Sylvester and the Magic Pebble Review by Dana G. Williams

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Steig, William. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. Simon & Schuster: New York, 1969. ISBN 9781416902065

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Sylvester, a young donkey, likes to collect pebbles. While he is outside one day, he finds a red pebble that grants him wishes. During his play, he comes across an angry lion, grows afraid, and wishes to camouflage himself as a rock and is unable to wish himself back into being a donkey. His parents search and search for him, but over a year's time are unable to figure out what happened to their son, until a chance picnic brings them all together again. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is the story of a child separated from his parents for magical reasons and how the members of the family cope during their separation. Sylvester Duncan is a curious child who enjoys being outside. His community is drawn as a peaceful place full of neighbors who are various animals. Steig's illustrations portray emotions that move the story from crisis, when Sylvester magically turns himself into a rock to escape an angry lion, to his parents spending a year searching for their son, who is nowhere to be found, and onto the climax, where they are reunited. Time is illustrated in two different ways, once from Sylvester's point of view as the seasons change in the meadow where he lays as a rock, feeling sad and tired and hopeless, and also as his parents spend a year looking everywhere for their son. The illustrations, although full of color and light (except in the middle of winter), make the book accessible to the very young and breed hope for the family's future.

Steig's story depicts the lengths that parents love their children, no matter how long they are separated, and the feelings of sadness and despair by a child alone in the wilderness. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble teaches children that appreciating what you have is better than whatever magical development you could wish for, and the author uses a variety of diverse adjectives to describe emotions. The unifying theme of the story is how the feeling of love within a family gets the Duncans (and the readers) through difficult times. 

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is a 1970 Caldecott Medal Winner. 

From Kirkus Review
"Sylvester's 'only chance of becoming himself again was for someone to find the red pebble and to wish that the rock next to it would be a donkey' -- surely the prize predicament of the year and, in William Steig's pearly colors, one of the prettiest. How Mother and Father Duncan (donkey), despairing of finding their son, do eventually break the red pebble's spell and bring back Sylvester is a fable of happy families of all breeds."

From Horn Book 

"A remarkable atmosphere of childlike innocence pervades the book; beautiful pictures in full, natural color show daily and seasonal changes in the lush countryside and greatly extend the kindly humor and the warm, unselfconscious tenderness." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Other books about getting lost:

• Freeman, Don. Corduroy Lost and Found. ISBN 9780670061006
• Gami, Taro. I Lost My Dad. ISBN 9781929132041
• Raschka, Chris. Daisy Gets Lost. ISBN 9780449817414

More from William Steig: 

• Brave Irene. ISBN 9780312564223
• Doctor De Sota. ISBN 9780312611897
• Pete's a Pizza. ISBN 9780060527549

Getting lost is an unfortunate risk with children, but reading books about feeling lost and finding your way home to love again can engage children to talk about experiences they might have had being lost or fears they have about being lost.