Amy's Three Best Things

Praise

Young readers will certainly identify with Amy’s concerns and applaud her ingenious and imaginative way of coping. Craig’s lovely pencil-and-watercolor illustrations match the tone beautifully with scenes of happy daytime activities and pajama-clad magical night journeys. Tender and reassuring and just right for bedtime.
—Kirkus Reviews

Brisk acceptance of the reality of difficult feelings and understated humor make this a fine handbook for children on their way to new and strange places.
—Publishers Weekly

The lightly colored pencil drawings are gentle and sweet, and bring to mind the imaginative nighttime journeys of other picture-book characters like Max and Mickey. Pearce paces the story expertly, telling readers that Amy has packed three special things, but not revealing what they are until they are needed. … [A] deeply reassuring tale about the nature of family and unconditional love. A lovely choice for one-on-one reading.
—School Library Journal

This is a comforting story about the consistency of family, and how even when you cannot see them, they are still there waiting. The pace is gentle and the illustrations are soft and delicate, perfect for bedtime reading. Share this with any child nervous to sleep away from home.
—Booklist

Pearce and Craig pack a lot of emotion and truth into this gentle story. Familiar things can change in a new location, or is it that we ourselves change? Even the bravest of us can weaken in the middle of the night. … This is a world of little crosshatched cottages in pastel colors, comfortably-shaped grandmas who bake, playgrounds that still have teeter-totters, and little girls who can solve their own problems.
—The Horn Book

Craig’s wide oblong pictures show enticing night scenes of starry skies over sleeping English villages; her sunlit domestic interiors and grassy playgrounds are full of pastel-colored details — exciting, but not alarming, as a visit with a grandparent should be. … The little girl’s new confidence, so deftly expressed, may inspire apprehensive children to try similar weekends away from home. But there’s more to this story than just that encouragement; more than enough to return to for repeated reading.
—The New York Times Online

Amy … packs up her trusty teddy, her pajamas and three mysterious objects — her “best things” — and bravely embarks on her adventure. With more than a touch of magic, those three things help her through sudden bouts of nighttime loneliness. Helen Craig couches the fantasy in sturdy down-to-earth illustrations of a thatch-haired youngster, a comfy cardigan-clad Grandma and a tidy landscape of houses snuggled around the village green. And while there’s a moment of genuine anguish, the final scene of Amy astride a carousel dragon is the perfect ending to this gentle story about growing up and growing brave.
—The Washington Post