Red

Book:  Red (Book Link)
Author: Jan De Kinder (Author Link)
Illustrator: Jan De Kinder (Illustrator Link)
Publisher:Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
Date of Publication: 2015
Genre: Picture Book, Written in the last 4 years, Diverse Protagonists
Lexile Score: AD320L
Citation: Kinder, J. D. (2015). Red. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.

Summary:  In this story a boy named Tommy started blushing one day, and kids began to point it out.  As the story progressed kids kept pointing it out and whispering about it to each other.  Tommy would ask them to leave him alone, but they did not listen.  The other children would gather around him and laugh, until Tommy got more and more red. One student Paul would be the one to start bullying Tommy and no one knew how to stand up to him. Until one day Lisa realized that she actually liked Tommy, and wanted the bullying to stop.  However she didn't know what she should do, or if she would be the only one that wanted to help Tommy.  This went on until one day in class the teacher asked if she knew what had happened to Tommy, and Lisa finally got the courage to speak up.  It started a chain of events, and she realized that someone just had to speak up to help Tommy, and that she was not alone.  Suddenly everyone was against Paul, and they showed him that he could not bully them anymore. 

Audience:  I would say this book would be targeted at grades first through fourth.  The book has a great story line that I think multiple grade levels would be able to follow along with.  Students in these grades might also be able to relate to bullies trying to come and take something from them at recess, or another similar situation.  This book would be useful to address issues of bullying they might be seeing in the classroom, or at recess.  It would be a good tool to show that even though bullies think they win, they really don't.

Evaluation:  This picture book I would consider a high quality picture book.  The text and illustrations match up very well with the theme.  They help convey the message of bullying, and add to the mode that is being portrayed.  For example on one page where everyone is being mean to Tommy the page is very dark, and there are shadows of what appear to be wolves in the background, showing that the children are being as mean as a pack of wolves.  They are ganging up on him, and I think the illustrations help show this.  The message of the book would also be a great way to address bullying.  I think after reading through the book students would be able to understand how Tommy is feeling.  When I was reading through it I started to feel bad for Tommy, and I think younger students reading the book would do so as well. 

Activity: 
Making Inferences:  On this worksheet They have three columns.  The columns are Scheme “I know…” + Text Evidence“ And the author said…” = Inference “So i can infer…”.  They have to do this three times, from the story they read, or the story that was read as a class.