The Runaway Shirt
Author: Kathy MacMillan
Illustrator: Julia Castaño
Familius
Ages: 2-5

What happens when your laundry keeps unfolding itself and running away?
This is a beautiful tale about a mother who takes a delightful break from her chores to chase her little child around after he manages to climb into the laundry basket she is working on.
What happens when your laundry keeps unfolding itself and running away?
Everytime, she folds:
“First one sleeve, then the other. Then I fold it in half.”
And places it somewhere – on the bed, in the drawer, she even tries hanging it up, it does not cooperate!

So she decides to wear it instead. In a giggly, wiggly, messy, hug! Culminating in a beautiful exchange of I love yous between the mommy and her shirt!
“I love you, shirt,” she whispered.
“I love you, mommy” said the shirt.
Now that my kids are six, I can look back at their toddlerhood with a nostalgia born of the security of time and distance. This book was a little bit of an unexpected gut punch. I got teary eyed at the innocent silliness of the little kid and his mama playing along. It got me feeling just nostalgic enough to miss those heady days in the depths of my soul! But clearly not nostalgic enough to give in to my partner’s insistence that we have another baby.

Now I’m off to hug my almost-too-old to cuddle children. You should go read this book!
The Runaway Shirt (Support an Independent Bookstore)
The Runaway Shirt (Amazon)*
More books for this Age Group can be found here.
My thanks to Familius for providing a Review Copy of this book. All opinions provided herein are my own.
Please, leave comments! I love a HEALTHY exchange of ideas. After all, critical thinking is essential to life.