The Little Pen

With thanks to the author, Matador publishers, and NetGalley for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

An uplifting story of a pen, stuck at the bottom of his owner’s handbag and bored of his situation, who wants to escape and see more of the world. The story tells of the obstacles he faces in doing so, and his eventual reward when he is discovered by his new owner who takes him to lots of far away and exciting places.

The message I took from the story was a positive one for young readers to experience, where people can face challenges in life but if they are persistent can overcome these challenges and achieve their goals and be happy.

The language used in the story is at a level that young readers will understand, and the font used is quirky and fun to read. The illustrations are also excellent, and capture the emotions of the pen in his facial expressions really well.

Thank you to the publisher for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love love loved this. Not only was the artsyle so so cute, I relate not to the pen but to the person in the end picking him up. Man.... I love stationary too much sometimes haha.

The comic follows a little pen that is tired of being in the same handbag and only being taken out from time to time. Pen wants to see the world and experience new adventures, but when Pen leaves the bag and rolls around he faces a lot of obstacles on the way towards his new life.

I thought the way of storytelling was very effective in this. It didn't linger too long and made the story flow very nice and at a quick pace where kids will be intrigued and not get bored with the pace of the book. Very nicely written en contructed!

I would highly recommend this book to my friend's kids!

The Little Pen reminded me of the crayons from The Day the Crayons Quit in that all of those characters were fed up with their lifestyle of laying around or not being used properly. Where this differs though is that the Little Pen ultimately finds someone to take him on the adventures he longs for. This would be fun in a classroom setting to have the kids come up with where the little pen may go next, sort of like a Flat Stanley. I would love to see more adventures of The Little Pen.

A story of a lonely and bored pen at bottom of a handbag. His attempts of escaping are regularly thwarted until one day the owner forgets the pen on the table. The pen makes a break for it, but quickly finds out the dangers that awaits. Finally a pilot picks up the pen and keeps it in her pocket. Showing the pen the world.

It was a cute story with a lot of fun details in the first 2/3rds of the book. The last third of the book felt like something was missing or needed a bit more detail. The illustrations are cute, bright and the pens face does a great job expressing clear emotions. Solid 3.5 Stars rounded up.

Thank you Net Galley and Matador for the opportunity to read and review this advance reader copy in exchange for my honest feed back. .

ARC. I loved the storyline. The illustrations were great. Could have personified the pen in the beginning so we cared more about what happened to it. Overall a good book!

This is a cute point of view story about a little pen who is unhappy living at the bottom of a handbag. He tries his best to escape and is finally rescued by a human who is going places. It's a nice story.

A solid story, and one presented really well with ideal, cartoonish and lively art – but one that needed a bit of a kick to it to make it essential. Our hero is a little pen with aspirations of seeing the world, but all that happens is that it gets used then stuffed into a bag again. We know it won't end the book without having had some bit of luck to change its life, but apart from that what is the point of it all? There is a surprise and a pleasure in the identity of the new owner, but is this a story about seizing our opportunities, about being kind to pens, about – well, what? It has nothing to teach us, leaving its sole purpose the ten minutes of entertainment or so it brings. And books need more than that to stand out these days. Visually this is a strong four stars, but due to the lack of rhyme and reason to the plot, this is more of a three.

This was a super cute little book about a pen not giving up on his dreams!! Tired of living in the bottom of a purse (where all our pens live) he decides to break free and see the world outside! Adorable illustrations and just a cute story.

A powerful book about growth mindset and the courage it takes to achieve a dream!

The Little Pen has a dream to see the world, but the Little Pen lives in the bottom of a dusty purse. This tale brings the reader on an adventure of courage in spite of being afraid, perseverance although faced with many challenges, and the rewards of goals achieved.

This children's book is very entertaining for young readers, with the whimsical and detailed illustrations and the fun-loving storyline. I also think this is a wonderful, easy to understand way for educators and school counselors to introduce growth mindset characteristics like: perseverance, setting goals, meeting achievements and more!!

What a wonderful way to start a positive mindset with readers of all ages.

Grateful to have received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley & Matador.

the Little Pen is such a sweet and fun book about a pen that longs for more from the world. I loved the illustrations, and how the Little Pen made his way to his new owner. It's exciting and adventurous.

The Little Pen is a delightful picture book, perfect for teaching young students about growth mindset and learning to be brave. Wendy Williams uses whimsical and charming illustrations to draw the reader right into the story, wondering if the Little Pen will achieve his dreams!

This story would be a great addition to any home, school, classroom library. I can't wait to purchase a copy of my own to share with my young students!

Thank you NetGalley and Matador for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Sadly I could jot review this book as it would it download….. such a shame as I was looking forward to reading it

This is a cute book about a pen who finds his way out of the bottom of a bag on an adventure to find someone to care for him.
Cute illustrations. A fun little book!

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

Little Pen is tired of his boring life at the bottom of a purse and yearns for an opportunity to be free and explore the world around him. There are lots of dangers out there for a little pen though, like being thrown in the garbage or eating by a dog! One day he gets his chance to escape and he can't believe his luck when he is picked up by a pilot! He now gets to enjoy lots of exciting views and still be a great pen! This is a really cute story and the pictures are really entertaining and neat to look at. The font is fairly large and though it does have a mix of upper and lower case letters (something that isn't great modeling for young readers and writers), it is fairly easy to read. I could definitely see my grade 3 students enjoying this book. I would recommend this book to parents and teachers of children in the age 4-9 range. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

The Little Pen is stuck inside a woman's handbag, along with her old tickets, loose change and bits of fluff. He is bored and desperate to see the world so he keeps trying to escape. Yet, one day he is left behind and learns just how scary the world can be, until a nice pilot finds him and gives him a home in her pocket.

