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A review by gymnerdreader
Charlie & Mouse by Laurel Snyder
4.0
Annotated Bibliography Entry: Charlie and Mouse by: Laurel Snyder
Summary:
Charlie and Mouse functions as a mini storybook of sorts that tells a few separate stories about brothers, Charlie and Mouse. One story is the two brothers talking to lumps in their beds (just people who are sleeping, such as Charlie talking to Mouse and his both of them talking to their parents). The next story is about a neighborhood party in which Charlie and Mouse manage to invite the whole neighborhood to. The next story is about the brothers trying to earn money so they attempt to sell rocks only to be out of money and a garden full of rocks at the end. The last story is about the brothers successfully managing to convince their mom to give them bedtime bananas before bed.
Personal Response:
Great little storybook with some of the most simplistic and cute stories. This simplicity is meant in a good way. I think the simplicity of the stories is useful because children will actually be able to wrap their heads around the story and understand them. This book also introduces children to the concept of a storybook, which is always useful for children (to understand different genres). My favorite part about the book was the dialogue between the characters. I thought the dialogue was very witty and clever, which was refreshing to read. Like a lot of the other books I have read that were pretty humorous, I found myself laughing at multiple points. I really enjoy reading children's books that are the whole package in terms of plot, writing and humor.
Descriptions of Illustrations:
One of the highlights of this book were the simplistic stories. I found the illustrations in this book to be very simplistic as well. Besides the simplistic nature of the illustrations, they also were very cartoonish and I felt that it went along with the general nature of the story. This style of illustration I think would be very appealing to young children. Another thing I noticed is that there wasn't as much illustrations, which is something I am not used to in children's books. I don't know exactly how I feel about this, however I liked that this book's illustrations do not fit the particular mold present in a lot of children's books.
Classroom connections:
I think this is a perfect read aloud book that could be used to introduce children to storybooks (having multiple stories in one book). I think this book would be particularly useful to introduce this concept because the stories in this book are simplistic and are easy for young children to grasp and understand. This book also talks about themes, such as inclusion. This is very apparent in the Party story because the brothers invited everyone to the party, rather than being choosy. I think students could use this book to make storybooks of their own that could be read and shared with the class. Other than storybooks, I feel that this book could be used to discuss certain topics about friendship, such as kindness and inclusion. After the discussion, the teacher could explain how we should be kind and respect everyone, much like the brothers were kind and invited everyone to the party. There are a lot of things that teachers could use this book to talk about. It has the potential to promote excellent discussion about the concepts of both friendship and inclusion.
Summary:
Charlie and Mouse functions as a mini storybook of sorts that tells a few separate stories about brothers, Charlie and Mouse. One story is the two brothers talking to lumps in their beds (just people who are sleeping, such as Charlie talking to Mouse and his both of them talking to their parents). The next story is about a neighborhood party in which Charlie and Mouse manage to invite the whole neighborhood to. The next story is about the brothers trying to earn money so they attempt to sell rocks only to be out of money and a garden full of rocks at the end. The last story is about the brothers successfully managing to convince their mom to give them bedtime bananas before bed.
Personal Response:
Great little storybook with some of the most simplistic and cute stories. This simplicity is meant in a good way. I think the simplicity of the stories is useful because children will actually be able to wrap their heads around the story and understand them. This book also introduces children to the concept of a storybook, which is always useful for children (to understand different genres). My favorite part about the book was the dialogue between the characters. I thought the dialogue was very witty and clever, which was refreshing to read. Like a lot of the other books I have read that were pretty humorous, I found myself laughing at multiple points. I really enjoy reading children's books that are the whole package in terms of plot, writing and humor.
Descriptions of Illustrations:
One of the highlights of this book were the simplistic stories. I found the illustrations in this book to be very simplistic as well. Besides the simplistic nature of the illustrations, they also were very cartoonish and I felt that it went along with the general nature of the story. This style of illustration I think would be very appealing to young children. Another thing I noticed is that there wasn't as much illustrations, which is something I am not used to in children's books. I don't know exactly how I feel about this, however I liked that this book's illustrations do not fit the particular mold present in a lot of children's books.
Classroom connections:
I think this is a perfect read aloud book that could be used to introduce children to storybooks (having multiple stories in one book). I think this book would be particularly useful to introduce this concept because the stories in this book are simplistic and are easy for young children to grasp and understand. This book also talks about themes, such as inclusion. This is very apparent in the Party story because the brothers invited everyone to the party, rather than being choosy. I think students could use this book to make storybooks of their own that could be read and shared with the class. Other than storybooks, I feel that this book could be used to discuss certain topics about friendship, such as kindness and inclusion. After the discussion, the teacher could explain how we should be kind and respect everyone, much like the brothers were kind and invited everyone to the party. There are a lot of things that teachers could use this book to talk about. It has the potential to promote excellent discussion about the concepts of both friendship and inclusion.