Miss Rumphius
By Barbara Cooney

Puffin Books

Written in 1982, this book remains a favorite and can still be found on the shelves of many book stores. The story opens with Miss Rumphius as a young girl who decides that when she grows up, she will do three things: travel to faraway places, live by the sea, and make the world more beautiful. She has wonderful adventures traveling to far away places and then decides to find a place to live by the sea. She becomes ill and while recuperating, from her bed she can see fields of lupines which are beautiful blue, purple and rose-colored flowers. Without revealing the ending, this vision inspires her idea of how to make the world more beautiful. The illustrations, while they depict an earlier time in our history, have a charm and peacefulness that is very soothing and appealing.