Wild About Books

Wild About Books

Written by Judy Sierra

Illustrated by Marc Brown

Random House Children's Books, 2004

40 pages

Modern Fantasy

     The title and illustrations of Wild About Books captured my attention, but it wasn't until I opened the book that I fell in love. Judy Sierra begins the story with a librarian named Molly McGrew. Molly mistakenly drives her bookmobile to the zoo. At first, the animals only seem to watch from a distance. But soon, they are enticed by Molly's reading Dr. Suess aloud. First a mink, then a moose, a wombat, an oryx, a lemur, and many more animals follow. In a flash, every beast in the zoo was stampeding to learn all about this new something called reading!

     Marc Brown's drawn, cartoon-like illustrations really bring this book to life. The pages are busy and full of color. He devotes attention down to the tiny details and brings humor to this delightful story. For instance, the text doesn't mention that the elephants read Dumbo, and the giraffes read books about basketball. This is information only gained from the illustrations. Brown's contribution to Wild About Books gives Sierra's clever wording even more quirky flavor.

      This book is appropriate for Preschool - 3rd grade. The book was published on the 100th anniversary of Dr. Seuss's birth and is dedicated to him. It has been a New York Times #1 Children's Bestseller. My favorite thing about this book is its versatility. I plan to use this book on the very first day of school. This is the perfect story to set the tone for reading in the classroom. Reading is supposed to be fun! There are books for everyone! In the story, Molly taught lessons on how to treat books right, like teaching the boa constrictor not to squeeze Crictor too tight. In my own classroom, I see myself using this as a gateway for discussions on how to take care of books, which is something that should be taught, especially in younger grades. Wild About Books references other works, which can lead to children's curiosity of even more literature such as Dr. Suess, Harry Potter, Nancy Drew, Goodnight Moon, and The Wizard of Oz. This book is also a great supplement for teaching about rhyming words and alliteration, as both are used consistently throughout the story (in addition to other figurative language). By the end of the story, the animals had become authors of their own. The bugs were even scribbling haiku. This could be used to lead into a poetry lesson. The scorpion gave stinging reviews using exceptional vocabulary such as "pretentious" and "redundant". I love that this book is filled with so many different routes of discovery that children can take. This book also talks about various types of animals, both common and rare. Wild About Books would be an excellent motivation resource for a science lesson on animals.