Shannon, D. (1998). No, David!. New York, NY: The Blue Sky Press.
I chose this book because it was written by a Caldecott Honor Award author, David Shannon. I was also drawn in by the illustration on the cover, which is a picture of an obviously mischievous little boy getting ready to destroy a fish bowl. The fish in the bowl have an expression that reveals they are aware of what is happening and that this is normal behavior for the boy, David. In the introduction, the author reveals that this was actually written when he was very young. In fact, he was so young that the only words he knew how to spell were "no" and "David", which are the main vocabulary of the entire book.
The content of the book is mainly illustrations. This book meets the criteria of being a picture book in that it has pictures on every page, and the pictures help tell the story. The pages and text are large enough to be seen from a distance when shown. These are a series of pictures showing David doing a variety of things that are "normal" for a little boy. The illustrations are captioned with the words no and David in some form. There are a few pages that show David being punished for the things he did after being told not to do them. The message of this book is that although David does many things that his mother does not approve of, he isn't actually punished except when he continues to do things after his mother has to him not to. The ending reveals that although he does many things his mother does not approve of, his mother still loves him and accepts him for who he is. The overall theme could be interpreted as unconditional love.
As a character, David could be considered as a round character in that there are many different aspect of his character that are revealed through his various "adventures" he encounters. But on the other hand, he could also be considered flat because he is always doing things of which his mother disapproves. It would depend on the point the teacher wanted to make. David's mother would be considered round because even though she is always yelling at David, in the end she shows another side, a loving mother that accepts her son as he really is.
No comments:
Post a Comment