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Willie Wins

Review
By Booklist

This picture book begins with a scene many kids will recognize. After Willie is publicly humiliated by striking out in the last inning, Dad supports him, describing what it was like playing baseball as a child on the street in the Philippines. But Willie doesn’t want to hear Dad’s childhood stories. When Willie has to bring a money bank to school, Dad gives him an alkansiya from the Philippines, made from the shell of a coconut, with something special inside from Dad’s childhood. When it’s time to empty the bank in class, Willie smashes the coconut and finds the treasure. There’s a real story here with tension and surprise, and Angel’s bright acrylic paintings show the father-son bond close-up as well as the school scenes where the bully makes fun of Willie’s coconut bank-until its content is revealed.

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