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Description

“On our block, there is a lady who lives alone.” That line begins young Sally’s reflection on a neighbor friend, an elderly woman who is a comforting presence to the neighborhood. I Know a Lady gives us a model of a mutually supportive inter-generational friendship. Near the end of the story, Sally wonders “if some old lady she knew had a garden and cooked and smiled and patted dogs and fed cats and knew her name.” Sally’s thought includes a realization hard for children and adults to manage: that old people were once children. Sally then thinks that if she were an old lady and the old lady were a little girl, she, Sally, would love her neighbor just as she loves her now.

(Click above to download Gareth B. Matthews' review of I Know a Lady and click here to download his teacher guide to the book.)

Publication Date

2026

Publisher

Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children

City

Montclair

Keywords

adult, child, friendship

Disciplines

Early Childhood Education | Education | Philosophy

Comments

This review was originally published in Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children 7(2): 1, 1987.

<em>I Know a Lady</em> (1986) by Charlotte Zolotow

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