The “Jillian Jiggs” stories by (Canadian author) Phoebe Gilman – now available in convenient treasury edition: http://www.amazon.ca/Treasury-Jillian-Jiggs-Phoebe-Gilman/dp/0545993164/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271301232&sr=8-1
In my experience, both girls and boys *love* these stories (about the 3-7 age range). And Jillian is seriously the poster girl for ADHD. She’s disorganized, and she loses things, and gives her mom prematurely grey hair, and she’s extraordinarily kind and creative, and a wonderful big sister and friend.
From the first book, “Jillian Jiggs”:
“Jillian, Jillian, Jillian Jiggs! It looks like your room has been lived in by pigs!”
“Later. I promise. As soon as I’m through, I’ll clean up my room. I promise. I do.”
….
They started to clean up her room, it is true. They started to clean, but before they were through…
Jillian thought up a game that was new. They had to stop cleaning. What else could they do?
“Let’s dress up as pirates. Tie sails to the bed. Heave ho, you landlubbers! Full speed ahead!”
They dressed up as dragons. They dressed up as trees. They dressed up as bad guys who never say please.
….
Whenever they thought that was it, they were through…
She’d change all their costumes and start something new.
….
From the fifth book, “Jillian Jiggs and the Great Big Snow”:
(Jillian has lost her scarf, mittens, and now hat, making Snow Martians with her friends)
It was then that her hat disappeared off her head. “Oh no! Not again,” poor Jillian said.
“You’re in big trouble. When your mom finds out, she’ll fall down and faint, then she’ll wake up and shout:
Jillian, Jillian, say it’s not true! How do you lose all the things that you do?”
They climbed up the hill and they searched with great care. They shook every bush, but the hat wasn’t there.
At last they gave up. They admitted defeat. Besides, they were hungry. They needed to eat.
Jillian worried, “My mom will be mad. How does it happen? I’m not REALLY bad.”
….
(How many of us have asked ourselves some variation of that question? And Jillian’s extremely patient mom does not blow her stack. 