Comin' Down To Storytime

Comin' Down To Storytime

Illustrated by: Rob Reid

Pictures by Nadine Bernard Westcott

Comin' Down To Storytime illustrated by Rob Reid and pictures by Nadine Bernard Westcott is a book that is a mixture between fantasy and poetry. How is this book fantasy? Well, by looking on the cover can the viewer notice anything? On the cover of the book, the animals are talking and throwing a book party. The represents the fantasy genre because this can't happen in real life. How does this book represent poetry? The way that the text is set up in the book and it has a lot of "...rhythmic and rhymed..." (Literature and the child pg 13)

An example on how this book represents poetry is on all of the pages because in poetry the text will usually line up to be the same lenght. In this book, viewer(s) will see on each page how the text lines up just right. For example, on page 1, the text is shown:

"We'll be comin' down to storytime when we come. Yee ha!

Yes, we'll be comin' down to storytime when we come. Yee ha!"

(Comin' Down To Storytime pg 1)

This story has animals that can talk, read, and dance. (Literature and the child pg 16) On page 6 of Comin' Down To Storytime, the sheep is reading a book to the rest of her farm animals and the rest of them are sitting there laughing and having a good o'le time.

I feel that this book will really open up young readers mind because as he or she is reading this text they will have to have a good imagination for the story to come to life. When I want my future students to read I want them to visualize that they are in the story, so it will make more sense while they are reading. Maybe, they can relate personal experiences as well. Some activities for this book would have to be: spliting the class up into two groups and have half sing one part and the other half sing the other, and also have my students create their own song in a group of three to four students. I personally enjoyed reviewing this book because it made myself want to get up and start dancing. Reader Response Questions:

1) What was the purpose for writing this story?

2) If you (the reader) be any animal in the story, which one would you be and why?

References:

Google Images

Galda, L., Cullinan, B. E., & Sipe, L. R. (2009). Literature and the child. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. pg 13, 16. Print.

Reid, R., & Westcott, N. B. (2009). Comin' down to storytime. Janesville, WI: Upstart Books. pg 1-29 Print.