The Cow on the Roof
Maddern, Eric. The Cow on the Roof. New York: Frances Lincoln, 2006. Print.
The Cow on the Roof is the story about Shon and Sian and the roles and chores they take on everyday. Despite Shon’s accusation, he learns that Sian’s chores are just as hard.
The book right off the bat goes into defining male and female roles. Where Shon works all day in the hot sun doing the “hard work” outside, Sian gets to enjoy staying home and doing the “easy jobs”. I am glad the story ends with Shon understanding Sian’s job is not as easy as he thought it would be, but this only reinforces the idea of gender roles. A man cannot do the work of a woman is one of the messages of this story. I thinking defining these roles is inappropriate for a child because I believe they have the right to do anything they want to pursue; why should the messages of these books stand in their way?
The other idea I wanted to go into that I believed was inappropriate is the section talking about the homemade brown ale. This book goes into detail explaining the “dark colour, a frothy head and a smell that made his mouth water”. I think they could have chosen a different beverage to use. Not all kids know what ale is and if they do not know then you have to explain it to them which could produce certain problems. Assuming a child knows what an ale beverage is probably is not the best idea.
I did appreciate the colorful illustrations. They were very neat looking. I love when picture books give an abstract sort of view on life and this book did just that. It seems to be more interesting.
Bubble Trouble
Margaret., Mahy,. Bubble trouble. New York, NY: Clarion Books, 2009. Print.
Bubble Trouble is the story of this baby boy whose sister blows a bubble and the boy gets stuck inside. This bubble explores the town and everyone beings to chase it until a young lad uses a sling shot to pop the bubble, hurling the baby towards the ground. With the help if the towns people, they are able to catch the falling baby in a quilt.
The really nice thing about this story is it is told in a rhyme. I personally like books that rhyme because they add a “sing-songie” kind of feel to the story. As a child, I remember liking poems and rhyming books because they seemed more exciting and I could not wait to get to the next page. The other nice thing about this book is all of the wording is done in waves. This makes the book more interacting as your eyes flow along the peaks and valleys of the text. The story is simple, but you meet a ton of different characters along the way. This give a child more chances to relate with a character and to see the interactions amongst different people in a society. The last thing I want to comment on are the illustrations. It seems like Polly Dunbar used different mediums to create these pictures and I really appreciate that. As a kid, the pictures where extremely important to the story. I could stare at the pictures and find new things every time. Using different mediums and putting them all together, to me, is very appealing to the eye. Overall, this book was pretty fun and I did enjoy it.
I Stink!
McMullan, Kate, and Jim McMullan. I Stink! New York, NY: Joanna Cotler Books, 2002. Print.
This is the story of the life of a garbage truck…that’s it.
What drew my attention to this book were the exciting illustrations. They look to be made out of water colors and I think they are really neat. The colors fill the pages from side to side leaving only enough blank space for the words. There was one section of this book I particularly enjoyed. In this section, it explains what is in this garbage truck in alphabetical order starting with A and ending with Z. I always liked when books did that. Some of the responses were really creative and the illustrations only added to this stimulating tool.
As far as the overall story, it wasn’t my favorite. A day in the life of a garbage truck just does not seem all that exciting to me. I did not see a nice message presented in this book. I am not sure what kind of literary merit a child could earn from reading this piece. Although it was really cool to look at and the colors blew my mind, I find the story to be an important part and this book seemed to fall short. It did not hit on any topics a child could remotely relate to, unless they have thrown away a dirt diaper or ugly underpants.
Down by the Cool of the Pool
Mitton, Tony. Down by the cool of the pool. New York: Orchard Books, 2002. Print.
This is the story of a animals dancing down by a pond and how each one dances differently.
This was another rhyming story which I personally like. The rhymes provide a nice rhythm which makes the story even more enjoyable. This book hits upon the issue that we all do things differently, for example dancing, but just because it is different does not mean we cannot all still have fun. In fact, the dancing of all of the other animals adding to the frog made the event more fun. This is a great lesson for kids and a lesson you can always refer back to if you were doing another activity and your students are not seeing eye to eye. It is important to remember that everyone has their own way of participating in different activities but that does not mean a certain individual is wrong.
I also appreciated the illustrations in this book. There are tons of colors on page and lots going on. I could spend a long time just looking at the expression and body moments of each animal on each page. Overall, I enjoyed this book. It would be a good choice to read to a kindergarten classroom or have on the shelf of a 1st to 2nd grade room.
Freckleface Strawberry
Moore, Julianne. Freckleface Strawberry. New York: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books, 2007. Print.
This story is the story of a young lady struggling to hide freckles from the other children because she thinks she is different.
I think this book is a great learning tool for children because it shows them that it is ok to be different. Even though the main character tries to hide the fact that she is covered in red dots, she learns that these things are part of everyday life and it’s kind of cool to be unique.
I really liked the illustrations in the book. They reminded me of a comic book style where following the action takes place all over the page. I think this is this visually stimulating for children. The pictures also represented all different races within the illustrations. This is important for the children. This allows them to identify and relate to the children in the book. The colors used in this book were also very unique. They did not have to fill the page with colors in order to keep it interesting. Having some white space within the different “comic frames” made it easy to follow and simple.
The vocabulary in this book also provided easy understanding and is appropriate for kindergarten through 3rd grade.
It was nice to see all of the children “missing” the main character at the end of the book. This shows self worth and provides a sense of want that the kids can all hope to have in their lives. This book for sure has the best message of the 5 books that I read for this assignment.
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