21. It’s a Book by Lane Smith

 

21. It’s a Book by Lane Smith


Smith, L (2011). It’s a book. NY: Roaring Brook.

This is a cleaver story about reading a traditional book compared to playing on technology.  It has three characters: the monkey, the donkey (jackass) and the mouse.  The donkey has the laptop and the monkey has the book. The donkey asks questions about the book as if he has never seen one before.  “how do you scroll down?”, “can you text?  Tweet? Wi-fi?” My favorite is, “where’s your mouse?’  That is where the mouse comes in…it’s under the monkey’s hat!  The donkey looks at the book and reads a page, and he becomes interested.  “What else can this book do?”, ask the donkey.  He begins to read, and he reads, and he reads.  Monkey wants his book back, but donkey will not give it to him.  He leaves and goes to the library.  Donkey says not to worry, he will charge it up when he is done.  The closing line is the best…the monkey lifts his hat and the mouse says, “you don’t have to…it’s a book, Jackass.”

This is a picture book...the illustrations tell most of the story. It has very few words, but a powerful message…old or new?  It would be a great picture book to share with older students.  The humor would be above younger children’s heads.  Also, it has the character called Jackass.  Younger children are not mature enough to handle anything with the word “ass” in it; even it is referring to a donkey.  The debate of traditional books viruses eBooks would make for a wonderful class discussion.  You could also do survey to see what is preferred.  There are several other ideas for activities on the website.

 

https://www.teachingideas.co.uk/library/books/its-a-book

 



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