18. The Red Book

#18 The Red Book

Barbara Lehman

Houghton Mifflin, 2004

28 Pages

Fantasy

            I chose this book because it was recommended to me while I was at the library. I asked for books with different types of mediums used and this book was one of the librarians favorites. The illustrations in the book reminded me a lot of my dads doodles he does on scrap pieces of paper at home. The story is about a young girl walking down the sidewalk in the winter and finds a small red book in the snow. While the girl is in class she opens the book and sees a boy on an island finding a red book and opening it up to see the city and the girl sitting in her classroom looking at him. The girl goes and buys helium balloons after school and lets the balloons carry her into the sky, while floating she drops her book, while the boy watches her float out of the picture. The boy watches as she floats out of the picture and becomes very sad. When the book lands the pages show the girl floating down onto the island next to the boy. The book ends with another little boy picking up the book to read.

            The illustrations in this book are done with gouache, watercolor, and ink. The minimal use of text on the illustrations keep the reader focused on the story and allows the reader to use their imagination. The bright colors increase the intensity and warm feeling of the little boys surroundings on the beach, while the use of grays and browns create the feeling of winter for the little girl. The characters are very simple, but the balloons and other parts of the book use bright colors that add to the fantasy feeling of the book.

            This book could be appropriate for any age level in elementary school. The books encourages students to think and be creative with their imaginations. A language arts lesson could be created using this book to have the students write the story about themselves. If they could choose to visit someone else how would they travel besides using helium balloons and where would they go. The text could be used in an art lesson to have the students develop the next phase of the story. The students could draw the illustrations for the boy who picked up the book at the end of the story. This book has not received any awards.