The picture book It's Mine! by Leo Lionni, is about three frogs named Milton, Rupert, and Lydia. They all lived on a small Island together in the middle of Rainbow Pond. The three frogs bickered and fought all day over the pond, the land, food, and even the air. They fought about sharing, and they all said the same thing "It's mine!". One day a big toad came to them, saying that he lived from across the pond and could hear them bickering all day long. The toad then told them that they were all running the peace and that they can't go on like this. Soon, the sky got darker and storm came over head and flooded the pond. Each of the frogs hopped on a rock and held on so they wouldn't drown. Although, before they knew it there was only one rock left and they all had no choice but to share the rock so they wouldn't drown. While sharing the rock together they realized it made them all feel better because they were also sharing the same fears and hopes. Once the rain stopped, the flooding went down and saw that they were actually holding onto the toad and not a rock. They were all happy that the toad saved them. From then on the frogs shared food, the water, and even the land. The frogs were happy about sharing everything cause they saw how much more peaceful it was and that everything belonged to all of them.
In this picture book, the author used very simple text and created a simple plot. The plot was laid out in chronological order, starting from beginning, then to the middle, and then the end. The conflict within the story was person vs. nature and person vs. person. It showed person vs person with each of the frogs fighting each other over different parts of the pond. It then had the conflict of person vs nature when the frogs were fighting together to survive in the rainstorm. In the end the, both conflicts were resolved by each other. The frogs stopped fighting each other once they had to come together to fight against nature. The illustrations done in this picture book were done simple yet very creative for children to look at and understand the story better. I believed that the pictures didn't enhance the text as much, but mostly just displayed the storyline clear and simple. In the text, I also saw the re-accuring line "It's mine!", which is even the title. This symbolizes and stresses the the greed of the frogs and how much they bicker with each other. Even though this is a simple and easy book for children, it has a deeper meaning to it about sharing and how it makes life much more peaceful, and happier. This can teach children about bickering with brothers and sisters, and that it's much better to just share, rather than fighting over things. I enjoyed this book a lot and believe parents and teachers should read this to young children to teach them about sharing with others.