What to Do When Your Child Has Chicken Pox - Read Them This Book?
Written: Mar 11 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: easy to read, interesting enough as a learn to read type of book
Cons: unless your child has chicken pox themselves they might not find it interesting
The Bottom Line: interesting as a "learn to read" type of book, but certainly not a childhood classic
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| jiastar's Full Review: Grace MacCarone - Itchy, Itchy Chicken Pox |
Itchy, Itchy Chicken Pox is a level 1 reader put out by Scholastic, Inc. It is meant to be an introduction to independent reading and makes use of "simple words and small sentences." The stories in this series are designed to be "made up of words kids can sound out using their phonics skills" and make use, also, of repetition.
The book opens with the words "A spot. A spot. Another spot." and an illustration depicting a red haired and shocked looking boy with the first tell-tale signs of chicken pox upon his face. The story goes on to show the spread of the itchy spots and the treatment thereof. Illustrations depict the application of calamine lotion, an oatmeal bath, and bed rest. At the story's end the little boy is spot-free and is seen dashing off to his school bus.
This is a simple and sweet story. It would be most appropriate, of course, for a child kept home from school with their own bout of Chicken Pox. However, with the advent of the Varicella vaccine this is becoming less and less common among school children. But, it would also be entertaining, I think, for any child kept home sick from school to read about another kid stuck home on the couch or in bed when there are other much more fun things to do.
The illustrations are simple but are both colorful and expressive. They manage to convey the misery of being covered in itchy spots that you can't reach and aren't supposed to scratch even if you could.
I would think that most parents today, who can remember having chicken pox themselves will find this book bringing back memories (flashbacks anyone?) of being so very very itchy themselves.
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Insofar as ease of reading, this is a pretty good choice for a novice reader. It is 29 pages long and only 20 of them include text. With a total of 130 words, on average pages have about 6 words on them, though there is one page with a whopping 16 words on it. Most words are one or two syllables in length and should be familiar enough to be sounded out, especially with the use of rhyme and repetition. However there are a couple of more challenging words included as well, such as:
- another
- twitchy
This book also works as a story circle book and would make a great choice for a Kindergarten or first grade classroom. Phrases such as "yucky mucky oatmeal bath" and "itchy itchy, I feel twitchy" seem to be written just because they would be fun to utter aloud.
That being said, this is not a book that was a favorite in our house. It was not pulled off the shelf frequently, nor was I asked to read it over and over as I have with other books. This is primarily a practice your reading skills type of book and not one that will live on in posterity as a "favorite story.”
Recommended:
Yes
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jiastar
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Location: Monmouth County, NJ
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