A Very Hairy Scary Story: 04/20/09

My reading this month seems to be converging on a theme of perception. In 0399238581?A Very Hairy Scary Story by Rick Walton, Sarah learns what happens when her imagination runs amok. Things go amiss when Sarah accidentally stays to late at her friend's house. Her walk home at dusk brings to life lots of imagined monsters. Can she make it home safely?

The illustrations by David H. Clark bring this book to life. Each page shows a shadow of the thing Sarah will see next. My son and I like to stud how the normal surroundings will become a monster in Sarah's imagination. The next page of course is the monster, followed by Sarah taking a second look and realizing her monster is something ordinary like a mail box, hanging laundry, a barbecue and so forth.

Besides being about perception and imagination, A Very Hairy Scary Story is about responsibility. Although my son enjoys the different monsters jumping out he always admonishes Sarah for not doing the right thing. She could have saved herself a lot of trouble and worry if she had just called her parents to say she had stayed too late. I'm glad he's seeing the messages in the books we read especially when they aren't the point of the books. It thrills me to see him learning to reason for himself in such a mature fashion.

Comments (0