Annotations: Childrens Literature

Bibliographic Annotations

List 1:

Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1983.

This book is about a boy named Max who goes on an adventure to where the wild things live. Max gets sent to his room for being wild in the house and causing trouble. Then Max’s room slowly turns into a forest and Max goes on his adventure. Max gets there and scares all the wild things with a magic trick. They name Max the wildest thing of all and he becomes king of the wild things. Eventually Max gets lonely and comes home. This book has a few valuable messages. Imagination is really encouraged in this story because it’s such a creative story. Also, the book expresses the importance of family. Even when Max is having fun being king of the wild things he still gets lonely for home. This was my second favorite book when I was young because I was really intrigued by the monsters and how Max became king of the wild things.

Seuss, Dr. I Can Read with my Eyes Shut!. New York: Random House Inc., 1978.

This book is a fun story about the cat in the hat showing young cat all about reading. He shows young cat all of the funny ways he can read and how much fun reading is. This book definitely packs a strong message to kids of how important reading is and how much fun it can be. Seuss stresses the importance of reading within the story by saying that reading will take you places. The book uses Seuss’s classic rhyme scheme making it a fun read for kids. The illustrations are also classic, cartoony pictures that use vibrant illustrations and show all kinds of funny characters. I liked this book when I was young because of how much fun it was to read. Because of the rhymes and silly attitude Seuss uses its hard for a child to not enjoy this book.

Bourgeois, Paulette. Franklin is Lost. New York: Scholastic, 1992.

In this story, Franklin the turtle goes over to his friend Bear’s house. His other friends Otter, Goose, and Fox are there as well and they decide to play a game of hide and seek. Franklin quickly finds Bear, Goose, and Otter but Fox is nowhere to be seen. Franklin goes against his mom’s orders and enters the woods alone to look for Fox. Franklin gets lost and eventually is found by his parents. From this story kids learn not to disobey their parents and can hopefully understand that parents have good reasons to make rules like staying out of the woods. Besides this, the book is mainly just an entertaining read for children that they can read themselves. I liked this book when I was young because it’s a fun book to read and I was a big fan of the Franklin series.

Suess, Dr. The Cat in the Hat. New York: Random House Inc., 1957.

This book is so famous and popular that it almost doesn’t need to be explained. This is the story of a boy and girl who are bored at home on a rainy day when the cat in the hat shows up to play. The book does not express any overwhelming messages but is more written for pure fun. Seuss’s unique rhyme scheme completely changed children’s literature for the better by making the book easy for kids to read while being entertaining. The illustrations are silly cartoons that combine with the writing style to make for a very appealing book. I liked this book when I was younger because it was so different from other books I had read and I found it a fun book to read. This book is definitely a classic and every child should read it.

Wilhelm, Hans. Tyrone the Double Dirty Rotten Cheater. New York: Scholastic, 1991.

This book is about a little dinosaur named Boland and his friends trying to stop the big, mean Tyrone from cheating and winning all the games. Boland and his friends are on a camping trip and Tyrone keeps winning every game no matter what. Boland and his friends figure this out and Boland comes up with a plan to have a treasure hunt. But Tyrone hears the plan and goes to get the treasure for himself in the middle of the night. Tyrone ends up running into a beehive and finally loses out for cheating. This story clearly expresses the importance of playing fair to kids. Although Tyrone wins early on, he loses in the end because his luck finally ran out. This shows children that it’s better to be honest and just have fun when you’re playing games; cheating does not pay and ruins the game for everyone. I really liked this book when I was younger because Boland and his friends finally stopped the bully. I thought it was a really good story, and I read it as often as a few times a day.

Wood, Don and Audrey Wood. The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear. New York: Scholastic, 1984.

This book is about a little mouse that finds a big red strawberry and picks it. The narrator in the story interacts with the mouse; he tells him that the big hungry bear will come eat his strawberry. They figure out that the only way to keep the strawberry safe is to eat it; and they do. This book does not pack any real hidden messages. It’s mostly just a good story book to entertain kids. The writing is very simple and makes it a great book for kids to read by themselves. The illustrations are great; everything is very detailed and it takes the reader into the mouse’s world. I liked this book when I was young because it’s just a fun story to read and the pictures were great. The book doesn’t take very long to read but its a great book for young readers.

Viorst, Judith. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. New York: Scholastic, 1972.

This book is about a young boy named Alexander who is having a horrible day where nothing seems to be going right. He wakes up with gum in his hair, his best friend is mean to him, and he has to eat lima beans for dinner. These are just some of the bad things he has to endure on his horrible day. This book gives a good message to kids; sometimes there are bad days, but no matter what, its just one day and there’s always tomorrow to look forward to. When I was little, this was my all time favorite book. I liked it so much because Alexander and I had so many things in common. We share the same name, both hate lima beans, and both hate kissing just to name a few. Whenever a child connects with a character in the story they are likely going to enjoy that