Agate: What Good Is A Moose?

Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom. - Bahá'í Writings

Title: Agate: What Good Is A Moose?

Author: Joy Morgan Dey  
Illustrator: Nikki Johnson

Publisher & Date: Lake Superior Port Cities, Inc. – April 15, 2007

Fiction

Suitable For:  Ages 4 and up

Opening Page:

What good is a moose?

Agate thinks to himself.

As he mopes at the edge of a lake. 

He looks like a Tinker Toy project gone wrong.

He fells like a big brown mistake.

He thinks of his friends as sparkling gems.

Beautiful, talented, bright.

Oh, how he’d love to shine like them.

Agate sighs. It just isn’t right.

Brief Synopsis:  Agate the Moose isn’t feeling very valuable when he compares himself to his friends (like Opal, Amethyst, and Garnet) who just happen to be the twelve birthstones. In fact, Agate feels “clumsy, disjointed, and loose.” But, like the jewels that are their namesake, his friends work to shed some light on Agate’s inner beauty and encourage him to let his strengths shine.

Themes:  Self esteem/worth, acceptance, respect for differences

Links To Resources:

Visit the book’s page here for Agate Activities. 

Check out the What’s Your Birthstone? page {here}.

Author interview and a sneak peek at the book on You Tube.

Read my review in the Character Educator.

Why I Like This Book: First and foremost, I love this book because my father found an author-autographed copy in a little repair shop in Green Bay; it’s so dear to me because Dad knew it had the kind of message that a counselor (and mom!) like me look for in a book. When Agate the Moose is filled with self-doubt, his beautiful friends help him shift his focus from his drab exterior to his "fabulous, knobbly, glorious, lumpity, terrific, bumpity, incredible, gangly, remarkable, splendid, magnificent, jewel" interior. Like Agate, the verse is sometimes a little awkward, but I think the message that "beauty is only skin deep" far outweighs an occasional rocky rhyme.

Since an agate is an actual rock, the author includes a page in the back entitled Agate, the Secret Jewel.  Let Agate serve as the perfect springboard for a geology lesson about rocks and gemstones. And, since everybody has a birthday, your students will love to refer to it all year long; whenever you celebrate their important day, talk about their corresponding birthstone and let them bring one for show and tell.


As a fun bonus for you, why not dust off those vintage Tinker Toys and let the kids build something unique . . . or Agate?  If you're too young to remember Tinker Toys, do yourself a favor and head out to a resale shop or garage sale NOW!

For more Picture Perfect Book Friday recommendations, visit Susanna Leonard Hill's blog {here} and don't forget to check back on September 7th for another school year filled with amazing PPBF reviews. Thanks, Susanna, for this incredible resource.