The Missing Piece
by Jordan Stephens, illustrated by Beth Suzanna
Interest age: 4 to 5
Published by Bloomsbury, 2022
About this book
Sunny loves to do jigsaws puzzles. Each one she finishes, makes her feel all warm inside. It’s a feeling she wish she could feel forever, and she starts to fear that if she completes every single jigsaw puzzle ever made, she might feel forever sad. Her Gran questions whether it’s really finishing puzzles that makes her happy. One day, Gran gives her an old, tattered box containing a one-thousand-piece jigsaw. Sunny has never done a jigsaw with so many pieces, and she starts tackling it straight away. But just as she’s ready to complete it, disaster, the final piece is missing.
Sunny is determined to finish the puzzle, so she sets out to find it. Going door by door, she encounters different neighbours, but none of them having the missing piece. They do offer to help her look, and pretty soon the new friends are skipping, running through fields and admiring sunflowers. When she arrives home, Sunny tells her Gran all about her great day, even though her search for the missing puzzle piece was unsuccessful. Sunny realises that maybe looking for something is every bit as fun as finding it.
This heartfelt story celebrates the joy of making new friends, and the importance of finding what makes you feel whole.
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Lists of recommended reads
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Books with family and friends looking after children
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Stories that celebrate Black culture
Yaba Badoe and Joelle Avelino, author and illustrator of Man-Man and the Tree of Memories, recommend brilliant Black stories.