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.