Who’s making that Mess?

Who’s making that Mess?

Written by: Phillip Hawthorn and Jenny Tyler

Illustrated by: Stephen Cartwright

Published by: Usborne Publishing Ltd. In 2007, 2003, and 1994

Genre: fiction

Readability Lexile: ?

Summary:

This is a story about a girl and her dog trying to figure out who made the messes around their house. If you flip open a tab it shows an animal and the mess that they made. It then asks you to help them find something. They go through everything asking the same question. Who made that mess? At the end of the book it shows the girl and the dog with all the animals looking at them because they made the mess.

Evaluation:

It is a high literature book. It has repetition in it as well as rhyming, and questions that it asks the reader. It is very rare that you find all of these things in one book. It also has flaps for the reader to open and find more to read and more illustrations. It also has bubbles where the characters talk and say the same thing each time. It has a lot of things that help students to become better readers. The language is very natural and when you read it aloud you are able to hear the characters saying it. You are able to find out that the characters are not very clean and it helps you get to know them better.

Literary Elements:

-          Style- There is many different parts of the style in this book. There is rhyming, repetition, flaps to look under, the talking bubbles, and questions that are asked to the reader. It uses all of these things in just one book to make it a high literature book.

-          Theme- The theme of this book is being messy. The two characters are messy and they are trying to figure out who made all of these messed. They are trying to find things so that is why they made the messes.

-          Plot- The plot is about a girl and her dog trying to figure out who made the messes. It turns out that they did because they were trying to find things. The reader is asked to help them find them.

Mini Lesson:

I would use this book with the style to teach students about the talking bubbles. I would read this book to them and then have them draw a picture with the character talking using the talking bubbles.

Illustrations:

The illustrations in this book are really good. They are colorful and show what the text is trying to say. The illustrations also use talking bubbles and have flaps where questions are asked for the reader to help the characters find their missing things.

Target Audience:

Young children to early elementary