Bibliographic Information
Stead, Philip C. Ills. by Erin E. Stead. A SICK DAY FOR AMOS MCGEE. New York, NY: Roaring Book Press. ISBN: 9781596434028.
Summary and Analysis
This 2011 Caldecott winner, focuses on the friendship between a zookeeper and the zoo animals. Each day Amos McGee catches a bus to go to his job at the zoo where he always makes time to visit his friends. With the elephant he plays chess, with the tortoise he has a race, he sits quietly with a shy penguin, wipes the rhinoceros' nose, and knowing the owl is afraid of the dark Amos sits and reads stories. On the day Amos stays home, the animals leave the zoo, catch the same city bus that usually brings Amos to them, and go visit Amos where they play chess, play hide and seek, keep him company, and read. At the end of the day, they all go to sleep in Amos' house. It is a surprisingly sweet story about friends being there for one another. The illustrations are muted in tone, but still offer color and are visually appealing. Amos McGee has some very detailed facial expressions while the animals have specific details without being too personified. They are done with woodblock printing techniques and also pencil.
Connections with Poetry
A Crossing Of Zebras
Bibliographic Information
Maddox, Marjorie. Ills. by Philip Huber. A CROSSING OF ZEBRAS: ANIMAL PACKS IN POETRY. Honesdale, PN: Wordsong. ISBN: 9781590785102.
Summary and Analysis
In this book of poetry the focus is on animals in their groups, packs, schools, and flocks. It offers creative assumptions of each animal group from hyper monkeys to orderly ants. Poems rhyme and use white space to better portray silly animals or to exhibit action between words. Poems differ between couplets and stanzas and humor and danger exhibiting animals differences and characteristics.
The illustrations are a scratchboard technique which gives them a unique textured feel. Both the poetry and the illustrations come alive in an original voice (or illustration) of a typical topic.
Highlighted Poem
A Charm of Butterflies
A charm of butterflies arrives each spring
and circles my backyard with rainbow wings.
I want to catch the beauty each one brings
and spread their joy to other living things.
Let's write a poem together. Yes, let's try
to re-create the charm of butterflies.
Let's celebrate in song. Let's dance their flight
and paint the way their wings reflect the light.
And later, when the trees are dark and bare,
we'll still have lots of butterflies to share.
Connections Between These Books
The connection between A Sick Day for Amos McGee and A Crossing of Zebras is this focus on animals, the always popular topic for children of all ages. In each book, the diverse personalities of different animals are described and shown through text and illustrations. Readers could discuss the different ways to focus on these characteristics by illustrations, as in A Sick Day for Amos McGee or by language as shown in A Crossing of Zebras.
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