Week 4 books

Older Than the Stars; a picture book by Karen C. Fox:

This book surprised me in a few ways; it was not entirely what I was expecting. I expected it to be more general with its written information, and more detailed with its illustrations. However, the written text used scientific language such as atoms, and supernova, which presumably few young children would understand. Whereas the illustrations provided little detail, and were quite simplistic, looking as though a child had drawn them. The text-type of this book appears to be a mixture of recount, and information report, exhibiting features of both, such as recounting a sequence of events, and the use of technical terms.

This said, I believe this book would be a great way to introduce younger children to these scientific terms, and investigate the form of the information report a little further. It could also be used to model how poetry can be written, as each double page contributes another line toward the construction of a poem completed at the end of the book.

Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus:

This children’s novel is about Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends, and is essentially a collection of ten short stories. In my opinion the text is aimed at a young audience, possibly the junior primary years, as the stories are quite light and fuzzy and do not tackle anything too thought provoking.  

An interesting feature of the book is that there is a deliberate effort to emphasise the point that the forest animals cannot spell correctly. My thoughts on this are that this is done to emphasise the point that the forest animals have not been educated, therefore sending a subtle message to the reader about the importance of schooling.

This book could be read to junior primary students, and possibly investigate the language used to describe characters or identify what they are doing.