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joyous_mango's review
5.0
The Wooden Camel is a book about a boy who dreams of racing camels. His dreams are challenged when his family's camels are sold to buy water. The main character, Etabo, is sad until his sister makes him his own wooden camels. This was an Honored Book for Young Children through the Children's Africana Book Awards (CABA) website. I think this book is useful for early readers for many reasons. One reason is because the pictures in the book explain the text well. The lesson of the book is also repeated multiple times throughout the book "your dreams are enough!" I chose to review this book because it introduces children to another culture. This book was honored on the CABA website for the country of Kenya. Although the language is in English, the names of the characters are authentic. This book gives students a glimpse into a life of a boy who does not have easy access to water, houses look different, and everyday life activities look different. Even children have to go to work, and these are different experiences than what children have in America. But the one thing that connects this book to children in my classroom is that every child has dreams, an imagination, and the animals can help as well. I recommend this book because of it's powerful message of dreams, and the conversations it will bring up with young children. Some ideas for instruction I had while reading this book was to incorporate dramatic and imaginative play. The book ends with Etabo playing with his wooden horses that "seem to come to life." I can set up a play area for children to bring their own dreams or adventures with animals to life. Another idea I had was to have children think about their own dreams and draw them achieving their dreams. I think this would be an enriching book to put on any classroom bookshelf!
annelives's review
4.0
A bittersweet story. I liked the artwork. It's soft and simple with elongated and disproportionate imagery.
libraryrobin's review
2.0
A boy uses his imagination to overcome the depressing realities of his life. Quite a downer.
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