LOGLINE:
A teacher who believes in children’s dreams can help make
those dreams come true in spite of discouraging thinking—especially if she
gives them magic buttons from her magnificent collection.
PITCH:
Miss Rebecca Buttons is a teacher who encourages children
to believe in the impossible, using her huge magic button collection as
talismans for their dreams. One student’s mom is a skeptic who tries to make
her daughter be realistic and forget all the button wisdoms. But Rebecca
Buttons persists and prevails, using her buttons to inspire the young girl, who
eventually becomes a teacher herself and takes over Miss Button’s role and her
collection of incredible buttons.
SYNOPSIS:
Dainty teacher
Rebecca Buttons is Headmistress of Wormwood School for Higher Learning. When
parents give her trouble, she is quick to set them straight, telling them that
children must have flourishing imaginations. She wants her students to be able
to do more than read or write, she wants them to know how to sing and fly
kites. More than math and
science, Miss Buttons tries to teach her students to believe in the impossible.
If someone tells you that you can’t do it, show defiance, get determined, and
find a way to accomplish that dream. She thinks her collection of magic buttons
is better than pennies or nickels. If a student comes to her in tears, she
tries to calm their growing fears, tells them to take a button from the pickle jar,
and then to wish upon a star.
Gracie
Suttons is especially feisty and wears cute and lacy dresses to school, but
Gracie’s mom, Mrs. Suttons, hates buttons. She thinks giving students buttons
is ridiculous. However, Rebecca doesn’t care what Mrs. Suttons thinks and tells
her that buttons can help any decision, and that she should broaden her
thwarted view of life. Through
the school, Miss Buttons runs a string that loops buttons for charm. Rebecca
constantly reminds the children what buttons mean: “Be kind to others. Believe in
the impossible goal. No one can give up!” Even if Mrs. Suttons wrinkles her
nose, Rebecca ignores her. Miss Buttons insists that the world needs teachers,
space walkers, doctors, artists, preachers, storytellers, chemists, deep-sea
divers, architects, actors, and camel drivers. She insists that parents must
tell their children the truth. Don’t lie to the children! Children were created
to do mighty things and must spread their wings and fly.
When
Rebecca’s buttons are stolen, she becomes so angry that her cheeks are swollen.
She thinks that Mrs. Suttons has gone crazy and stolen the buttons for sure.
Miss Buttons hides her buttons in a secret room behind her office wall, a hall
with buttons of every kind in alphabetical order depending on the problem they
remedy. Once or twice a year, she stocks up on wisdom buttons, hiring the
Wormwood Button Elves to find lost buttons all over town. Although she
continues to fill her pickle jar, she never shows anyone the secret room,
except young Gracie Suttons, whose mother has told her to be a cleaning lady
for the rest of her life. Gracie’s life has new possibility because she takes a
button from every jar. Later in life, Gracie acquires Miss Buttons’ teaching job,
and Mrs. Suttons never finds the button vault, which Gracie inherits. A button
reminds everyone to never say never!
Copyright 2022 Jennifer Waters
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