12. Pig Giggles and Rabbit Rhymes

#12 Pig Giggles and Rabbit Rhymes

Author: Mike Downs

Illustrator: David Sheldon

Publisher: Chronicle Books, 2002

23 pages

“What do you call a sore spot on a rattler? Snake ache”

“What does kitty use to hit a baseball? Cat Bat”

Poetry Book

I chose this book because it was read in my classroom by my cooperating teacher and all of the students enjoyed listening to it and trying to figure out the rhymes and riddles. There is no story to the book. The book is filled with animal riddles that the answers to all of the riddles rhyme. Each page has two riddles to be solved involving the same characters.

The illustrations in this book are hand drawn and then digitally reworked using macromedia freehand and Adobe Photoshop software. The colors in the illustrations all use soft pastel colors. The illustrations bring the animal characters to life and give the characters a friendly personality. All of the illustrations have no negative space and are filled with color. The attention to detail help create and tell the riddle.

This book would be appropriate for first, second, or third grade. The riddles can introduce rhyming words and how to identify the words that rhyme by paying attention to the letters used in each word.  The book can be used as an introductory tool for writing. The students could create their own riddles and answer them with rhyming words. This book has no awards, but the colors and characters in the book could be used to decorate any child’s room to create a calm and friendly space.