Module 5

Module 5:

A Bad Case of Stripes

Summary:

This book was a little girl named Camilla who always worried about what people thought about her. One day as she worries what she should wear to school that day he looks into the mirror to find herself covered in stripes. Nothing seems to cure her and Camilla only seems to make it worse until she realizes why such an odd occurrence happened.

Citation:

Shannon, D. (1998).  A bad case of stripes. New York: Blue Sky Press.

Impressions:

I thought this book was great. It was filled with great illustrations and a great moral lesson about being true to who you are. Most books about individuality can be trite sometimes but this book was fresh and funny.

Review:

School Library Journal
(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

K-Gr 2‘A highly original moral tale acquires mythic proportions when Camilla Cream worries too much about what others think of her and tries desperately to please everyone. First stripes, then stars and stripes, and finally anything anyone suggests (including tree limbs, feathers, and a tail) appear vividly all over her body. The solution: lima beans, loved by Camilla, but disdained for fear they'll promote unpopularity with her classmates. Shannon's exaggerated, surreal, full-color illustrations take advantage of shadow, light, and shifting perspective to show the girl's plight. Bordered pages barely contain the energy of the artwork; close-ups emphasize the remarkable characters that inhabit the tale. Sly humor lurks in the pictures, too. For example, in one double-page spread the Creams are besieged by the media including a crew from station WCKO. Despite probing by doctors and experts, it takes "an old woman who was just as plump and sweet as a strawberry" to help Camilla discover her true colors. Set in middle-class America, this very funny tale speaks to the challenge many kids face in choosing to act independently.‘Carolyn  Noah, Central Mass. Regional Library System, Worcester, MA, 2010. (Retrieved from http://catalog.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/DoSearch?databaseID=965&count=10&terms=a+bad+case+of+stripes&index=w)

Suggestions:

This book would be great in an early elementary setting in a lesson about individuality and being yourself.