kamel622's Full Review: Margo Linn and Harriet Ziefert - Who Spilled the M...
One of my favorite and least expensive resources for purchasing children's books for my family daycare is the Goodwill store. The hardest time I have there is not purchasing too many books!
Recently I picked up a paperback copy of Who Spilled the Milk? by Harriet Ziefert for less than a dollar.
The Story
In this book we see a young boy, approximately 4 or 5 years old who is sitting at a table with a full quart container of milk laying on it's side and milk pouring down from the table to the chair to floor. He asks the question "Who spilled the milk?"
During the rest of the book he comes up with various explanations as to how the milk got spilled. Perhaps it was his younger sister or the cat, maybe a monster or a robber.
He isn't sure who spilled it (not him of course) and doesn't want to clean up the very messy spill, since he ‘did not' spill it.
He then comes up with excuses proving (?) that he didn't spill it. He was in his room, reading and eating cookies which of course never make him thirsty, and he's too lazy to get up and get a glass of milk for himself anyway.
The story ends as it began with the unnamed boy asking who spilled the milk and emphatically stating "Not me!"
The Illustrations
The illustrations in this book are done in mostly muted shades of green, yellow and blues and are placed on the white background. They appear to be done in watercolor and colored pencil.
While there is a bit of a cartoon style to the drawings, they aren't done as a caricature but more in a realistic style of faces and surrounding details.
The text is a large black font that is placed on white throughout the book making it easy to hold up and read or for an early reader to follow easily.
Our Feelings
This has been a fun book to read to my daycare group and while 3 year old Dani hasn't gotten the point of this book, the school agers recognized right away that the boy is looking for excuses as he is the one who spilled the milk. 8 year old Sammi mentioned right away that since he spilled the milk, he should be the one to clean it up.
We've been able to have discussions of taking responsibility for things that we do, and have talked about the best thing to do. While it is hard to admit a mistake, this book in a round about way, encourages children to think about the best solution to a problem.
Sammi has had fun using this book to play school with her 7 year old brother Jake and 6 year old Sonny. They have all taken turns playing reading time, with Sammi as the teacher of course. With just 48 unique words this book gives early readers a good opportunity to practice reading while enjoying a whimsical story too.
Also included on the back page are stickers of all of the words in this book. Our copy, since it is a gently used copy, only included about 20 of the sticker words, but the final page tells us ways to use these stickers to make new sentences or to find and match the words in the book. While these stickers can be reused if placed on a laminated surface placing them on the pages or on paper makes them a one time use tool.
I recommend this book for early readers and younger children will enjoy the pictures and hearing the story, even if they don't quite understand Who Spilled the Milk?
Nuts & Bolts
Who Spilled the Milk? was written by Harriet Ziefert and illustrated by Martha Gradisher.
HarperCollins Publishers published this 28 page paperback book in 1992 with a jacket price of $3.95 US and $5.25 CAN.
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