#12- Old Mother Hubbard

Entry #12

Old Mother Hubbard

Written and Illustrated by Jane Cabrera

Scholastic Inc. 2001

26 Pages

Poetry

   

     This is a poetic take on the old nursery rhyme Old Mother Hubbard. Old Mother Hubbard goes to the cupboard to fetch her dog a bone, and when she gets there it is bare. So Old Mother Hubbard goes out to buy the dog all sorts of things. She buys him a hat, shoes, coat, and a wig. When she returns from each of her shopping adventures she finds the dog doing crazy things like riding a goat, washing the cat, reading the news, or dancing a jig. At the end of the book she gives the dog a huge bone and the dog is very pleased.

     Cabrera used acrylics to create the vibrant illustrations. The illustrations in this book are very bright and bold. Cabrera uses a ride range of colors for the illustrations. She tends to use a lot of reds, yellows and oranges. Also in each illustration you can see the brush strokes. This gives the pictures a little texture. All the pictures are very colorful and very child friendly. Her choice of colors really makes this a fun read.

     This book would be best suited for younger children. It could be used in the younger grades, Kindergarten to 2^nd grade. This book could be used to teach phonics. It would be a great way to have students pick out rhyming sounds. It could also be used to teach different jobs that people do. In each scenario Mother Hubbard goes to a different person to get what she needs. She goes to the cobbler, hatter, barber, etc. to get what she needs. This would be a great book to teach students about different jobs that people used to have but aren't as common anymore. Also this would be a good model for students to create their own fun rhyming scenario of a place that Mother Hubbard went to get something for her dog. 

#11- In The Wild

In the Wild

Written by David Elliott

Illustrated by Holly Meade

Candlewick Press, 2010

29 Pages

Poetry

     This book describes different wild animals through the use of poetry. Each animal has it's own poem and each poem is written in a different format. None of the poems have the same format. This book contains both rhyming and non-rhyming poems so it is a great way to show students that not all poetry has to rhyme.

     Meade used woodblock prints and watercolor to create the beautiful illustrations for this book. The colors are very bold and vibrant in this book. The colors match the mood that each animal reflects. Also Meade used a lot of jagged, wavy lines to represent movement and horizontal lines to represent tranquility and calmness. For instances with the Zebra there are lots of wavy lines under the feet of the Zebra to help represent it running fast through the plains of Africa. The illustration for the sloth, on the other hand, contain more horizontal lines to help portray it's laid back approach to life in the trees.

     This book has several different ways it could be used in the classroom. I think it could be used in almost any grade level. It would be a good book to use when doing a unit on animals. It could also be used to show that there are different types of poetry. Also if students were learning about animals in certain habitats like African animals, the teacher could read the poems about those particular animals and not have to read the whole book since each animal has its own poem and it would not take away from the book as a whole. Also only reading a few of the poems may encourage the students to go read the rest of the book.  

Intro

I am a future elementary teacher. This blog has been created for an assignment in one of my education classes. I have created this blog to post blogs about children's books that I am reading for my children's literature class. I hope that people will read this blog and learn about the great books that are out there and go and check them out. I may post more blog entries even after I am done with reading the required amount of books for my class. I hope to keep this up so that I can share with others the great books that are out there for children to enjoy.