For this assignment, I wanted to focus on the theme of friendship. The books I read discussed friendships between animals, children, siblings, and even a book that explained how you lose friends.
My first book was:
Carle, E. (1995). Do You Want To Be My Friend? . Hong Kong: Harper
Collins Publishers.
Collins Publishers.
Summary
In this book, a little mouse goes on an adventure to find a friend. On each page he encounters a different animal until he finally finds another mouse who becomes his friend.
Review
One of the first things that caught my eye about this book is the lack of text. The only line on the first page is, “Do you want to be my friend?” This book is unique because it allows teachers and children to add their own dialog to the story. When we read this book in class at the child care center, our children loved to add their own voices to the book. Some children echoed what the mouse asked each animal, while others tried to guess the animal the mouse has asked to be his friend. The younger toddlers pretended to be the different animals and growl like a lion or neigh like a horse. In the end, they loved when he found a friend right before he met the snake. It is interesting how in each picture you see the tail of the snake at the bottom of the page. It definitely feels like the snake is lurking waiting to meet up with the mouse. The illustrations of the animals are so colorful and bold. The ways the animals are painted almost gives texture to them. It really brings the story to life.
My second book was:
Wilson, S. (2008). “Friends and Pals and Brothers, Too.” New York: Henry Holt and Company.
Summary
This book is about two brothers who look different from each other in size, but enjoy doing all sorts of fun activities together.
Review
What I love about this book is that the author talks about a friendship between siblings. The author shows children that they can form special relationships with their siblings. The title of the book is great because the two boys are friends and pals but most importantly, they are brothers too. That is an important lesson to teach children. The author symbolizes this togetherness by having pictures of things that go together in the background on almost every page of the book. There are two balls, two little ducks, two eggs, and two sets of boots. Another fun thing about this book is that it is a rhyming book. Another way the author shows togetherness is by connecting the pages. The end of each line on a page rhymes with the last line on the next page. This aspect of the book also makes the book perfect for reading aloud to children. Children would enjoy the rhymes, and the reader could also ask the children to guess what rhyme word is used on the next page. Another lesson taught in the book is that being different is not a bad thing. In several of the pictures the younger brother does the same activity as his brother, but he does it a little different because of his size. One example is when they go skiing; the younger brother goes tubing down the hill instead of skiing but still has the same amount of fun.
My third book was:
Carlson, N. (1994). How to Lose All Your Friends. New York: Viking.
Summary
Nancy Carlson jokes about what children can do to lose all their friends. She lists 6 different ways you can act to make all your friends not want to play with you. In the end she shows how lonely you will be if you have no friends and she makes the children realize how much they like having friends.
Review
This book puts a funny twist on friendship. The first page of the book states, “If you don’t want to have any friends, follow theses simple instruction.” It is interesting how the author lists the instructions. The instructions are the only text on the following pages and they are in big bold purple print. It definitely makes the instructions stand out from the rest of the text. This is a great way to directly communicate to children why you shouldn’t behave like this. This book also uses facial expressions to depict the lessons. The book shows how unhappy the other children are to be around someone who never shares, whines all the time, is a bully, and so on. Even the cover of the book shows a child hogging all the toys and all the children below him have frowns on their faces. In many of the illustrations the children who are acting out are not smiling as well. They seem to be doing theses things because they are unhappy and they think by making others unhappy it will make them happy. Many of the other children are shown running away from the child. The author brought expressions to the animals in the book. Many of the animals reflect the same feelings as the children in the story. They have a sad look when one of the children is acting out. When the child decides to share the children are happy as well as the pets.
My fourth book was:
Kolar, Bob. (1999). Do You Want to Play? New York: Dutton Children’s Book.
Summary
Bob Kolar looks at friendship in several unique ways. The two main characters look at the idea of friendship through a number of ways such as jokes, a game, and even a story within a story.
Review
I absolutely loved this book! I kept re-reading this book because there was so much detail in each of the illustrations. You have the main friendship between the two characters, but there are so many interactions between the other characters in the book. It was interesting because all the characters in the book are different objects, food, people, and even houses. All the characters have bold patterns to them. These aspects make the book very imaginative. Each page is a new adventure, but the author keeps some consistency through the book. Each page teaches children a different lesson. There is a little box and a little ladybug with a friendly tip on each page. Throughout the book the author uses all kinds of font. The font stays the same between the two main characters, but all the sub-conversations use a variety of fonts and sizes. It adds to the creativeness of the book. The artwork also fills the entire page. It seems like there is so much detail that the author needed the entire page. Each page presents friendship in such an extraordinary way. The author presents friendship through a diagram of what a friend should be, a story within the story, and a board game. This aspect makes the book interactive. The child reading the book can play the game with friends. This book would work better for children to read individually, or with a friend, instead of a teacher reading it at story time. For a child to really enjoy this book and understand all the different parts of friendship they need to be able to read the book at their own speed. This book is just full of creative lessons about friendship.
My fifth book was:
Jahn-Clough, Lisa. (1999). My Friend and I. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Summary
This book is about a little girl’s friendship with a little boy. They love playing together until the boy gets a new toy that he does not want to share. In the end, their friendship is renewed when the toy breaks and they have to work together to fix the toy.
Review
The first thing that caught my eye about this book was the race of the two friends. This point is accentuated by the fact that the author never mentions race in the story. Instead she focuses on the friendship between the children. This book uses color to help show the different emotions of their friendship. At the beginning of the book, the background is red and pink when the little girl is happy. The whole page is black when the two children are fighting over the toy bunny. After the two children make up on the last page, the background is red and pink again. Some of the pages lack color all together. To fix the toy, as well as the friendship, the little girl uses a bandage. The author uses the bandage physically as well as emotionally. Another interesting aspect of this book is that the children do not have names. The little girl tells the story to us. We are introduced to the two main characters as my friend and I, which of course is the title of the book.
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