Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, by William Steig - Picturebook

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is a fun little book that can be used to teach many lessons in life. Sylvester is a curious little donkey who enjoys picking up stones for his collection at home. He happens upon a very bright, red stone one day and discovers that it can grant any wish he asks for, as long as he is holding the stone when he makes the wish. Unfortunately, on his way back home to show his family the magical stone, Sylvester happens upon a hungry lion and without thinking of the consequences, he wishes himself to be a rock. Consequently, he stays this way for a whole year, with his parents despairing and continuously looking for their precious Sylvester.

As mentioned earlier, several lessons can be learned from this book. First, be careful what you wish for. Sylvester is so excited to get home to show his family the stone, that when he comes across that hungry lion, he wished himself into a rock instead of far away from the danger of the lion. That wish, without thinking, cost him a whole year of his life, because he was a depressed rock instead of a happy donkey with his family. We can learn from Sylvester’s mistakes and be cautious about what we wish for. Granted, we do not have a magical stone, but we do make wishes that sometimes come true, all the same. Another lesson that one could learn from this book would be to enjoy and be satisfied with what we have in life and not to try and “wish for better things”. Sylvester was going to take the magic stone home to allow his family and friends to all wish for better things in life than they already had. However, at the end of the story, Sylvester and his family learn that they already have everything that they could want by just having each other. Therefore, the stone gets put in an important safe and kept if needed in the future. So often in life we want other things in our lives and seem to be dissatisfied with what we have. Perhaps if we stopped wishing for other things that we don’t have and begin being thankful for the things that we do have, life will be more joyful. I do pause to wonder what kind of damage could have been done with that magical stone if Sylvester had not learned his lesson before the rock incident.

This picture book won the Caldecott award for it’s illustrations. The pictures are simple and look to have been done using colored pencils and watercolors. The pictures have several whole page layouts (the starry sky, all the dogs looking for Sylvester, the winter scene with the wolf howling on Sylvester the rock, and the fall with the changing of the leaves). These scenes seem to be scenes where Sylvester is in despair and experiencing some form of anxiety (his first night alone under the starry sky, the dogs looking for him right where he is, but never realizing that he is a rock, and the changing of the seasons allowing him to realize the severity of his situation because time is passing without anyone finding him). There are two little vinettes, with Sylvester finding the stone and discovering it’s powers and the lion looking confused because he thought he saw a donkey, but finds a rock instead. These pictures are only used when a character or characters are under a situation of confusion (Sylvester with the stone and the lion with the rock). The rest of the illustrations are outlines with a white cloudlike border.

The illustrator also used lines to show dangerous situations. For example, in the rainstorm, the rain is coming down in vast diagonals and the tree even looks to be leaning to the right of the page, causing a sense of anxiety and disturbance for the reader. However, when Sylvester wishes the rain away, the tree is now upright (vertical) and the rest of the landscape is seen with many horizontals and verticals.

The fantasy genre of this story comes through with the talking animals and animals that act just like humans. The adult animals all wear clothing (Sylvester’s dad wears a suit for an office like job and his mother wears a house dress for keeping house). The pig policemen even have on uniforms with badges and hats. All the children, incidentally, have no clothing on. Maybe this points out the innocence of childhood and the conformity of adulthood. However, the mean lion is also not wearing any clothing. I wonder what this could signify. The existence of the magic stone also calls the reader to the understanding that this is a fantasy book, with the stone being an everyday object turned into a magical object that can grant wishes to the holder.

The title page has Sylvester sitting on a rock, holding the magic stone, and looking at it. That would be a great place to draw attention to the fact that the magical stone caused a lot of problems, but is still kept in a safe in the Duncan household. What would happen if ten years from now they decided to take it out and test it’s powers? Would they remember the despair it caused in the past? Would you remember this despair if granted a magical stone?