Sharleen Collicott

The story begins with a frog (named Motley) and a hamster (named Fuzzball) who are friends. They live in a tea pot in a junk yard. Motley says he is tired of the junkyard and wants to travel to the sky like the birds do. Fuzzball does not want to go to space but he agrees to help build a ship. They build a ship out of junk and they call it a junk bird. The take off in their ship and they end up going underwater, but they believe that they are in space. They see coral reefs and they think that it is the stars in the sky. Eventually a fish launches their ship back to land when danger appears. Motley and Fuzzball tells all of the other animals that they were in the sky. They build this type of amusement park in the junk yard so the animals can imagine that they are in the sky too.

This story in this book is such a cute idea! I think this book would be great for kids who are a little older in Elementary. You can teach them the importance of imagination and how it adds to your life. When kids grow older, they tend to use less of their imagination. The book makes it clear that the animals are in the ocean and not space. But even though they did not end up in the place they wanted to be, they still made the most of it with their imagination. They even bring happiness to the other animals by building a pretend space for them to experience it. The book demonstrated that it is always good to have a great imagination!… (mer)

Early reader story about two mice parents and their group of babies (leads up to the babies’ first day of school). I picked this up because there was a group-mind element: the babies act as a unit, and even dream together. I didn’t use it for my essay since I was focusing on picture books, but it’s still a good example. I like the way the dreams touch upon the way in which the babies are being stifled by their mother/parents without actually giving us the babies’ direct thoughts. Not sure I love the way the mother is depicted as an overprotective worrier throughout, while the dad is more laid back. No one actually changes, other than the babies, who grow up a bit; the mother worries throughout and the dad is not worried througout and in the end the babies are fine. But then again, it is a beginning reader; not a ton of room for deep character development.… (mer)