Hey, Little Ant

Title: "Hey, Little Ant"

Author: Phillip and Hannah Hoose

Illustrator: Debbie Tilley

Reading Level: Ages 4-8

Grade: Kindergarten and up

Hardcover: 30 Pages

Publisher: Tricycle Press (July 1, 1998)

Language: English also found in Spanish

ISBN-10: 9781883672546

         The story starts out by saying "Hey, little ant , See my shoe, can you see that? Well, now, it's gonna squish you flat!"

This sentence is what opens the story up. It allows the child to questions what is going to happen next. Will the child squish the ant or will he let him live? The child feels like he can do whatever he wants. If he want to squish the ant he should, this ant or in that case any ant is not allowed to talk back to him, but in this story this ant stands up for himself and talks. The ant begs the child for his live, He pledges with him, telling him he has feelings, a family, a purpose, and that he will be missed. The little boy laughs at him and tells him that ant are nothing! The child goes on to tell the ant that he friends will want him to squish him and if he lets the ant live he will be made fun of. So the ant changes things up and asks the little boy to pretend to be the size of the ant and the ant will be the size of the boy. He asks him how he would feel? 

   

 At the end of the story the book leaves you with a question. "If you were me and I were you, what would you want me to do?" This question is a great way to end the story it allows for a great class discussion. The story does not tell you what the child does and I believe this is a great way to get the children thinking with out telling them what to think.  Asking them what it would feel like to be that ant and maybe they do feel like that ant. This story expresses the idea of walking a mile in someone else shoes before judging them. We all have a purpose in live and who are we to destroy that? This book bring up many great issues that children deal with on a daily basis. From bullying to trying to fit in with friends at school. Its a book that has a great theme, images, characters, and meaningful words. 

The Characters fit the setting well. The story first starts out with the kid vs. the ant and then it switches and its the ant vs. the kid. The characters teach the reader that you must stand up for what is right even if you are standing alone. The story expresses that we as teachers, students, friends, and people in this world need to make sure everyone feels important, that we all count, and all have a purpose in life.

 The images in the story are great! They have so much expression. You can feel the pictures jump off the page at you and every image is new and exciting. The images build on the text and the text build on the pictures, with out either one of those elements the story would not feel right. Some of the images you read as you would a normal book while some of the picture flip so they are longer. The pictures make you feel for both the ant and the boy. With out either one the story would not have such a powerful meaning.

There are many literacy elements found int the story but three of them I want to point out are personification, allegory, and assonance. Personification can be found through out the whole story. The ant is giving human characteristics. He can walk, talk, sit and have dinner with his family, read stories as a family, and express his importance in the world. The story has many pictures showing the ant with human characteristics which makes the story even better! Allegory can be found through out the whole story as well. The lesson we can learn is that we all have a reason to be here, we all need to do what is right. This is a lesson that needs to be planted in children at a young age and repeated through out their lives! The last element of assonance can be found again through out the whole story but one example would be "I'm on my way with a crumb of pie, please of please don't make me die".

A lesson plan to go along with the story would be to have the children come up with a class list of how we are going to treat others in and outside of our classroom. Let the children get into groups and come up with a lest three rules that they would like to have put up on the class wall. This way during the year the children and the teacher will know the expectations that the class with have for one another.

YOU and ME and HOME SWEET HOME

"YOU and Me and HOME SWEET HOME"

BY: George Ella Lyon and Stephanie

Reading Level: Ages 4-8

Grade level: Kindergarten-third

Hardcover: 48 pages

Publisher: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books (09-20-2009)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 9780689875892

         After reading through "You and Me and Home Sweet Home" I believe it is a great story! It is based on a Mother and Daughter who feel they have over stayed their welcome at their aunts house, but they have no where to go. Their church community feels for the mother and daughter and come together to help build a home for them. During the time the little girl wants to help as much as possible because she wants to help build her own home! The story ends with you feeling happy for the family and amazed at how much a community can do if they put their hands together for a great cause. It is a great way to talk to your class about how to lend a hand to those who do not have much. Its always a great way to talk about what a family looks like and what a home is. I think it would be great to have each child bring in a picture of their home and share it with the class along with a picture of their family. So that we can have a class discussion on families and homes.

I know this text is one I would read to my class because the story is full of rich vocabulary and many life lesson we all need to learn and most of the time re-learn. One lesson that stuck out most to me was that every person is created equal. Everyone one needs a place to call home and as a community we can come together to create this. I believe we need to stop focusing so much on ourselves and lend a hand to those in need. A great way to get involved would be Habitat for Humanity, again this could be a great way to get a class involved in something much bigger than ourselves. 

The text and the illustrations make you feel like you belong in the community, they make you want pick up a hammer and help build the home. The pictures themselves take you through the story and make you feel like you are right there building this home. I would want to talk with my children about how we can look at the pictures and tell the story with out even reading the words. The pictures show us that everyone is equal and that everyone belongs no matter your age, race, or gender. 

There are many literacy elements found in this story but three of them I want to point out are allegory, onomatopoeia, and hyperbole.  The Allegory in the story that can help us better understand something is that no matter who you are we all deserve to have a place we call home. The story takes you through the process of what it would be like to not have a home and then what it feels like to have a place called home. The next element would be onomatopoeia which can be found through out the story, mainly at the parts where the little girl is pounding the nails into the wood. The sounds being heard a writing like this "bam Bam BAM" giving you a cue that you are meant to read the words with a growing loudness of your voice. The last element is Hyperbole, this is found when the little girl tells her mother she wants to skip school to build the house and her mothers responds is over the top saying "You must of hit you head with the hammer". Meaning that there was no way the mother was going to let her daughter miss school, another great lesson!!

Using this story you could create lots of great lessons. One lesson I would want to use this story for it to teach the class how everyone has a different home. Some people live with other families, in their own home, apartments, town homes, and many more. I also would want to talk about how many different types of families there are as well. I would ask the children to bring in pictures of their home and family to share with the class. It would be a great lesson to get to know each other one a new level along with opening our eyes and minds to new things!