But for me, sometimes a book like this is necessary…one where the issues it is addressing don’t have to be uncovered, drawn out, or massaged. If you are trained up in writing picture books, the overt moral in this story will more than likely set off your didactic sensors. Why I Like this Book: In the end, I am recommending this book because it covers a topic that every grade-schooler deals with, and I had a great conversation with my daughter because of it.How could you convince your classmates to not tease her? Pretend you are a reporter at Camilla’s house…what would your report look like? Pretend you are in Camilla’s class. I especially loved the writing activities featured by. Parent and Child magazine takes a different bent, focusing on the idea of stripes. Here are a few for you: Scholastic has a lesson plan that focuses on the worries children feel at school, and how this book addresses those worries. Resour ces: There are a plethora of resources available online for this book.In fact, she’s so worried that she’s about to break out in… a bad case of stripes! And Camilla Cream is very, very worried about what other people think of her. Why? Because the other kids in her school don”t like them. Synopsis: (from Amazon) Camilla Cream loves lima beans, but she never eats them. Camilla was always worried about what other people thought of her.” All of her friends hated lima beans, and she wanted to fit in. Opening: “Camilla Cream loved lima beans.Topics/Themes: Individuality, Peer Pressure, Learning to be Yourself.Published By: The Blue Skye Press, March 1, 1998.Written and Illustrated By: David Shannon.And after reading it, she says, totally unprompted…”I guess Camilla learned that she should just be herself and not worry about what everyone else was thinking.” wow….yeah! So here it is, in all of its nightmare-inducing glory, this week’s Perfect Picture Book… A BAD CASE OF STRIPES. She proceeds to ask question after question about what exactly is happening to Miss Camilla Cream, the main character in the book. We read the book again, and she is completely fascinated. I have gushed about David Shannon’s artwork before on my blog here, and will gush yet again this week. It is so fantastic that you might even say it’s…haunting. And to be honest, once you see this book, you might understand why. She found the book quite worrying and even had trouble falling asleep a few nights after we read it. In each instance, there was one thing that stopped me…and that thing is the sheer terror that my 5-year-old experienced as a result of reading this book. (Mar.Today’s book is one that I have almost recommended several times. However, the grotesque images of an ill Camilla may continue to haunt children long after the cover is closed. The hallucinatory images are eye-popping but oppressive, and the finale-with Camilla restored to her bean-eating self-brings a sigh of relief. As her condition worsens, Camilla becomes monstrous, ultimately merging with the walls of her room. Shannon (How Georgie Radbourn Saved Baseball) juggles dark humor and an anti-peer-pressure message. When she finally admits her unspeakable secret-she loves lima beans-she is cured. The doe-eyed girl changes her stripes at anyone's command, and only nonconformity can save her. she sprouted roots and berries and crystals and feathers and a long furry tail."" The paintings are technically superb but viscerally troubling-especially this image of her sitting in front of the TV with twigs and spots and fur protruding from her. The rainbow-hued victim is Camilla Cream, sent home from school after some startling transformations: ""when her class said the Pledge of Allegiance, she turned red, white, and blue, and she broke out in stars!"" Scientists and healers cannot help her, for after visits from ""an old medicine man, a guru, and even a veterinarian. On this disturbing book's striking dust jacket, a miserable Betty-Boop-like girl, completely covered with bright bands of color, lies in bed with a thermometer dangling from her mouth.
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