Do You Want to Be My Friend?

This week at school, Madison is looking at the works of Eric Carle, particularly "The Grouchy Ladybug." She's bringing in a ladybug puppet for show and tell, which mixes a bit of the ladybug with a bit of puppetry - which is foreshadowing what we're doing tomorrow.

At night, we've been reading other books of his, including two favorites, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Do You Want to Be My Friend?"

Both are simple board books, but as you can see above, it is the artwork that everyone loves. Madison enjoys these stories - in fact, for a bedtime story tonight, she picked out "Do You Want to Be My Friend?"

MADISON'S BOOK CLUB

"Do You Want to Be My Friend?" This is a story of a mouse looking for a friend. Simple concept, but a real page turner. Here's why: on each page, the mouse finds a tail of a creature that could be a friend. But when you turn the page, you discover who the tail belongs to. Will the mouse be a friend with a giraffe? Or a hippo? Or a seal? Page after page of effort is finally rewarded, as the lonely mouse finally happens upon a tiny tail - and the turn of a page reveals it is another mouse. Yes, these two can live happily ever after.

CUE MUSIC TRACK: THREATENING

Now here's the underlying menace to this story. From page one, there's a green, thick line stretching across the pages, one after another. As the mouse meets each new animal, that same green streak is always there at the bottom, from one side of the page to another. And after the two mice meet up and get together, we realize that this green line is in fact a very long tail belonging to... you guessed it... a snake.

CUE MUSIC TRACK: PEACEFUL RESOLUTION

Fortunately, one page back the mice are shown safely inside a burrow, cuddling together and quite happy to have a friend. Of course, the snake is not shown to be any kind of threat or danger. So don't panic! He's a nice snake. That eats vegetables.

Madison enjoys this book because she likes calling out which animals they are based on only seeing a tail. She's pretty good at it too. There are very few words in this book, but there don't need to be many - the idea is simple, and both she and Daddy have a good time reading it together.

A while ago, we got a DVD of "The Hungry Caterpillar." We'll have to check it out sometime this week. That'll be a good wrap-up to an Eric Carle theme...