One Proud Penny

Photo credit Macmillan Publishing

“I am a penny.

A proud penny

A single cent.

But there is nothing simple about me.”

One Proud Penny by Randy Seigel, illustrated by Serge Bloch is a book that is not so simple about a single cent. This story takes us on a ride with a penny who knows he is worth a lot, even if he’s no dollar bill. While informational, One Proud Penny reads like a fun fiction book, while also providing students with an engaging history of the penny, from the Penny himself.

Roger Seigel chose to write this informational text from the point of view of the Penny, and the Penny takes us on a wild ride to learn about his history and his journey across the world. Seeing the world from the Penny’s point of view engages readers and makes Penny feel like a friend talking about his proud achievements. Penny states that “as my man Lincoln once said, whatever you are be a good one. Which is the law I live by, so I try to be the best penny I can be.” The Penny describes his challenges and proudest achievements in a funny and engaging way to help the world make sense of cents!

Serge Bloch, the illustrator, incorporates lines in his illustrations to create 2 dimensional, flat illustrations that lay over a real image of a penny. The lines illustrate the personification of the penny who is telling the story and incorporate it alongside drawings of people to show how they are connected along the penny’s journey. The lines provide details to the story and help the reader visualize accompanying the penny to all of his places on his journey and his accomplishments and facts along the way. The lines within the illustrations are simple, yet captivating and create a unique view of information about pennies.

The composition of the words and illustrations provides readers with an engaging immersion of art and language . Balancing short simple sentences with small illustrations across the pages really engages the reader along a visual and literary adventure that is fun and engaging that draws the readers’ eyes to the illustrations and words together in one complete picture. Words and illustrations bounce across the page in different ways to demonstrate the bouncing journey of the penny to bounce the eye across each page. It feels as though you are alongside the penny while he is telling about his history.

The story of the penny is universal. Everyone uses pennies, but not everyone knows about the history of the penny. It was interesting to learn new facts about the penny in a fun, unique way. As the Penny states, “Some folks think pennies are worthless, but I know we are worth a lot.” I too was one of those people who thought that pennies were worthless, but learning all the interesting facts and becoming friends through the personification of the penny, it seems their history is worth a lot. I think for children, this book can open their eyes to the importance of the penny and how far it has come within its history.

I think that children learning about the different coins or even just historical topics will love this fun penny story and come away with lots of facts about the penny that they can share with others. The Penny’s style puts a good spin on informational writing and makes a great contribution to any collection. I think my favorite fact that I learned about the penny was that his “great uncle who was grey because he was born in 1943 and made out of steel”. This can be a great discussion point for students about why the penny was made out of steel in 1943 and how it connects to the illustration of the soldiers walking alongside the penny.

One Proud Penny is a great book for anyone who wants to make sense out of cents! The wonderful illustrations bring the story to life and the real life images of the penny can help young children become familiar with it in their everyday lives. The humor and penny’s point of view on his journey through his history is an exciting tale and one that will have everyone knowing the penny is worth a lot!

Seigel, R. (2017). One Proud Penny. New York, NY: Roaring Brook Press.