The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong

These quirky, old folk, become real, and more than that, friends, to the children for the first time as they conspire together to bring back the storks. Along the way, they link arms with such salty characters as Grandmother Sibble III, who thinks best when sucking on a wineball, cantankerous Janus, who lurks in his wheelchair, armed with stones to pelt boys coming to steal his cherries, and Old Douwa, brim full of spunk at 93 years of age. They are lucky enough to have a teacher who encourages them to keep on wondering and questioning, searching and planning, working and hoping until their wonder turns to dreams and to reality. In the little Dutch fishing village of Shora, six schoolchildren wonder why the storks, which bring good luck, nest in all the nearby villages, but not thei r own. The Wheel on the School, by Meindert DeJong, is a story about what happens when a group of children begins to wonder. But we can wonder! From now until tomorrow morning when you come to school again, will you do that? Will you wonder why and wonder why? Will you wonder why storks don’t come to Shora to build their nests on the roofs, the way they do in all the villages around? For sometimes when we wonder, we can make things begin to happen.” In 2003, he received the first Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, an international prize for children's literature established by the Swedish government.“We can’t think much when we don’t know much. He received the 1964 Caldecott Medal for Where the Wild Things Are the 1970 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration the 1983 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, given by the American Library Association in recognition of his entire body of work and a 1996 National Medal of Arts in recognition of his contribution to the arts in America.

In addition to Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak's books include Kenny's Window, Very Far Away, The Sign on Rosie's Door, Nutshell Library (consisting of Chicken Soup with Rice, Alligators All Around, One Was Johnny, and Pierre), Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life, In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There, We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy, and Bumble-Ardy. Sendak's other popular books is his Caldecott Medal-winning Where The Wild Things Are.

Meindert DeJong is the award-winning author of many classic books for children, including the Newbery Medal-winning The Wheel On The Schooland the Newbery Honor-winning Along Came A Dog, Shadrach,and The House Of Sixty Fathers, all available in Harper Trophy editions and illustrated by Maurice Sendak.

The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong