I Feel Five!

Fritz has big expectations for his fifth birthday. Five is big; he expects to feel things happen to him on this birthday. Loose teeth. The ability to tie his shoelaces. Turning five is about more than cool gifts—he wants to transform. So he is disappointed when he wakes on his fifth birthday and doesn’t immediately feel different. There are no loose teeth, and he can’t snap his fingers. How does he know he’s five when everything feels just as it did when he was four? He gets what he’s searching for when he meets a little girl unable to reach an apple on a high tree branch. When she asks him for help, he agrees, and in this gesture of generosity—even bravado—he finds the signal he’s been waiting for. He’s five: he’s capable. He may even feel a tiny wiggle in his tooth.

Like all Murguia’s books, I Feel Five is a winning, spot-on slice of a child’s life. Turning five is a big deal when you’re five, and the urgent desire to grow up—to feel different, to mark the years eagerly, with excitement and anticipation—is palpable here. It’s a perfect choice for the preschool and kindergarten set.