Like most kids, Christina Katerina loves all kinds of boxes. So when her family buys a new refrigerator, she immediately claims the large cardboard box that is discarded as her own.
The box promptly becomes the blank canvas fuelling her imaginative adventures with her sometimes-friend Fats Watson, as it is transformed, by turns, into a castle and a clubhouse, among other things.
In recent years, there have been several terrific picture books inspired by the endless play-possibilities of cardboard boxes — the standouts being Not a Box
by Antoinette Portis, and On Sudden Hill by Linda Sarah and Benji Davis — but I think these probably also owe at least a small debt to Christina Katerina and the Box
, whose eponymous heroine’s sparkling personality and creativity continue to spark the imaginations of generations of readers since it was first published in 1971 — a whopping 44 years ago!
The book’s charming inked illustrations by Doris Burn are timeless, and perfectly capture the simple pleasures of childhood adventures and friendship.
A definite favorite. We studied this one in my Lit class.
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