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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
Every kid daydreams about digging a hole like Sam and Dave. Mac Barnett's subterranean tale succinctly and sweetly answers the question: what happens if you just keep digging? Jon Klassen's illustrations again earned him another Caldecott Honor, and I fully support this. His consistently hilarious and earnest artwork -- as demonstrated again in this book -- easily makes him my favorite current illustrator.
Sam and Dave are determined to dig a hole until they find something spectacular. What unfolds in this story is a wonderful mix of what is happening in the story and what is happening in the illustrations. This book is a 2015 Caldecott Honor Book for a good reason. The book as a whole, the writing and the illustrations, play off of each other so well that this book tells a story beyond the words on the page. There is such a sense of adventure in this book that any child will find this a wonderful read! My three year old loved looking at the pictures and pointing things out on the page that should not be missed. I definitely recommend this book!
This was pretty frustrating and funny at the same time. I think the moral of the story is that there are many different choices we can make, and they can have many different results...of varying success rates. But we can always try to find a silver lining.
This was my Barnett/Klassen gateway drug. It is so wonderfully weird and fun. This is one of my all time favorite read-a-louds for elementary age kids. It never fails me.
I personally didn't get much out of this one but my students LOVED it and requested that I read it over and over. There's the story, then there's the story told by the pictures, which is kind of neat, and then there's the ending which is kind of eh. But like I said my K and 1st graders liked it a lot.
I cannot wait to use this for a preschool visit and see the kids' reaction to Sam and Dave digging past the underground treasures. I love Klassen's artwork. Plus, "spectacular" is such a great vocabulary word.
Great book on so many levels - fantastical, funny, great message, great characters, perfectly illustrated.
Summary: This is a story about two boys and their dog that start to dig a hole and continue digging. They want to find something “spectacular”. Throughout the story they change course multiple times and end up digging around all the spectacular things that are buried around them. Eventually, they dig all the way through the ground until they end up at a new house.
Evaluation: This book really got me involved with the characters as I saw them get so close to something spectacular but keep passing it by. I just wanted to tell them to not give up and continue on the same path. I like how the colors were dull and simple throughout the story. It kept me more focused on what really happening.
Teaching Idea: I would use this book to teach about irony. Students would be instructed to close their eyes and just listen to the words of the story. Most likely the students will all visualize something very different than what the illustrations show. After reading the book again and showing the pictures, we would discuss the irony of the story.
Evaluation: This book really got me involved with the characters as I saw them get so close to something spectacular but keep passing it by. I just wanted to tell them to not give up and continue on the same path. I like how the colors were dull and simple throughout the story. It kept me more focused on what really happening.
Teaching Idea: I would use this book to teach about irony. Students would be instructed to close their eyes and just listen to the words of the story. Most likely the students will all visualize something very different than what the illustrations show. After reading the book again and showing the pictures, we would discuss the irony of the story.