John, Paul, George and Ben
The
illustrator from The
Stinky
Cheese Man has created an imaginative title with fictional
childhood stories
about a few of the founding fathers--each coinciding with a known
personality trait:
- John
Hancock is depicted as bold (due to his big signature on the Declaration of Independence)
- Paul Revere is depicted as loud (due to his role warning residents that 'The Redcoats
are coming')
- Ben Franklin is depicted as clever (as he is known for his witty phrases and amazing inventions)
- George Washington is depicted as honest (as he is known for admitting that he cut down the cherry
tree)
- Thomas Jefferson is depicted as independent (as he is known for his writings on liberty) [and... Thomas Jefferson is not
included in the title of this book because he is
so independent that he was off doing something else at the
time.]
Younger children
may not get the humor, since most children will not have the
foreknowledge that these men are known for these particular
traits. The teacher could solve this by talking about the
men ahead of time. At the end of the book, there is a
spread with one or two sentences about each of the five men plus formal
portraits. Before reading about section, turn to the back and read the
appropriate summary. This will give away the joke a bit, but...hey, at
least they will understand it.
:)
As one would expect from Lane, this book
is off-beat and quite funny! School Library Journal
suggests you "exercise your freedom to scoop up this one."
Interest Level: Gr. 1-5
DRA Level: 38
Lexile Measure: 660L
Grade Level Equiv: 3.5
Guided Reading: P
Read-Aloud vs. Individual Reading:
For
kids in first, second, and third grade, this book
will need to be a read-aloud rather than for individual reading, as children generally do
not read on the reading level (difficulty level) of this book until the
end of third grade. The majority of fourth and fifth graders should be
able to read this book independently.
Below are sample spreads from inside this book. We love the quirky illustration style. So funny. :)
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