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Beverly Clearly is a well know children's literature author and for good reason. Her books were some of my favorite growing up and are still popular among children. Dear Mr. Henshaw is no exception. This is a great story about a young boy trying to grow up through some adversity. His parents have gotten a divorce and his dad isn't around much because he is a truck driver. Leigh gets assigned a project in school to write to an author. Somehow the boy finds relief in writing to someone about so many things. In the beginning of the book the author sends questions back for Leigh to answer. He finds this very difficult and doesn't really care to answer them because no one had ever really cared or asked before. The author in the book also suggested that he keep a diary. So the entire book is Leigh's letters and diary. I really like the format of the book. It keeps things interesting and it is told from Leigh's perspective and in his words. It kind of leaves room for your imagination to take over. Also I feel like the emotions are more real. Instead of just saying "Leigh's mad" it would have the angry words he is thinking.
After our discussion in class I began thinking about the race and gender and social status of many of the characters I have been reading about. In this book the main character is male and white (according to the picture) but he lives with a single parent in a small home. His mom always says something about it being all the can afford. I like the fact that this book is addressing divorce and the reader can try to relate to the emotions and ups and downs that go along with a child experiencing it. The other thing we talked about was the dog. This character does have a dog. It just goes with is father on the long hauls to keep him company. I feel like it is symbolic of Leigh actually having a piece of himself with his dad at all times through the dog. I liked the transformation that Leigh went through in the book as well. I mean he misses his dad and will always miss him, but in the beginning all he wanted was for him to come home and for everything to be the same again. In the end he realizes that it willi never be the same and that it is better off this way.
Great book.
So I will have to admit the reason for choosing this book was because of the title. I thought that it would be a fun book to add an accent to when reading to a child. I tend to like to say the word pizzeria by rolling my tongue at the 'r'. With that being said, this book is a cute little story about a family run pizzeria. The son of the owner is sad when his father decides to open a bigger restaurant because the son is always in the way and no longer able to help is father. But the story ends with the father going back to his little pizzeria and naming it after his son. It is a cute story about probably most kids' favorite food, pizza. The pictures are not my favorite. In some of the illustrations, there is a lot going on and the pictures are very busy. It is hard to determine where one person ends and the other person begins. Definitely not what I expected it to be but the storyline ends up being a lovely story.
This is a very deep book. It is not necessarily my kind of book but it had good intentions. The gift from the sea is actually a rock that a little boy finds on the beach. The story goes on to tell the history of the rock and how it got to where it is now. The rock had survived all the eras of history including when dinosaurs lived and the ice age. In essence, I think the story has a good purpose to expose children to those times in history. I am just not sure that a child would understand this purpose. The pictures are dark and appeared to be painted. I feel like this book wouldn't grab the attention of a child unlike some other picture books I have read. And with that... I have not much more to say about this one.
Can you say adorable! That lesson in class was perfect to have before reading this book! I found myself going through all the different aspects of the picture book that I had never thought of before.
Starting with the dust jacket: this adorable black kitty had gotten into some purple paint and has made paw-prints all over the cover. There is even a paint can tipped over on a dogs head. The title is in paint that looks like it is dripping down the page. Cover= success.
Endpapers and Title page: so there are more paw-prints continuing across the page showing the path the little kitty took through the book. The title page is a clever illustration showing the disaster the kitty made throughout what looks like the living room and the author/illustrator is creatively placed in a picture on the end table. All the dedications and copyright stuff is on the back of the title page in pictures on the wall which have also been tortured by the kitty.
Internal Design: The font used is different in different place which really catches your eye. The kitty in the story is hungry so it goes through the alphabet with a healthy food choice for each letter. Each letter of the alphabet is red compared to the rest of the word in black text. It is also bigger and bolder to make it stand out. I wish I had learned my alphabet this way.
The book goes through the alphabet four different times each in a clever way.
The illustrations to this book are a delight to look at. They are humorous along with the text and follow the silly plotline. I would recommend this book to any child especially when learning the alphabet. Two Thumbs Way Way Up!!!!
So after I had picked up an Arthur book, I began to think more about the books I was picking out rather than randomly picking books. I started to think back to the books I remember reading and enjoying and for some reason they were all mostly apart of a series. The Berenstain Bears is another one of those infamous series that everyone has heard of and everyone loves. I remember even having The Berenstain Bears movies. So of course I had to find a book.
This one in particular is one of those types of books that you really need both the pictures and the text to get the story. The text has very limited vocabulary. But has a cute rhyme and rhythm to it. The story is about the three little bears journey through a spooky old tree. The pictures add so much to the story that the words don't even hint too. The illustrations are a little dark but I think that goes well with the spooky theme. The words are easy to find in the illustrations and they even follow the path of the bears on a couple of pages. I think this is a great book to read to a child that doesn't read yet so they are more inclined to look at the pictures instead of the words so that they understand the underlying story.
So everyone knows the Arthur books. This is just another one of the books of the series. I remember reading these books when I was younger. I loved that there was even a television show that went along with it that I would watch in the mornings while eating breakfast. Reading this book made me want to have a bowl of cereal.
This time Arthur and his best friend Buster take the city bus to go to their swimming lesson but fall asleep and miss their stop. The rest of the story is about their problem solving and getting home. I think this is a common fear among children that ride the bus. I think this is a good way to address how to stay calm and to logically think through the problem.
I really like these books for the older children to read. The content is more difficult reading and really pertains to events going on in many kids' lives. I think it is enjoyable for a child to follow a family like Arthur's and continue on the many journey's they have. The illustrations are also very good. They are water color, I would say, but are very detailed and cover the entire page. Sometimes the text is hard to find. But I love the personality of the characters and the book and series would be great for the young reader.
First off this book has cut outs. I LOVED that when I was a child. I don't know what about it but it made books so much more interesting for me. The book is about all the animals at the zoo. I like the overall aspect of the book introducing all the different animals, and I mean all. I think it is a great way to get children to learn the different animals. I only have 2 beefs with this book though.1. The pictures are so abstract that I think children get a distorted picture of animals they may not know very well. To me the pictures are fun, but I already know that a seal isn't purple and a pony blue. That is confusing to me in my 21 year old mind.2. The sounds that the animals make in this book are ridiculous. If I were to say to you, "What animal makes the shizu-ziwu-ziwu sound?" I don't think you would have a clue?? Again not teaching the child listening or reading this book the sounds you would expect to hear is a bit trouble again to my 21 year old mind. I suppose they are a little bit fun to try to pronounce, but might not be so fun for a struggling or even new reader. I guess I can look at it from my speech and language point of view... they are being introduced to a ton of phonemes.