This is a truly sweet book, with an easy to understand and empathise with protagonist embarking on a simple journey. Throughout are lovely full-page illustrations in a striking colour palette with clear facial expressions for children to comprehend. The emphasis on the pen's face and none of the humans makes it easy to focus on his experience and subsequent emotions.

The text is well-considered, introducing new vocabulary in a supportive way that will help children to infer from context. It also lends itself to an expressive reading style so it can be shared easily with groups of children. However, the font choice is poor. The capitalisation of some letters (R, N, H) is fine for confident readers but is an unnecessary hindrance to developing readers.

This would be ideal for use in schools and other educational settings. It would make a good class read or as a prompt for lessons, in a similar vein to The Day the Crayons Quit.

The topic and writing style make this ideal for reading to three to seven-year-olds. From the vocabulary used and how much of it is phonetically decodable, a child would be about seven years old to read this independently or with minimal support.

Here we have a tale of a little pen who wants to get out of his owners purse and see the world. He makes several attempts to escape and finally mages to see the world.

I was not a hug fan of the story. It just didn't;t seems o have much of a point and I didn't find it all that interesting. I do think it is interesting to consider how a pen might feel about being used/ not being used and things like that.

I did enjoy the illustrations and thought they added a lot to the story. The colors were well done and kept things vibrant.

This was a really cute and wholesome story, with great illustrations, of a pen who lives unhappily on the bottom of a backpack until he escapes and finds a person who loves him and takes great care of him

The Little Pen is a fun whimsical story of a pen who has lived all his life in the bottom of a bag. He wants to get out and see the world but can't. It's not for lack of trying. But one day his owner forgets him out of the bag and here we go... Will he go back home or make his dream come true?
I love that the artist focused on macro photos and perspective making us see the world from the Little Pen's perspective and never see the human's faces.
I love the design of the pages but especially the font design that adds a lot of fun to reading.
4 not 5 because I wish there were fewer pages illustrating the beginning of the story and more of the adventures in each location that he visits and that those places were also written on the last map.

This is a very cute story that offers a lot to young readers. Aside from a fun story and bright, lively illustrations, the language in the book is very vivid. Kids will be exposed to lots of action words and interjections that will enrich their vocabularies and add to their storytelling skills. Additionally, this is a nice exercise in imagining life from an unexpected perspective. I also love that the pilot in the book is a woman of color--it's great to see professional/STEM representation on the page.

This would be a very fun circle time read that could spark a lot of great conversations. It would be a great addition to school, classroom, and community libraries!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

"The little pen lives in the dust at the bottom of a handbag. There is a ball of fluff on his top and a bus ticket around his middle. No one loves him. He never sees ANYTHING and NOTHING ever happens!"

Little Pen is sad, frustrated and bored. He so wants to get out his cramped environment and see the world but that seems like an impossibility. There are times when he is out of the bag and tries to roll away but those times prove to be dangerous to his well-being. He is always found and dropped back into that stuffy old bag once again. Will he ever get a chance to escape forever from that leather prison he finds himself in?

Then one day the unthinkable happens. His human takes him out of her bag, writes her name, puts him down, forgets all about him and walks away! What will happen to little pen now?

Fortunately another human discovers him, picks him up and tucks him in her front pocket where he is able to peep out and see EVERYTHING! She knows that he is a keeper. Little pen is ecstatic and luckily for him his kind captor is able to fly him places to see the whole wide world. What could her job be to be able to do that with little pen? Can you guess?

This is a lovely adventure book that kids will love. The illustrations are fantastic. They are colourful, bold, vibrant and the main character is adorable. The positive message to kids is dream BIG and never give up on attaining it. I love the book and I highly recommend it.

What a sweet little story! I love the way it was written and when read aloud, it makes for a run and engaging experience for my little ones. The little pen made a bold and brave decision and it led to the adventure of a lifetime- what a wonderful message to send to our children.

The pictures in this book are absolutely adorable. I loved looking at all the little details in each picture and the little pen is very expressive for a pen. Williams also portrays a beautiful message though this story. I love the idea of showing children that sometimes we may not feel we fit where we are, but that that is okay because if we are willing to look we can find our perfect place. My one big critique of this book is that some pages feel a little wordy for a children's book but the illustrations more than make up for it. Overall, this book will delight readers who enjoy Jory John as the emotions and message are reminiscent of The Food Groups. This is definitely a book that I will be investing in for my library as my students will enjoy trying to find new elements to the story through each re-read!

A calm little story about a pen who longs for adventure. For a pen, it shows rather a lot of emotion, so kudos to the artist. (I also have to snicker a bit whenever I see the image of the pen nearly being stepped on, because the artist clearly went for some red-soled Louboutins, which was just absurd and delightful.) This one got a few laughs from my kid, though no repeat read requests.

I do have to say...the pen reminds me a lot of Clippy. You know, the old Microsoft Word assistant? Something about the eyes....

A cute one to pick up from your local public library.

Advanced review copy provided by publisher.

I literally laughed out loud at this book told from the point of view of a pen. This would be useful in a middle grade classroom to put events in order and discuss point of view and perspective.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

The Little Pen is a cute, imaginative story for children from the perspective of a disused and forgotten pen. This pen is lonely and wants to be taken out of the bag he's stuck in the bottom of and see the world. He gets his wish but its a scary experience for him at first. He's chewed by a dog, almost stood on by a high heeled shoe, knocked down some stairs - until someone finds him and pucks him up. He gets a great life experience after this as a pilots pen sitting in the front of her pocket travelling the world. This book gives a great little message to children that going after what you want can be scary but can be worth it! The illustrations are really expressive and it's made me look at my pens in a different way too lol.