Starry, Starry Night. (Draw Me a Star - Eric Carle)

Name: tb4ms

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Product:	Draw Me a Star - Eric Carle
Date:	14/03/07 (150 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Vibrant, bold illustrations

Disadvantages: No real story line.

I am a huge fan of Eric Carle's books for a number of years so you may be seeing quite a lot of reviews on his books by me!!
I rarely find fault with any of his books as they are always bright, colourful, great for young children and very good educational resources.

'Draw me a Star' is not one of my favourites by Carle and I have read the majority.

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Price
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The RRP of the paperback is 5.99 but amazon are selling them from 1.03 (sorry pound sign not working!)

Hardcovers are from 2.85 at amazon.

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The Story
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There isn't really a story as such in this book and although the children I read to, do benefit from repetitive text so as to join in with the 'chant' many of them began to get a bit fidgety as there was just a little too much repetition.

It begins with an artist being asked to draw a star and he draws one, 'it was a good star'.

The star then asks the artist to draw a sun and it was a warm sun.

The sun asks him to draw a tree and it was a lovely tree.

The tree asks the artist to draw a woman and a man and the artist drew a handsome couple. This page causes great amusement as some of the 'bits and bobs' of the naked man and woman are slightly visible and it may be 'wrong' that they cause amusement in some people's opinions but children will be children!

And so it goes on, the next thing asking the artist to draw something else ranging from a house to a butterfly etc until finally there is a picture of a house with a garden, people, pets with a rainbow above it......

The night is then drawn followed by the moon and finally, the star and the artist travel off in to the sky together.

Sorry if I have given the storyline away but I just wanted to demonstrate the repetitive nature of the book.


I may be looking too deeply in to the whole thing but it strikes me as if this is meant to be almost like the story of creation as the couple the artist draws look very much how you would imagine Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden...........perhaps the artist is supposed to be representing God!! If this is the case then it is far too deep for young children.

What the book does offer is a step by step way of drawing a perfect star which Carle states at the back of the book was taught to him by his German Grandmother.

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Illustrations
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In true Carle fashion, these are striking, bold and have a collage effect to them and it is thanks to these pictures that the attention was held by the young children I was reading this to.


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Style
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Very simple language and vocabulary with a repetitive text.

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Other Eric Carle Books
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Eric Carle's books are tenfold, but here are some of them:
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, what do you hear?
The Tiny Seed
Do you want to be my friend?
1, 2, 3 to the zoo
Today is Monday

Draw me a Star ISBN: 0140549277

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My Verdict
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In short, not the best book written by Eric Carle so if you have never read any of his books before I would advise you not to have this as the first one as it may put you off him which would be a huge shame as he has written some great books for young children!

Summary: Not one of Carle's best children's books!