Dee Lillegard

A young boy who lives deep in the jungle and has no playmates, conjures a tiger as a beautiful soul mate. With every move of his hand, by using his imagination he makes a beautiful tiger. When is comes to life, thee is possible danger, and the boy soon learns how to make the dangerous tiger disappear.

There are beautiful illustrations, and this is a lovely story regarding the use of the imagination.

I really liked this book. It shows short poems throughout the book of things you would find around the house which tell the story about the house. It would be a great introduction to poetry. I believe I would incorporate it in a beginning poetry emphasizing that poetry could be made from anything. There are really nice pictures in this book and the poems are catchy.

Picture book about a little boy named Pocu who lives in the jungle. No one will play with him so he runs off into the trees with his big imagination. There, he conjures up a beautiful tiger who soon becomes dangerous. Pocu must find a way to reverse his imagination and return to his family.

I don't think I would use this book in my classroom. It's a little outdated and written by a white author speaking on a culture not of her own.

Summary:
This book gives a number of poetic descriptions about rooms and household items. An edge of human like appeal is given to all of the illustrations and poems on every page. The most entertaining feature about this book is how every feature in a house is presented in a fun, comical, poetic, and easy to understand way for children.
Personal Reaction:
I read this book to my kids and they couldn’t get enough of it. My daughter really liked pointing out the human like features that each show more picture possessed. Her favorite thing to say was, “they can really do that momma!” Afterwards, she would look for reassurance that the many items in fact did not possess the many human characteristics mentioned in the book.
Extension Ideas:
1. I can use this book to get to know my students. I can have them tell me about their favorite room(s) in their own houses.
2. In the classroom, my students could list any one of the poems from this book and try to recreate it with a new and different twist on the room or item. show less