Friday, February 8, 2013

   
Flora's Very Wind Day
Written by Jeanne Birdsall and Illustrated by Matt Phelan

 On a very windy day, Flora and her little, annoying brother, Crispin, are forced to go outside after making a huge mess with the paints. Having her super-special heavy-duty red boots, Flora was securely glued to the ground. On the other hand, her little brother Crispin, just had regular old purple boots, which didn't secure him to the ground at all. The wind lifts Crispin into the air,who has a very frightened look on his face. Flora kicks off her red boots and is taken by the wind as well, catching a hold onto to Crispin's hand. While being taken by the wind, Flora is given the opportunity to give her pesky brother away by receiving tempting offers from a dragon fly, man in the moon and even the wind itself. Although. at times, Flora would have loved to have given her brother away, this adventure makes her realize that even though her brother makes her mad at times, she still loves him very much and could never give him away.

Flora and Crispin flew on and on until they came upon a rainbow.
Will you give me that little boy? asked the rainbow. "He could guard my pot of gold. 
"Gold!" That was tempting. 
But, though Flora, Crispin's not fierce enough to guard anything.
"No. He's my brother and I'm taking him home." 

This was a very cute and enjoyable story that also had a great lesson. There are times when you get so mad at someone, you wish to send them away but after you start to think about it and calm down you find reasons for them to stay.  This is a great lesson for children because there will be times when they get angry at their friends and will say "'You're not my friend anymore," and not really mean it. They need to know there will be times when you will get angry at friends and wish them away but there are many more reasons for you to want them to stay, instead. 


Thursday, January 31, 2013

         
Mirror
By Jeannie Baker

Two cultures, two different stories. A picture book about two boys, two families and two totally different lifestyles. It follows one boy living in a city in Australia and another in Morocco, North Africa.
A unique book, in which is completely wordless, shows how two cultures looking totally different and being different can and will have similarities to connect to each other no matter where they live.
A great book that allows students to see and interpret every day life in other cultures and how they can relate it to their own life and culture. Without words, there are many ideas, understandings, concepts and meaning in which the author was able to portray just through her artwork.
A true picture book.