You Can Do it!

Title: "You Can Do It!"

Author: Tony Dungy

Illustrated by: Amy June Bates 

Reading level: Ages 4-8 

Grade: K-3

Hardcover: 32 pages 

Publisher: Little Simon Inspirations; First Edition edition (July 8, 2008) 

Language: English 

ISBN-10: 9781416954613

This story is about a little boy named Tony He grew up in a home that was encouraged by his family and faith. Tony had big dreams for himself and never thought less of what his big dream was. His big dream was  that he wanted to be a football player and no one was going to stand in his way. Everyone is Tony's family new what they wanted to be and for him he was going to be a football player no matter what it took. One person in his family though could not figure out what he wanted to be, or what his big dream was. He just could not find a dream to follow, until one day when he stopped messing around in class and becomes that kid on a mission to find his  big dream. His brother Tony and all his family members are the to encourage him and help him get to where he needs to be to find that dream. Linden spends time praying to God and talking with his family before he finds his big dream, which was to become a dentist.

This story is a very good story. The theme of the story is to teach us that we all have a big dream and we will one day find it. Each one of us will become what we want to become and grow in ways we never new we could. Linden in the story was undecided on what he wanted to be until he spent time praying and explore all the ideas he found interesting.  The author Tony Dungy wrote this story to share with us how much his family meant to him and all this siblings. How important faith is and how we all have a purpose in life we just need to find it. The literacy elements in the story are allegory, foreshadowing, and hyperbole. Each elements is seen through out the whole story. Allegory is something that helps us better understand something, in this story the idea that we all have a big dream we just need to put our faith into it is what is helping us better understand how we can find our own big dream. The foreshadowing is through out the whole story as well. Each character gives us a hint for what they think Linden should be and hyperbole is in the beginning of the story when Linden said that he is going to be a duck because he can not think of anything else to be. The pictures in this story are amazing. They add so much texture and detail to the story. With out the pictures the story would be no where near what is really is now. Each picture is filled with color, detail, and heart. You can tell the illustrator was very passionate about the story and wanted each one of use to feel the pictures they way she did. A mini-lesson I would do with using this story would be to teach children the idea of a dream. How we all want to be something when we grow up and show them that Linden did not know what he wanted to be until he really spent time figuring it out. A lot of time we do not know what we want to be, so this story is a great one to show us that no matter what happens we all have a purpose on this world and we will find your own big dream some day!