A Fly Went By

We've read this one together SO many times, but it wasn't until my kid insisted on reading it all by himself that I realized what a great early reader it is. It's got the rhyme, it's got the repetition, but not to the point of being tedious, and despite its 64 pages and lots of print of some of them it consists only of one or two syllable phonetically logical words and common sight words. And yet, the language doesn't feel dumbed down at all, it's a very pleasant, flowing read. Still a favorite at our house.

I had never read this book before, and I really enjoyed reading it for a few reasons. The first thing that caught my eye when previewing the text was the illustrations. In my opinion, Fritz Siebel’s style resembles a classic comic strip, and I like the crayon scribble look that makes the illustrations look childlike. The pictures strongly support the text, and show a lot of movement. I like the use of rhyming language in this story because I think it would make for a strong read aloud book. “One ran from the other. The other ran too, from the one who came after. Now what could I do?” The plot revolves around and interesting concept. There are a series of animals and insects appearing to chase one another only for fear of being show more chased themselves, when in reality there is no chase. “The fly does not know that the frog is not mad. The frog does not know that the cat is not bad.” In fact, it was a surprise to find out that the cause for the extensive chase was simply a sheep stuck in a tin can. The big idea of A Fly Went By is that it is not always wise to make assumptions. show less

I really like A Fly Went By for a couple reasons. The rhyming aspect of the writing is very easy for early readers to catch on to. Even if at first they do not know all the words in the book, once they pick up the rhyming pattern they can use that to predict the sounds of the other words. The growing ridiculousness of the plot is also something that I enjoy. Seeing the escalation from a simple fly to the entire line of eight things all because of a lamb with a tin can is really entertaining. This simple fun I feel is good for young readers. One of the best things you can do when teaching young readers is to show that there can be fun in reading. The growing craziness of the plot of this book can help do that. A young kindergartner, show more first, or second grader would be very into the growing line of chaos and finding out exactly what the real problem is. The big idea of this book is to solve the mystery of what started this growing line of chaotic misunderstanding. Overall I really like this book, it's fun, and it definitely would entertain young readers. show less

This book is about a young boy who was at the lake when all of a sudden a fly goes by. Different characters running after different characters, the young boy finally figures out what everybody is running from. They are running from a sheep that has his hind hoof stuck in a can. This is a great book for younger children because it includes rhyming and has a definite ending for them to understand. The characters in the book are well developed. The illustrations are very detailed and eye catching. The big idea of A Fly Went By is that it is not always wise to make assumptions.

This classic early reader features bold thick-line illustrations and a compelling sequence of events that invites the reader to question what's coming next as a fly is chased by a frog... who's actually running from a cat... who's running from a dog, and so on. Could be used as a tool to talk about misunderstanding, or learning about patterns as the sequence grows by one every time. This would also make a wonderful read-aloud book, with the text in verse and lots of highly emotional animals to act out.

This book is always a favorite with my preschoolers and Kindergarteners. Its repeating lines makes it easy to have them follow along for the "chorus" much like I knew an old lady who swallowed a fly. The artistry in this book and the words match perfectly. We first see a picture of a boy sitting lazily in a boat pulled ashore on a lake and he is looking at the sky. As he looks at the sky a fly went by. The fly is "chased" by a frog who thinks he is being chased by a cat who thinks she is being chased by a dog etcetera. The boy takes it upon himself to stop the whole menagerie and in the end does just that.
I really think that the moral of not jumping to conclusions plays well especially with the younger audience.

This was a good book for my grandson, a beginning reader to check out. There was enough repetition and rhyming words that he went right through it. It was engaging and fun and the story went on to see what animal creature was next in the string of excitement.