Few lessons in patience are so entertaining. Adults and kids alike will love this tale of the splendid relationship between a bouncy student and her sensitive teacher. Parents find something familiar about the hyperactive child, and readers get a close-up look at Lilly's personality through speech and thought bubbles that supplement the text, highlighting conversations with Mr. Slinger and her baby brother, Julius, as well as providing insight into her thoughts.

What makes Lilly so lovable to parents is her joy for life and her ability to draw young and not-so-young readers in with her limitless enthusiasm. You see, Lilly really wants to be a teacher--that is, unless she decides to be a "dancer, or a surgeon or an ambulance driver or a diver or a pilot or a hairdresser or a scuba diver ... ."

The range of emotions Lilly experiences on one important school day teaches readers about patience and remorse in a most nonjudgmental way. And while two five-year-old readers giggled at Lilly's unkind drawing of her teacher, they quickly commented, "That's not nice." Both were thrilled at the end, however, when Lilly displayed her nifty purse, quarters, and glasses after waiting for sharing time.