My Mother Is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World

Finished My Mother Is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World written by Becky Reyher and illustrated by Ruth Gannett. It is based on a Russian folktale. A little girl accompanies her parents into the fields when everyone is harvesting wheat. The day is warm and the little girl falls asleep. When she wakes up she cannot find her mother anywhere. Others who are working nearby try to help her. They ask the child to describe her. She says "My mother is the most beautiful woman in the world." The people scour the village for all the young beauties, but not one of them is the child's mother. In the end the mother appears. She is no conventional beauty, but to that little girl she is beautiful. A sweet book that demonstrates the picture love can paint.

Ruth Gannett won the Newbery Honor Medal in 1949 for My Father's Dragon, the first in a series of three books. They are lovely and make a nice gift as a set.