The Little Scarecrow Boy

Rating:
Summary: great!
Review: I just read this book to my first grade class and they loved it. It's a great book to introduce the idea of never giving up and feeling proud after a job well done.

Rating:
Summary: The Faces We Make
Review: Margaret Wise Brown has, through this book, shared with parents how to accept and assist children wanting to take risks and explore life. This is also a wonderful book to use as a way of explaining adult jobs to children. It is a way of aleviating children's fear of separating from parents when they go off to school. The author has shared her humor, creativity and I suspect her experiences. This picture book is also considered a predictable book, because there is one verse that is repeated. Enjoy this delightful lighthearted story and see if you can relate to it or to other books that you have read.

Rating:
Summary: Scarecrowing literally runs in the family.
Review: The crows end up chasing the little scarecrow novice, and as he runs away from them in lushishly illustated strawy discombobulation, he makes each face he has practiced to scare crows away. But, ironically, not one of his "scarecrow faces" does actually scare the crows away, and he is carried away by the big black birds. No, just kidding. He just ends up being saved from the untold fate with the crows by his father. This book definitely gets its "charm" from simplicity, but it works. I read it three times in a row to a three year old in the special needs class today. Nice, simple, autumn themed book-it is.

Rating:
Summary: Scarecrowing literally runs in the family.
Review: The crows end up chasing the little scarecrow novice, and as he runs away from them in lushishly illustated strawy discombobulation, he makes each face he has practiced to scare crows away. But, ironically, not one of his "scarecrow faces" does actually scare the crows away, and he is carried away by the big black birds. No, just kidding. He just ends up being saved from the untold fate with the crows by his father. This book definitely gets its "charm" from simplicity, but it works. I read it three times in a row to a three year old in the special needs class today. Nice, simple, autumn themed book-it is.

Rating:
Summary: A gentle tale of the value of perseverence
Review: This gentle tale of the value of perseverence is in the best Margaret Wise Brown tradition. Without talking down to young children, she manages to convey the importance of stick-to-itiveness and the great love a young scarecrow boy has for his father. Trying the best he can to live up to his father's work ethic and talents, the little scarecrow boy tries and tries to scare the crows away. Although he fails over and over again, he does eventually succeed and sees that not only is his father proud of him--he is proud of HIMSELF. This is a great lesson quietly told--it's not preachy or high-handed in any way.

Brown's charming tale is greatly bolstered by the color-saturated illustrations of David Diaz. These have a lovely, soft 1930s look that reminds me very much of the illustrations in the original Raggedy Ann and Andy books. I especially like the way Diaz pulls back his perspective on the last page so that you really see why the little scarecrow boy feels, happily, that all is right with the world.

Rating:
Summary: A gentle tale of the value of perseverence
Review: This gentle tale of the value of perseverence is in the best Margaret Wise Brown tradition. Without talking down to young children, she manages to convey the importance of stick-to-itiveness and the great love a young scarecrow boy has for his father. Trying the best he can to live up to his father's work ethic and talents, the little scarecrow boy tries and tries to scare the crows away. Although he fails over and over again, he does eventually succeed and sees that not only is his father proud of him--he is proud of HIMSELF. This is a great lesson quietly told--it's not preachy or high-handed in any way.

Brown's charming tale is greatly bolstered by the color-saturated illustrations of David Diaz. These have a lovely, soft 1930s look that reminds me very much of the illustrations in the original Raggedy Ann and Andy books. I especially like the way Diaz pulls back his perspective on the last page so that you really see why the little scarecrow boy feels, happily, that all is right with the world.