pierre’s portrait on a plate

i have a “mascot” puppet.  his name is pierre.  he is a very silly bird.  for instance, he doesn’t have arms or legs and one time when i did a storytime about shoes he insisted that if we were going to talk about shoes he at least needed feet!  so, i made him some out of stripey pipe cleaner.  they’re slightly unruly feet, but pierre doesn’t seem to mind.  pierre is very popular at my storytimes.  he helps me to pick out the books from the suitcase and usually has something snarky to say to amuse the adults in the room (including me!).  one day, early in pierre’s career, i accidentally left him at home.  i explained to the kids that pierre was on vacation visiting his aunt (in paris, texas–his home town.  he has a french accent, but it’s fake–he just think it makes him sound sophisticated) and that “harry monster” was stepping in for the day, but the kids were so very sad (some were even frightened of harry and he is the most goofy, gentle monster puppet i’ve ver seen–his tongue is heart-shaped!) that pierre has never gone on vacation since.

at a recent evening family storytime, a young five-year-old girl whom i’ve known since before she was born (i sang with her parents in a local choir) and who is a big fan of pierre (she inexplicably always calls him “peter” although i’ve never called him by his english name!) presented me with a lovely portrait of pierre.  can you see the resemblance?

check it out!  she’s got the striped legs, the stripes on his neck, the blue hat…i am so impressed!

and look at these tiny details:

she included a bird stamp (just like pierre!)…

and a yrreb, er… berry stamp (with tiny illustrated berries).  and on the back side?

a portrait of me!  hmmm…. maybe i should lay off the butternut squash–i look a little jaundiced.  or maybe i just bear a striking resemblance to little miss sunshine from the mr. men and little miss books?  i could live with that.  this is one of my all-time favorite pieces of kid art gifts.  it might even be better than this one.