Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Hayley Wells: Children's Book - Little Cottontail

Little Cottontail

By Carl Membling



SUMMARY:
Little Cottontail like the other Little Golden Books published, is a fantastic read for students. We all know that students want to grow up fast and they don't know how long this will take. Little Cotton Tail goes through the same thing and constantly asks his mother after everything he does if he's now grown up.  Little Cottontail is taught by his mother how to know if a fox is around by getting his scent. One day Little Cottontail ends up catching the scent and warns everyone to get away, the fox chases Little Cottontail but he and his mother get away. His mother finds him shortly afterwards and tells him that he is now all grown up. I believe that the moral of the story is that to be gown up, you must first understand how to look after yourself and watch out for danger.
 Published in the year 1960, Carl Membling's Little Cottontail is full of love and displays 'stranger danger' through the character of a rabbit. The illustrations, by Lilian Obligado match the text with some detailed additions giving the reader something else to look and think about during the read. There are many mutual colours used throughout the book with the exception of the fox which is illustrated as a bright red colour. Very appropriate as well since the fox was the 'bad' character and red usually represents danger. 


USE IN THE CLASS:
I believe that this book can be used in a number of ways:
- Students can discuss a number of issues such as what they think the author was trying to tell the reader? Why do you think Little Cottontail wanted to grow up so fast? Do you want to grow up fast? What do you think being a grown up means?
- Students can re-write the story as to what they think might have also made Little Cottontail a grown up, what else could he have done?

LINKS TO ACARA:
I recommend this book for a year 1 class as students can "Discuss characters and events in a range of literacy texts and share personal responses to these texts, making connections with students own experiences," as said in the sub-strand, Responding to Literature ACARA (2012). 

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