Title: Everybody Makes Mistakes

Author: Christine Kole MacLean

Reading Level: Ages 4-8

Hardcover: 32 pages

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (June 2, 2005)

ISBN-10: 0525472258

ISBN-13: 978-0525472254

Illustrated by: C.B. Decker

Jack is in real big trouble because he made a mistake but no one knows what Jack did that was so bad. The author discloses that Jack makes three mistakes but does not reveal them until the end of the story.

“You are in trouble, Jackson,” my mom says. “Big trouble.” All I did was make one little mistake.

Jack loses his mittens and has to wear his sister’s bunny hat and mittens to school.

“No one will notice,” Mom told me. She was wrong.

Throughout the book Jack thinks of a lot of people who make mistakes. Once a waitress mistook him for a girl and once his teacher sat on his snack even though he kept his snack on his plate just as the teacher asked. Once his dad broke the Monster-be-gone mister and all sorts of imaginary monsters visited Jack’s bedroom.

“I’m not the only one who makes mistakes,” I say to my mom.

Jack makes three big mistakes when he listens to his little sister Cammy on the day of his Uncle Kevin’s wedding. Jack plays beauty shop with her and the results are hilarious. Everyone is upset except Cammy. The main message for the four to eight year old group is to show children it is ok to make mistakes because everyone does.

Illustrator, C.B. Decker does a wonderful job of expanding on the story and with realistic characters and showing all the different mistakes people make. Children will love looking at these pictures.

About Christine MacLean: Until I was about nine, all I wanted to do was own a horse farm. But then one day, while reading National Geographic, I thought I might like to write for that magazine. I earned a college degree in English literature by doing what I’d been doing all along-reading and thinking about what I’d read. I went on to write for magazines, newspapers, and corporations. I’ve been married for a long time to a wonderful guy who lives in constant fear of throwing away stray scraps of paper with scribbles on them. He knows from experience that those scribbles are ideas about
things I’d like to write.

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Carma Dutra is a freelance writer. Learn more about children’s writing tips and read reviews of award-winning children’s books by visiting her blog, Carma’s Window, at http://carmaswindow.blogspot.com.
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