Thanks to a listener suggestion, Kate and Betsy finally crack open the Henkes box. And when you're talking Henkes, there's only one place to start. Now I should warn you right from the start that Betsy makes an egregious error in this podcast. That's right. She makes the claim that Julius, Baby of the World was published AFTER Purple Plastic Purse. On the flipside, this podcast may be the first time anyone has ever noted the presence of Ignatz Mouse from Krazy Kat in this book.

And as Kate says about the story, "It's not about the purse".

Show Notes:

- We believe Kevin Henkes ran into Susan Hirschman when he traipsed in as a stars-in-his-eyes teen. You can read a rather lovely remembrance of this moment in this Horn Book article Kevin Henkes - Twenty-Five Years: https://www.hbook.com/2005/07/choosing-books/horn-book-magazine/kevin-henkes-twenty-five-years/

- Betsy and Kate are happy to hear any alternate titles to this book. The two they've come up with so far are, "Mr. Slinger's Revenge" or "Lilly Undone".

- This book came in at #11 on the Top 100 Picture Books Poll: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2012/06/15/top-100-picture-books-11-lillys-purple-plastic-purse-by-kevin-henkes/

- The Lilly musical can actually be viewed here in its entirety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q20LPjApOAo

- Here is the link to the piece I found on Teaching Children Philosophy: https://www.teachingchildrenphilosophy.org/BookModule/LillysPurplePlasticPurse

For the full show notes, please visit Betsy's blog at http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2018/08/13/fuse-8-n-kate-lillys-purple-plastic-purse-by-kevin-henkes