Not A Stick by Antoinette Portis is a wonderful book about imaginative play. It stars a little piglet and his stick. Each scene starts with someone telling the piglet to "be careful" or "watch what you're doing" with the stick. The piglet then replies that it's "not a stick", it's a sword or conductor's baton or a fishing pole, etc.

It's a great book to remind us how a child's imagination works and how they can take something as ordinary as a stick from the ground and spend hours turning it into other things in their minds.

For me, this book also brought back a lot of wonderful memories. My brother had such a stick (and still has it in his "childhood memories" box). On any given day it was a sword, a conductor's baton, a horse, a gun/bazooka (if we were playing G.I. Joe), a fishing pole, or anything else his imagination could come up with. Reading this book brought memories of all those fun times flooding back.

I highly recommend this book! If you enjoy this one, be sure to check out the other book by this author with a similar theme - Not a Box. ( )

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This book shows the journey of what the main character imagines a stick could be, which is basically anything other than a stick.

Genre
Picture books for children
Tone
Amusing
Writing Style
Attention-grabbing
Illustration
Big and bold
Subject
Imagination
Imagination in children
Pigs
Play
Pretending
Staffs (Sticks, canes, etc.)
Toys

Just as good as Not A Box. ( )