Jayce A's Book Review 2

Ewart, Claire. The Giant. New York: Walker Publishing Company, 2003. Print.

                The Giant is the story of a young farm girl who just lost her mother. Before she died her mother told her that she would always have a giant watching out for her. As she works the farm with her dad, who is also trying to come to grips with losing his wife, the girl discovers that the giant she has been searching for is her father who always takes care of her when she’s in need. There aren’t many picture books I can think of off the top of my head that deal with death. I’m sure that there are some out there, but I’ve never read one before that I can think of. I think this book dealt with the subject in a way that kids in a similar situation could connect with, and I think it would be a great book for a child who lost their mother to read. Especially I think it would be a great book for the dad to read with his kids. Another thing I found interesting was the vocabulary used in this book. I think it would be very difficult for kids in an urban, or even a suburban setting to understand parts of this book as a lot of the words are very specific to farming. Terms such as: gosling, hitching horses, rafters, hayloft, mending harnesses, cattails, reins, and sack of feed. If however, a teacher was doing a lesson on farms, then maybe this would be a good book to teach or reinforce some of those concepts, as well as being a good book to  

Freedman, Claire. Where’s Your Smile, Crocodile? Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers, 2001. Print.

                Where’s Your Smile, Crocodile? Tells the story of a young crocodile who lost his smile. His mother tells him to go play and maybe he’ll find it. While walking around the young croc meets several animals who try to cheer him up, including a parrot who makes funny noises, a monkey who makes funny faces, and an elephant who blows big bubbles in the water, but none of it helps. Finally the croc finds a little lion cub whose lost and can’t find his home, so the crocodile helps him, and when they find the cubs’ home, the crocodile finds his smile. If I were reading this book to a class of students, I think there are some great lessons that could go along with it. One thing I would do is ask all the kids to think about what they do when they lose their smile (i.e. when they are having a bad day), what cheers them up again? We could make a list as a class of all the things that cheer us up, a hug, playing with friends, listening to our favorite music, or watching a favorite show. I would also ask the kids to think about why it was after they found the lions’ home that crocodile was able to smile again? Hoping that we could come to the conclusion that sometimes when we are sad, helping someone else in need is the best way to smile again. Through these activities I would help my students to connect with the text in a more intimate way, and lead them into higher order thinking about what they are reading.

Freeman, Don. Corduroy. New York: The Viking Press, 1968. Print.

                Corduroy is the story of a small teddy bear in a huge department store who is missing a button on his shoulder. A young girl wants him, but her mother says no, pointing out his missing button. Corduroy, embarrassed, is determined to find the button that night, but does not succeed. However, the next morning the girl returns to bring him home causing Corduroy to rejoice at finally having a home and a friend. I like Corduroy because in a simple childlike fashion Mr. Freeman captures how small we can feel when someone points out a problem they have with us, in Corduroy’s case his missing button. Yet, Corduroy does not give up, rather he takes resolve to seek out his button. Further, I love how Corduroy finds out what it means to find a true home and a true friend. I think this book could be used to open up conversations with children about all three of these very important subjects: How does it make you feel when someone points out something they think is wrong with you? How did Corduroy know he had found  a true home? And How did Corduroy know he had found a true friend?

Fagan, Cary. My New Shirt. Toronto: Tundra Books, 2007. Print.

                My New Shirt describes the story of how on his birthday a young boy, for the billionth time in a row, gets a new button down collared white shirt from his grandma, Bubbie. This year, however, he “accidentally” throws it out the window and his dog Pupik takes off with it. It’s a funny story describing the dire of a young boy being forced to where a white-collared shirt. What I found most fascinating though were the illustrations by Dušan Petričić. Every page has the same tannish background, and each picture is a snapshot photograph taken from the perspective of David, the young boy telling the story, and is taped onto the page like a scrapbook. Because of this, some pages have 5 or 6 small photographs, some have just 1 larger photograph etc… Since each snapshot shows David’s perspective on the story the text tells, some are very realistic, while others are very unrealistic, or at least very biased. For example one page shows David’s neck shrinking as the tight collar constricts around it and he gasps for breathe, another photo shows all of David’s past birthday shirts flying around like ghosts, haunting him. It was one of the most uniquely illustrated books I have ever read.

Dunbar, Joyce and Debi Gliori. Tell Me What It’s Like to Be Big. San Diego: Harcourt, 2001. Print.

                Tell Me What It’s Like to Be Big is the story of a very small rabbit, Willa, who gets up early one morning to make breakfast, but is too small to reach anything. So, she goes to wake up her older brother Willoughby, who gets up to help. Willa is amazed by her all the things her older brother can do since he is so big, and asks him to tell her what she’ll be able to do when she gets big. I think there is a lot of potential in these books to open up various discussions with students. One of the primary problems Willa faces is the concept in her mind that she is not big enough. Every one of us has gone through at one time or another the struggle of not “being [something] enough”, not strong enough, not smart enough, not good-looking enough etc…  Because this is a common struggle, I think students would be able to connect on a deep level with Willa. The other main character, her older brother, Willoughby can give students who are older siblings a character to relate to. We could ask questions like, “When Willa asked for help, as an older sibling what was Willoughby’s response? Did he make fun of his little sister for not being big enough to reach the bread and honey?” “Just like Willoughby looked out for his little sister, and helped her, and taught her, what are ways that you could help your little brother or sister?” I guess the overall theme I’m getting at is that this book provides two great characters for children to relate to. On the one hand the ability to relate to Willa for not feeling big enough to do something, and on the other hand the ability to relate to Willoughby for taking responsibility to look out for and help his younger sibling.