Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Josh Rouse: Personal Reading. Billy the Punk, by Jessica Carroll and Craig Smith

Summary:
This children's book is a short story about a school boy named Billy. The story begins with Billy seeing a group of punks at his local shopping centre and suddenly decides he wants to be one too. The story continues throughout the week following Billy's epiphany as each day he tries more and more to be a punk, from cutting up his clothes to colouring his hair, all the while getting in trouble with the authority in his life (his teacher and parents, which no doubt fuels his desire to be even more of a punk).

The premise of the story is in many ways showcasing the naivety and easily-influenced nature of young children, which becomes more apparent at the end of the story. The book is fun and light-hearted and has full page pictures which makes it easy to read to a whole class.

Use in a classroom:
Personally, I would use this in a lower primary classroom and use it to simply get the students thinking about what their dreams are and what they'd like to be when they grow up. I would use this to try and draw connections between Billy and themselves so they can feel more involved in the text.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Josh, I agree that this book should be used for lower primary but I think it could also be used for upper primary for the same reason as at that age they'll begin to think about what they're like be when they're older a lot more than what they would've as younger children.

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  2. Would certainly be interesting in getting student's of both age groups to think about the "fads" they're going through at the same time.

    Dylan.

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