A Crazy Day. Margy Reid. Illustrated by Hazel Mitchell. Milden, SK: www.margyreidbooks.net, 2011. 54 pp., pbk., $8.99. ISBN 978-0-9865168-1-8. Preschool-grade 2 / Ages 3-6. Review by Natalie Schembri. ** /4

excerpt:

One day, when Ethan's Daddy got home from work, he asked Mommy, "How was your day?"

She said, "I'm very tired, I had a Crazy day!"

Ethan wondered what exactly a "crazy day" would be…

Margy Reid's A Crazy Day tells the story of Ethan's musings of what a crazy day might look like. Throughout the story, Ethan attempts to understand his mother's exhausting day and conceives elaborate visions, such as furniture stuck to the ceiling and the babysitter making sandwiches using chocolate bars instead of bread.

     This picture book uses repetitive sentence patterns that provide children with a valuable and predictable read-along element. Moreover, Reid's recurrent lines, "On a crazy day, you think…But instead…" allow children to actively participate in storytime and probe into Ethan's next crazy-day-inspired vision. Notably, A Crazy Day uses bold and italicized typeface to emphasize read-aloud cues.

      One shortcoming to the repetitive story structure is the lack of illustrations on these formulaic—"On a crazy day, you think…But instead…"—pages. Illustration plays a pivotal role in engaging children in the early reading experience, and this engagement factor is slightly diminished though the choice of eliminating pictures from the pages that house the foundational sentence pattern of the story. Although the choice to eliminate illustration on these pages could be seen as an anticipation builder, I see these pages wavering the attention of early readers.

      Format aside, Hazel Mitchell's colorful, cartoon-style pictures truly reflect the zany humor of Reid's story. Mitchell's entertaining illustrations bring Ethan's imaginative daydreams to life.

Recommended.

Natalie Schembri, a recent UWO graduate and lifelong learner, resides in London, ON.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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