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The Beetle Bush
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From: jpcairo
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 20:44:09 -0400
I am glad we are spending a little more time on Marc Simont, because I have to tell you about my personal favorite. It is The Beetle Bush, by Beverly Keller, illustrated by Marc Simont (1976, and alas! out of print!). I find a class to read this book to every year. It's a treasure. The small drawings of Arabelle Mott, intrepid "weed gardener" stooping down and pointing to her beetles and weeds always delight me and the kids I am reading to. We take turns pointing out to each other the simple but so true lines and gestures in that little book. I love the way Arabelle's wispy strands of hair echo the stray plant life in her garden, and tell so graphically of her effort as she digs and watches her garden grow. She has real gardener's hair! (I know -- my hair gets even wispier than that when I am digging in my own garden.) The discovery of an unexpected watermelon in the midst of all that botanical confusion is always the best surprise! First graders like to see Arabelle's "failures" -- the flattened cake, the crossed-out words on the sign she makes for her door, and the snails and beetles in her garden -- turn into triumphs when she changes her point of view and tells their story differently. The endearing curves and smallness, the quirky, evocative "mess" of creative effort in these illustrations of Arabelle, her family, and that landlord and his little boy please us
(me and my first grade library classes) so much! Once kids have looked closely at the drawings in Nate the Great books, and then I show The Beetle Bush, there is no doubt about who has done the illustrations. One of the kids once asked me if Arabelle lived in the same neighborhood as Nate. I think, indeed she does!
Paula Cairo Media Center Library Friends Select School Philadelphia, PA
Received on Fri 27 Apr 2001 07:44:09 PM CDT
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 20:44:09 -0400
I am glad we are spending a little more time on Marc Simont, because I have to tell you about my personal favorite. It is The Beetle Bush, by Beverly Keller, illustrated by Marc Simont (1976, and alas! out of print!). I find a class to read this book to every year. It's a treasure. The small drawings of Arabelle Mott, intrepid "weed gardener" stooping down and pointing to her beetles and weeds always delight me and the kids I am reading to. We take turns pointing out to each other the simple but so true lines and gestures in that little book. I love the way Arabelle's wispy strands of hair echo the stray plant life in her garden, and tell so graphically of her effort as she digs and watches her garden grow. She has real gardener's hair! (I know -- my hair gets even wispier than that when I am digging in my own garden.) The discovery of an unexpected watermelon in the midst of all that botanical confusion is always the best surprise! First graders like to see Arabelle's "failures" -- the flattened cake, the crossed-out words on the sign she makes for her door, and the snails and beetles in her garden -- turn into triumphs when she changes her point of view and tells their story differently. The endearing curves and smallness, the quirky, evocative "mess" of creative effort in these illustrations of Arabelle, her family, and that landlord and his little boy please us
(me and my first grade library classes) so much! Once kids have looked closely at the drawings in Nate the Great books, and then I show The Beetle Bush, there is no doubt about who has done the illustrations. One of the kids once asked me if Arabelle lived in the same neighborhood as Nate. I think, indeed she does!
Paula Cairo Media Center Library Friends Select School Philadelphia, PA
Received on Fri 27 Apr 2001 07:44:09 PM CDT
