“”Hopefully, the scarecrow will keep the birds away,” she said.
He hadn’t known his name was Hopefully.
But he liked it.”

The friendship between a scarecrow and a young girl is the feature of this softly sweet picture book for early elementary readers and listeners. Journey through the seasons with the scarecrow as he listens to the girl read stories that make him feel “a little bit taller and braver” and uses the stories “to keep him company” when he is alone during the winter.

The tale is experienced and interpreted through the scarecrow, whose naïve innocence makes him unaware of certain things that the reader/listener will be able pick up on. Even when “the scarecrow was lonely” his optimism and patience keeps the story warmly pleasant. While this is a great read for families to share, early childhood educators may wish to add this to their repertoire to use to highlight and explain the use of perspective in a book. This tale also serves well as an example of grammar and punctuation as a comma (read by the story sharers but not heard by the scarecrow) changes “Hopefully” from the start of a sentence into a name.