You Wouldn’t Want to be a 19th Century Coal Miner in England! A Dangerous Job You’d Rather Not Have is written by John Malam. It is a historical fiction picture book all about Coal Miners in England in the 19th century. The book starts off with a simple introduction about what was happening in England and an explanation of what coal is and why we need it. The book informs you about children working in the mines, the tunnels, the cage that brings you down, and other scary aspects of older coal mining. However, the book does a great job lightening the mood with the authors word choice, and the fantastic drawings by David Antram. The book closes discussing the strikes and how the country looked like it would run out of coal! This book was perfect for children who would fall under the middle elementary ages. Not only can they read the book, but they can understand the book and appreciate it more than a younger student may be able to.
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Emily Loughman – Press Here
Another great book by Hervé Tullet is Press Here. This book consists of no characters, just words and dots. The book is great for preschool aged children. It teaches them about numbers and colors in a really fun way. The book starts off on the first page with one yellow dot and gives d
irection to press the dot and then turn the page. Each page has a different direction and when you do what the direction says and turn to the next page something will happen to the dot. The dots multiply, change colors, grow and shrink in sizes, move from side to side on the pages, and scatter! The book teaches children a lot of important information without the child even realizes it. They are learning in a different and more hands on way!
Emily Loughman – The Enormous Crocodile
The Enormous Crocodile written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake is a great book for middle elementary students. This picture book keeps the reader interested the whole time and gives great visual representations of the words! The book starts off with The Enor
mous Crocodile talking to The Notsobig One about what they will eat for lunch today. The Enormous Crocodile talks about all his different plans that he will use to eat the children to many animals throughout the area. He talks to Humpy-Rumpy, Trunky, Muggle-Wump, and the Roly-Poly Bird along the way. The crocodile tries to camouflage himself in many different ways like being a coconut tree or a bench, however every time one of the other animals catches him and saves the children. In the end, Trunky flings The Enormous Crocodile into space and he his the sun and “sizzled up like a sausage.” This book is great for kids because it has a different story line and the pictures are greatly drawn. They make the book even better! While some children are afraid of animals, this books shows that animals are not dangerous and they will not eat children for any meal.
Emily Loughman – Help! We Need a Title!
Help! We Need a Title! by Hervé Tullet is about a story that is unfinished. This picture book for preschoolers combines drawn characters and pictures of Tullet himself! Some of the characters in this fun book consist of a blonde wizard girl, a pig, a snake, a stick man, a dog, and Tullet. It starts off talking about how the characters have not been given a story yet and how they try to make the book exciting so we won’t stop reading. They then bring in a bad guy to make the story more interesting, he then tells them to ask the author for a story! It is interesting because Tullet took pictures of just his shoulders and face..then drew a body on him to complete the picture. It was very unique and fun because I had not seen something like this before. In the end, Tullet makes up a story for the book; once it is over all the characters say goodbye and the story is over shortly after that. Preschoolers will enjoy this book because of the characters, colors, plot, and all the creative aspects to it.