Picture Book Reviews - Katelyn Heath

For this assignment I chose five children’s books that I had enjoyed as a kid. There is no underlying theme between the books other than that they were some of my favorites when I was little.


The first book and probably my favorite of the five was The Twelve Dancing Princesses. It is a story where a reward is offered by the king for anyone who can find out where his daughters go at night.

What I was looking at most while reading this book was trying to find out exactly why I loved this book and story so much when I was little. What i determined was that it really captures my eye now and probably then was the illustrastions. Don't get me wrong the story is still a good story however its the way that the story is present that really sells it I think. First of all the sides of the pages all have a gold tint to them which stands out compared to other books. Another thing I noticed in the book which I thinks gives it such a strong appeal is how much kind of glimmer is put into the book. The artist seemed to put a lot of effort trying to almost get things to shine in the pictures. Gold and silver coloring is everywhere in this book. Also around all the pages there is a border which makes the whole story look just a bit fansy then other picture books. So since in today's society little girls often dream of being princesses, this book really played up to that idea. Also I found in interesting that all of the twelve princesses were blondes. So I think this book really tries to draw in young girls who just want to be that perfect, happy, beautiful princess.

The second book that I read also plays on the idea of social image somewhat like The Twelve Dancing Princesses did. My Second book was The Rainbow Fish which is a story about a beautiful some what self-centered fish who doesn't want to give up any of his beauty but yet wonders why he he has no friends.

One thing that surprised me actually while reading this book is that the rainbow fish is a boy. Generally I feel like when a character is played up to be really beautiful it is generally a female. This book I believe also tried to play up the sparkle aspect of the book to help draw in readers for each special fin of the fish is very sparkly. Shiney and sparkly things generally attract kids so understand why the chose to make the fins like that in the illustrations. Also I think that one of the best parts of this book are the illustrations. They are very colorful and use lots of soothing colors, which just makes you want to look at them. I feel like this book like my first book really tried to draw kids in with the illustrations but then at the same time was kind of challenging the idea that the main beautiful character has to be a girl. Boy's can also be over zealous about their own looks and not think of others too.

The third book that I reviewed was the Little Bunny Follows His Nose. This book is about a bunny who spends the whole day following his nose around and exploring different smells.

One of the main differences I think between this book and the last two books that I read were that this book did not seem to rely on illustrations as much as the last two. However, this book is a scratch and sniff book so that being said they did seem to try to emphasize the scent aspect of the book. Now the book did still have big colorful pictures I just feel like that weren't near as flashy as the last two, even though I do feel like they added something to the text. One gender sterotype thing is this book that I would like to point out though is that often in this book someone is cooking and it's always the mothers. There are three different mothers cooking in this book, never once is there a father mentioned. So even though books like these are both good for learning to read and identifying smells they also are putting gender roles into children's heads. Even though this book did pretty obviously lay out a gender sterotype I did like this book because I feel like it could be a beneficial book for a lot of ages. For kids could smell and see pictures before they could even read so this book does seem to engage a younger age without them needing to read.

The fourth book that I reviewed was Gregory, The Terrible Eater. Now this book is not a very flashy book by any means. It does not have overall artistic illustrations but it still had enough detail to aid the text. One thing that I noticed about this book is that is does address an everyday thing that kids can relate to. Kids are often picky eaters and I like that this book made a whole story around an everyday issue. No kids don't really go eat a bunch of tires and stuff but that just keeps the kids more engaged and interested in the story. Also I felt that this book was pretty good about not encouraging gender sterotypes. I felt this way because there was a mother in the father in the story almost the whole time who were not really given specific gender sterotyped roles. The only thing I can really say is that they did seem to make the father a little more gruff, and maybe even the bigger voice of authority but it wasn't written for that to be that obvious I don't think.

The fifth and final book that I reviewed was The Velveteen Rabbit, which is a story about a stuffed bunny who is loved by a boy and then finally is magically turned real.

The first and most obvious thing I got from the book is how long it is. The book would definitely have to be read to older children. The illustrations were good and detailed but they were not flashy like some of the other books I read. One thing that I liked about the book was that it was a boy who loved the bunny, not a little girl. One thing that I found interesting is that the book was set years ago even though it does not directly say that. For the boy has scarlet fever and they use candels as nightlights and such. So that was interesting to me and I think it could also make it interesting to kids if someone were there to point out these differences. Also it made it even a little more interesting that the main character who loved the bunny was a boy and it was set in the past. For generally I feel books that try and challange gender sterotypes a little have been newer series and set to date.

So those were just five books that I enjoyed as a child revistied. It is interesting sometimes to see gender sterotypes and things that you don't ever notice as a kid when you revisit a book later in life.

Works Cited:

Goldenberg, Dorothea, and Bette Killion. Treasury of Fairy Tales. Linconlnwood, IL: Publications International, LTD., 1994. Print.



Howard, Katerine. Little Bunny Follows His Nose. Racine, WI: Western Publishing Company, Inc., 1971. Print.


MacCombie, Turi. The Velveteen Rabbit. Morris Plains, NJ: The Unicorn Pubishing House, 1991. Print.


Pfister, Marcus. The Rainbow Fish. NY: North-South Books, 1992. Print.


Sharmat, Mitchell. Gregory, the Terrible Eater. New York, N.Y.: Four Winds Press, 1980. Print.