS- I do not want to be a Teacher when I grow up!" Lilly then snuck the picture into Mr. Slinger's book bag. At the end of the day, Mr. Slinger returned Lilly's things to her and told her she could bring them back tomorrow as long as she didn't disturb the rest of the class. On the way home, Lilly opened her purse and found a note from her teacher, saying, "Today was a difficult day. Tomorrow will be better." Lilly felt awful about what she had done, she ran home and told her mom and dad everything that had happened. Lilly drew a new picture of Mr. Slinger and wrote a story about him. Her mom wrote and note and her dad made snacks for the class. Everyone, including Mr. Singer, forgave Lilly.

This book was deeply detailed in illustration. The author and illustrator, Kevin Henkes, gives his readers a great, detailed story. It can teach children about doing the right thing, even when they may not want to. It can also show children that sometimes, teacher's may have to take certain actions because its in the best interest of the whole class. Lastly, it shows children that they may have difficult days, but tomorrow is a different day, and it will be better. My daughter and I both enjoyed reading this book. When Lilly drew the mean picture of her teacher, my daughter said, "She's bad, huh mom? She's going to have to move her number." In my daughter's class, when a student doesn't follow directions, or breaks a rule, they have to move their number to a different color. At the end of the book, my daughter said that Lilly was bad but she said she's sorry, so she isn't bad anymore. ( )