Bees, Snails & Peacock Tails by Betsy Franco

Final Blog
Bees, Snails & Peacock Tails By Betsy Franco Illustrated By Steve Jenkins

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

ISBN 13: 978-1-4169-0386-0

ISBN 10: 1-4169-0386-0

          Bees, Snails & Peacock Tails by Betsy Franco is a poetry book about different animals and their individual stories.  Each animal has their own rhyme, which tells a fact or two about the animal’s habits.  The animals mentioned within the story include: bees, moths, spiders, peacocks, migrating birds, ants, mice, snakes, sea stars, puffer fish and snails.  The story is filled with fun rhymes and a steady rhythm throughout the story without losing interest or creating a dull repetition.

          The book is a great visual aide to use in the classroom.  It teaches students facts about each type of animal that exists all around us.  These are not exotic or foreign animals such as kangaroos, pandas or leopards. It also includes animals who are both nocturnal and who aren’t.  The animal’s chosen for this book was a smart choice by the author. From the tiny ants to spiders to mice to birds to snakes, it reminds me of the food chain in a way.  The book mainly teaches science with hints of math, the author points out how the bees make hexagons with their nests.  “Study a beehive and you will see the mathematical genius of the bee.  The hexagons you’ll find inside fit side by side by side by side.  This math is passed mysteriously from worker bee to worker bee!” (Franco) 

          The author makes learning fun and innovating with the subtle hints of what each animal’s characteristics are.  One analogy that is mentioned is a moth’s attraction to a flame (or light).       

          The illustrations throughout are fun and create a lot of depth.  The materials used are very unique; in a way it has a touch of childlike creativity.  The pictures are clear and distinct and some materials are used on other animals, which brings a strong sense of continuity throughout.  The materials used clearly indicate a clear likeness of what the actual animal looks like in real life.  Also by keeping the illustrations real and not drawn like a cartoon makes the book more realistic and makes a strong distinguished, polished look to the overall story.

          The author uses creative ways to impact the stanza are the use of the words.  Not only the words are cleverly written, the author placed certain emphasis on the fact or words so that the reader can be more engaged while reading the book.  The letters go around the shell not only to grab the reader’s attention, but it’s also in the direction of the shell’s shape.  The shell starts with large spaced spirals where the entrance to the shell is but then becomes smaller as the rings become closer to the back end of the shell.  We can see the words “ The beautiful spirals on topshell snails” in large print and the rest of the sentence “are miniature castles with tiny details.” (Franco) in small print.  In addition to this particular animal I loved the use of newspaper to resemble dirt and/or sand to make the ground look like the ground has pebbles in it.  Also the green felt looking paper was placed as seaweed surrounding the shell.  It gives the illustration more impact and at times you may not notice the additional background images that create a quality whole picture.  I think it makes the story more authentic to also show where or how you would find the animal in nature and in its habitat.  It makes the story more realistic.  In addition to this, the puffer fish has a similar layout and is depicted in its normal form and puffed up form.  I love the detailing on the fish, it looks like it has scales and is amusing to look at.

Here is an example of the how Franco uses language, font, and detailed illustrations to
emphasize how bees communicate with each other. 

          Another illustration that I found interesting is the first and last pages show a day scene and night scene respectively. The animals during the day include the snake, spider, ant, bee, snail and one migrating bird.  Each is out and about but in it’s own habitat.  Within the nocturnal illustration, the snake is hiding in a tree, the spider has made a web, the moth is flying and there are more migrating birds flying about.  These changes between the same scenes are significant and further tell the reader more about the animal and it’s habits. It’s an interesting way to show a subtle addition to the facts throughout the book.  We see the snake is out during the day but in a hole in a tree at night and all we see are his eyes.  The buzzing bee flying about in the air now replaced with a moth.

          After the story is finished, more facts are given about each animal in addition to what was mentioned in the story stanzas.  I think it adds a nice finishing touch to enhance the science knowledge of the story that was stated for each animal.  

          The whole story teaches children about all types of animals; insects, flightless birds, migrating birds, mice, reptiles, every kind of animal is mentioned within the story.  The rhymes are clever and use language thoughtfully.  The materials for the vivid illustrations and font usage and placement give the book amazing subtle touches that make it stand out from the rest.  This book should always be read when teaching about animals in the classroom.


          This was a fun project, I have never done anything like this.  It has allowed me to be creative and think about the quality of children's books and children's books authors.  Thank you both for assigning the blogs, I know I will use this information in my classroom. 

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears By Verna Aardema

Multicultural Blog Post
Book: Why Mosquitos Buzz in People’s Ears By Verna Aardema Illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon

Publisher: Puffin Books

ISBN: 0 14 0.54905 6

Why Mosquitos Buzz in People’s Ears by Verna Aardema is a bright, colorful book with a great story line.  The story starts with a mosquito and an iguana having a conversation; the mosquito tells the iguana that he “saw a farmer digging yams that were almost as big as I am”.  The iguana didn’t believe him so he stuck sticks in his ears so he couldn’t listen to any more nonsense from the mosquito.  The domino effects starts, the iguana is oblivious to his surroundings, the python tries to talk to the iguana, he doesn’t answer so the python slips in to a rabbit hole.  The rabbit sees the python entering his hole and runs for his life; the crow sees the rabbit running and starts to spread an alarm.  A monkey hears the crow’s cries and runs to alert the other animals.  As the monkey travels through the trees he hits a dead branch, which kills an owlet.  The Mother Owl finds her dead owlet and mourns over the loss; she doesn’t “wake the sun so that dawn could come”.  Night lingers on for days. The King Lion calls a meeting and wants to know why the sun isn’t rising.  The animals are blaming each other for the owlet’s death.  The King Lion traced the cause back to the mosquito: “So it was the mosquito who annoyed the iguana, who frightened the python, who scared the rabbit, who startled the crow, who alarmed the monkey, who killed the owlet- and now Mother Owl won’t wake the sun so that the day can come.”  The Mother Owl finally calls for the sun once she knows who is responsible for her owlet’s death.  The mosquito felt awful for what happened she asks people if everyone is still mad at her and the only answer she gets is a slap.

