Marc Brown (1) (1946–)

Back to revisiting the books of my childhood. This one has always been a holiday favorite of mine. Now though, I can see how snotty D.W. really is towards Arthur. Poor Arthur tries his hardest to get Santa a good present and no one appreciates his work. But, although I feel kinda sorry for Arthur, I think Killer got the short end of the stick. Just eyeing his stomach grazing the floor, his eyes downcast, and tongue hanging out sickly....I can only imagine how D.W. managed to get rid of show more Arthur's cooking. =) show less

Summary:

This informational book was basically a guide for children to help them tolerate and understand divorce. To make it seem cute and funny, the authors used dinosaurs as the characters in all of the illustrations and the title. Throughout the book it explains what divorce is and why parents get divorced. It expresses what kinds of feelings and emotions are natural to feel as a child going through this kind of experience. It gives insight to children about what life may be like with show more their parents after divorce and what it might be like living with one parent. It talks about visiting your parents, having two homes, celebrating holidays, telling your friends, meeting parents’ new friends, living with stepparents, having step siblings and basically all the ins and outs of divorce. It really is a ‘guide for changing families.’

Comments (opinions/arguments):

Having just read this book at twenty-four years old, I really wish I would’ve had this book when I was ten years old and having to deal with my parents’ divorce. Going through a divorce at a young age can be really confusing and hard to deal with. I know I struggled for a long time trying to sort out my emotions and feelings about my family and especially my parents. I held a lot of resentment towards both of them for a long time and I wish there had been a book for me to read to cope with the issues. I really enjoyed this book because although it looks like a children’s story book from the outside, it’s actually an informational guide for children who are dealing with divorce within their families. It’s even equipped with a table of contents and glossary on the first two pages. I also really liked that it had something new to talk about on each page. It was almost set up like a comic book strip, with multiple situations and pictures to go along with the words. This book is remarkable because it really hits on all of the things I wish someone would have told me as a child about divorce and it does so in a very logical progression of ideas. The author was really smart to start with explaining why parents’ divorce and immediately explain the feelings you as a child might start experiencing. I also thought it was really smart that the authors touched on how life would be after divorce, to kind of gear a child up for what to expect next. The part about how to tell your friends and how to deal with your parents dating someone new where the two sections that really hit home for me. When I was going through my parents’ divorce, it was really hard for me to explain what was going on to my friends and instead I moved away without even telling many of them. I also had a really rough time when my parents started dating again and I often was really rude and mean to both my parents and their girlfriends and boyfriends. Looking back now, if I had had a book like this to guide me along the way, things might have been different for me. This book really is a great book to teach children that divorce is natural and ok. I think it could really give a lot of children good advice and help them cope with this big change in their lives and among their families. It also helps that the story is conveyed through dinosaurs, letting children know that even dinosaurs divorce. show less

Arthur, everyone’s favorite aardvark, knows exactly what he wants to write about for Mr. Ratburn’s creative writing assignment. Wanting it to be meaningful, Arthur chooses to discuss how he got his puppy pal. He begins to feel self-conscience about his story and adds elements that morph it into a completely different tale. After dancing and singing his revised assignment to the class, they all realize his original story was best. This book teaches children to be creative, but also show more staying true to one’s self.
This book evoked genuine nostalgia for me. I have such warm memories of watching Arthur when I was a kid and can probably still recite the theme song! I know most of the episodes I watched as a child had a lesson to it, no matter how big or small. “Arthur Writes a Story” is no different. Although he is only writing an essay, the idea of following your own path can apply to life as well.
This book would be great for students who are struggling with confidence in their writing and ideas. show less

In a funny story with an outlandish premise (how many people can actually say they've had a teacher stay at their house), Arthur's weekend is seemingly ruined when he finds out his teacher Mr. Ratburn will be spending the weekend at his home. Much to Arthur's surprise, Mr. Ratburn turns out to be normal AND fun! Just when Arthur starts to think things aren't so bad, the kids at school start making fun of him but Mr. Ratburn saves the day. This would be a great read for any "nerdy" kids. It show more certainly helped me out when I was accused of being a teacher's pet. show less