Eric Carle was an American author, designer and illustrator of children's books. His picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, first published in 1969, has been translated into more than 66 languages and sold more than 50 million copies. Carle's career as an illustrator and children's book author accelerated after he collaborated on Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?. Carle illustrated more than 70 books, most of which he also wrote, and more than 145 million copies of his books have been sold around the world. In 2003, the American Library Association awarded Carle the biennial Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal (now called the Children's Literature Legacy Award), a prize for writers or illustrators of children's books published in the U.S. who have made lasting contributions to the field. Carle was also a U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2010.
Summary: Arthur the ape goes on an adventure throughout the states. In his journey he meets various animals with peculiar interests.
Review: Carle does it again, introducing the alphabet while also introducing various elements of literature like rhyming and vocabulary. He also introduces new readers to unfamiliar animals.
This book gave me the idea for an activity. Each creature introduced is only associated with items, actions, and characteristics that begin with the same letter. Each student could be given a paper. They should carefully sound out their own name to figure out what the beginning sound is (phonemics: just focus on the sound; phonics: focus on the exact letter that it is). Students, then, must draw pictures of themselves along with items that begin with the same beginning sound. Example: Amanda (^mænd^) The "^" sound in IPA is what we will be trying to match for phonemics (example 1); phonics students will just think of words that start with the letter "A" (example 2).
“All about Arthur” is a fun book that keeps young children engaged and exited to see what each page has to bring. The pictures are fun to look at and go well with the text that is on the page. It is also an alphabet book so it’s a great book to bring into the classroom for the younger grades; there are a lot of ways you can make an activity with this book.
Arthur is an ape that is lonely and he goes on a journey to make some new friends. He goes to each city and is looking for other animal friends to hang out with. The book has a great ending and keeps the reader engaged in every way.
The perfect book for introducing students to alliteration. It'd be great to have kids do a writing project after reading this that encourages them to write and illustrate alliterative paragraphs.