         I loved the illustrations in the book; they are unique, colorful, fun and engaging.  Every time you flip the page there are new animals and colors, it’s a feast for the eyes.  One thing that I noticed is the difference in the colors of the animals during the day and night.  There are subtle differences but you notice that during the day all of the animals and plants are brighter and vivid.  However, at night the colors are muted.  This shows the attention to detail, and is impeccably done. Another aspect that makes the picture more detailed is that all of the animals are outlined in white instead of black.  I think it gives the illustrations more ‘pop’, structure and stand out more.  In some pages the animals look like a tangram or puzzle pieces in a way.  The many shapes, sizes and colors, which create each animal, are distinct to that species only.  The artwork is a clever use of artistic skills.

         What is interesting in this book are the way each animal behaves is true to nature.  In the wild animals rely on each other for safety, food and shelter amongst other things.  We see the chain reaction of animal instinct and the need to protect the others from dangerous predators.  The monkey who accidentally killed the owlet was only doing his job.  It is sad that the owlet died but if there truly was a predator the outcome could have been worse. 

         This is a harmonious story line.  It seems realistic because we see different animals on every page, some are flying, walking on the land, in the water swimming, or sitting in a tree.  By placing the animals in this way make the pictures more interesting and every time you read the book you notice something new.

         Through all of the confusion, and tragedy, the King Lion steps in to make everything right and find out who is responsible for the owlets death.  The King Lion, is highly respected by the other animals and obey his every command, you can tell he has a strong demeanor and makes everyone pay attention to him.  Each animal has his or her own personality, which comes through.  The mosquito seems to brag about the yam size and the iguana couldn’t care less about her or her yam.  I think it’s funny because we see the mosquito bragging at the beginning of the story and by the end she is humble and apologetic.  Even though the mosquito didn’t have much to do with the core of the story she is still affected by the events and her persona changes.

         In addition, the story has a lot of emotion throughout.  It’s intriguing because the story becomes a mystery in finding out which animal is at fault for the owlet’s death.  At times the emotions of the animals are funny, hectic, scared, sad, confusion, thoughtful, guilt and painful all come to mind when reading this book.

         I think this is a beautiful book that has a lot going on with it; it’s not busy but gives you a lot to think about and look at.  I’d recommend reading this book in class since it covers many subject areas.        

        

         

Inch By Inch By Leo Lionni

Blog One Book: Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni

Publisher: HarperCollins Children’s Books

ISBN: 978-0-688-13283-5

Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni is a wonderfully clever children’s book that I read and enjoyed when I was younger.  The characters in the book are simple, cunning and can be used as a great tool especially if the children are learning about birds, related animals or habitats.

 Inch by Inch tells the tale of a little Inchworm who meets a Robin one morning.  The Robin tells the Inchworm that he is going to eat him, but the Inchworm comes up with a bright idea and tells the Robin that he’ll measure his tail if he doesn’t eat him.  The Robin allows him to do so and is very enthused to learn that his tail is five inches long.  He forgets about eating the Inchworm and decides to take him (Inchworm) to meet his (Robin) friends and let them all be measured.  The Inchworm measures a flamingo’s neck, a toucan’s beak, and a heron’s legs.  The story continues this way until the Inchworm meets a Nightingale.  Like the Robin, the Nightingale demands the Inchworm to measure him but he wants his song to be measured.  Despite Inchworms protests that he is unable to measure the song the Nightingale threatens to eat him.  So the Inchworm does as told and starts to measure the song, he keeps measuring and measuring until he ‘inches out of sight’.

This book is great to read to a class and an interesting way to include the class and get their reaction and responses.  Also some of the birds are recognizable like a flamingo, asking questions at the end such as, ‘what birds were mentioned in the story?’ is a great way to enforce reading comprehension and learn new vocabulary words.  Another technique would be to do different kinds of voices for each of the birds that talk and even give the Inchworm a bit of an accent. 

The character I enjoyed the most was the protagonist, the Inchworm.  Lionni created a simple yet complex character in him.  It’s funny to see how the Inchworm gets out of a scary situation using quick thinking.  I also found it ironic that a little Inchworm measures many birds and manages not to get eaten and outsmarted all of them.

Another aspect I loved was the artistic look of the book.  The characters and environment were kept simple and almost looked as if a child drew them or the author was inspired by a child’s artwork.  It made the book that much more intimate and not so polished or professionally drawn.  You see that animal mentioned has a different pattern for their feathers.  I loved how certain pages the grass was drawn to look like very high with a tiny Inchworm crawling on the dirt.  It reminded me of ‘Where’s Waldo’ for a moment because the Inchworm blended in so well with the grass.  It gives the reader and listener a sense of scale and how truly tiny this Inchworm really is.  

This is a great book and I would use it in my classroom.  There are many features you highlight and focus on to effectively teach and stimulate your children into learning something new.