The Straight Line Wonder

A: The Straight Line Wonder
B: Mem Fox
C: Marc Rosenthal
D:MONDO Publishing
E: Picture Book, fiction
F: K-1

This is a book that is about three straight lines, one day one of the lines gets tired of always being straight. So this line starts to do all kinds of crazy things, he bends and twists. The other two lines do not like the fact that the one line is doing all kinds of crazy things, they yell at him and tell him to stop doing that, that he will be embarrassed and people will stare at him. But the line does not care and he keeps on doing those silly things and in the end it is a good thing. One day the line is spotted by a famous film director and the director thinks is he fabulous. The director makes him into a famous star. The other lines are not jealous but they do tell everyone they meet that they are his friends.

If I were a child I would absolutely love this book! It is amazing, I love the illustrations and how the line does all kinds of crazy things. I think it is fantastic. The text of the story has such a great message that I think everyone could appreciate! The drawings were everywhere on the page and it was never predictable where they were going to be on the next page, it kept my attention so well, I do not know how a child would not be entranced by this book. Aside from the Divine Wombat this is one of my favorite Mem Fox books, that I have read thus far.

This book would open up an excellent conversation or lesson plan on individuality and how important it can be. You could open up the floor for the students to tell you about how they interpret what individuality means and what it is to them. Also getting them to make a list of everything that they think that makes them an individual.