Like modern-day Miss Rumphius, this luminous story brings the scope of a lifetime into focus for a child reader, and fills it with the magic of gifts given and received.
On the morning of her eighth birthday,
Maude buries a secret
at the foot of a flowering dogwood-
and inside it,
a tiny toy elephant,
a marble like a tiger's eye,
a bird's nest with purple string woven through the twigs,
and more.
A special box.
A gift, waiting for the right moment to be opened again.
Matthew Burgess and Evan Turk offer readers a moving and radiant story of the relationship between a grandmother and granddaughter, and the joy and promise passed down between them. At once lyrical and profound, this book is a joyful celebration of intergenerational relationships, and of the secret treasure houses of childhood. Young readers will delight in the memories and magic tucked away in the red tin box.
See More Family & home stories
Matthew Burgess teaches creative writing and composition at Brooklyn College. He is also a writer-in-residence with Teachers & Writers Collaborative, leading poetry workshops in early elementary classrooms since 2001. He was awarded a MacArthur Scholarship while working on his MFA, and he received a grant from The Fund for Poetry. Matthew's poems and essays
More about Matthew Burgess
