Browne,
Anthony. Willy’s Stories. Candlewick Press 2015 np $16.99 ISBN 978-0-7636-7761-9 elem/ms Misc.
E-BN
Although designed to appear as a
children’s book, the content inside the covers of this delightful volume is not
for young children. Instead, older
elementary-school-aged children who have had a bit of experience with such
famous works as Treasure Island or The Wind in the Willows are
the targeted readership. Anthony Browne opens the
world of books to his main character Willy, the famous monkey in Browne’s Voices
in the Park. In vintage Browne
style, he depicts Willy opening a variety of doors, behind which lie
brief summaries of scenes from ten famous children’s books. He invites young readers to guess who made
the footprint in Robinson Crusoe, he entices children to guess who
Dorothy met after she woke up in The Wizard of Oz, and he appeals to children’s desire to
participate in a book and really interact with the text.
Each illustration is done in signature Browne colors and it has an appeal that
matches the content. One can easily imagine a classroom teacher
introducing a famous work to his/her students by first reading this book. Willy ends by asking all children to go on
some of their own adventures, inferring that these adventures can be found in
books. How creative is this? The sky is the limit on the possibilities for
use of this book. Just open it, read one
of the descriptions, and turn your children or students loose on a drawing
assignment. Or, better yet, have them
write their own stories!
Summary: Willy describes scenes from ten famous children’s books and then invites
children to answer a question about each book.
The author’s purpose is to encourage young readers to read.
Classic literature,
Reading-Fiction --Martha Squaresky
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