Happy Friday!
Before I get to my Perfect Picture Book Pick, I wanted to ask that, after you are done here, click on over to The Write Chat, the Vlog that Felicia (kid author and creator of the Stanley and Katrina blog) and I started. We are interviewing – the Uber-Author CHRIS GRABENSTEIN!!!
Now back to your regularly scheduled review.
Susanna Leonard Hill has a feature on her blog called Perfect Picture Book Friday. It is a list of “perfect” picture books recommended by all sorts of people. I chose this book because it uniquely encourages imagination and creation!
The Stick
By: Clay Rice
Pages: 32 pages – ages 4+
Published by: Familius on September 20, 2014
Theme/Topic:
Genre: Fiction/Imagination
Opening and Synopsis:
Opening: “Once there was a boy who had no toys to play with. The other children had lots of toys. Every afternoon, the boy would go to the park, sit under a big tree, and watch the other children play. Sometimes they let the boy play with their toys. Sometimes not.”
Synopsis: From the inside jacket: When a young boy finds a stick on the ground, and reads the inspiring words carved into it, his life begins to change as he fulfills lifelong dreams and discovers the truth about giving.
The Stick – Our Review
Why I liked this book- This is the ultimate book about imagination. The book is totally narrated (no dialogue) and it add to the fable feeling of the story. It makes you feel nice inside. I like how there is a cycle, which explains how the boy got the stick, but not how the stick came to be (I like the mysteriousness of it). The boy is an underprivileged kid, who gets the ultimate toy – a stick – but not really -it is his imagination. The silhouette illustrations are amazing. They really add a neat perspective to this marvelous book!
Activities and Resources-
Imagination play is very cool. After reading the books, give kids their own stick (or another object) and ask them to pretend it is something or pretend they are someone else. How many different things can their stick be?
There is a cool activity over at PBS Kids that shows kids how to make their own silhouettes. Click HERE to go THERE!
To find more Perfect Picture Books please visit Susanna Hill’s blog HERE!