After reading Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, April 2011), I must admit that I had not been very familiar with the life of Jane Goodall, who is an expert on chimpanzees and anthropology and a proponent of environmental and social issues. My son (age 4) certainly had never heard of Jane before. But none of that mattered in reading this simple picture book that tells her story.
As a young child, Jane loved nature. She carried a stuffed chimpanzee everywhere and dreamed of changing the world. (My son looked for Jubilee the stuffed monkey in every picture.) I loved the end, how it showed that her dream came true, and we talked about dreams coming true, and what we can do “when we grow up” and now.
My son is in a stage where every day he decides what he wants to be when he grows up. (This week it ranged from “barbarian” by which he meant librarian, to astronaut, to pilot.) It was nice to talk about how young Jane’s dream came true. As an adult, I am inspired. As a child, my son enjoyed Jane’s story and Patrick McDonnell’s illustrations. That makes a great nonfiction picture book.
Me . . . Jane was awarded a 2012 Caldecott Honor.
