Children's Book Review: Me...Jane

Me...Jane
Written by:  Patrick McDonnell
Published by: Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2011
40 pages

from goodreads.com:
In his characteristic heartwarming style, Patrick McDonnell tells the story of the young Jane Goodall and her special childhood toy chimpanzee named Jubilee. As the young Jane observes the natural world around her with wonder, she dreams of "a life living with and helping all animals," until one day she finds that her dream has come true.

One of the world's most inspiring women, Dr. Jane Goodall is a renowned humanitarian, conservationist, animal activist, environmentalist, and United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 1977 she founded the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), a global nonprofit organization that empowers people to make a difference for all living things.

With anecdotes taken directly from Jane Goodall's autobiography, McDonnell makes this very true story accessible for the very young--and young at heart.

* In honor of Women's History Month, I will be hopefully reading and posting about many picture books featuring famous women in history.  The first being Dr. Jane Goodall. 

What was really nice about this book was it was written for young children.  The language is simple and easy to understand.  The illustrations are colorful and I especially loved the different stamped images that coincided with the text on the page.  It is easy to see how this book was chosen as a 2012 Caldecott Honor book.  This book really focused on Jane's childhood and is a great introduction to her life.  However, I'd like to follow up reading to my kids more about her and her work with the chimpanzees.

Family Rating:  1 1/2 thumbs up.