Reviews for An island picnic

The average rating for An island picnic based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-10-08 00:00:00 Kong Hian "An Enchanted Hair Tale" is written by Alexis De Veux and illustrated by Cheryl Hanna. The genre is fictional fair tale. "An Enchanted Hair Tale" is a strange story about a boy named Sudan who is being harassed because his hair is wild like his mother's. He has dreadlocks. Grown-ups say mean things and other children make fun and hurt Sudan's feelings. Sudan walks far away from home in anger and discovers a circus full of people who, like him, have enchanted hair. Through words from his mother's friend, Sudan finds acceptance of his hair from within himself. This story is meant for read-alouds. It is great for ages four and up. Though it is a fairy tale, it is also written with rhyme. The story requires a careful read to catch the rhythm of the verse. The book fits well in my text set as it encourages self-esteem via acceptance of who you are though you are different from those around you. I also like the story because the main character is male and I believe African-American males should also be represented in picture books about self-image. The story is not realistic in the terms of finding a circus sitting in the middle of a street but, the circumstances regarding the harassment of the character are. The illustrations by Cheryl Hanna follow the story well. Hanna's characters' features are clearly drawn and not exaggerated. Though the illustrations are realistic for the characters, they also carry the fairy tale genre farther than the script of the story. The images of floating planets, pyramids, and a man riding upon a zebra give the story its fairy tale qualities. The pictures are black and white yet they pop from the page due to their vivid imagery. There are no other races represented in either the story or illustrations other than African-Americans. The book contain no stereotypes and is a good representation both in script and image of African-Americans. The author and illustrator are African-American.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-03-04 00:00:00 Alexis Mondragon An Enchanted Hair Tale is a fictional story about a young boy who doesn’t understand why his hair is so different from everyone else’s and why did his parents decide to give him dreadlocks. He is teased because of his hair and decides to run away for a while. While away he runs into an old family friend that teaches him the importance of being proud of the hair he has. I would use this text in my classroom to show students that not everyone has the same kind of hair and sometimes someone’s hair can be a result of their parent’s choice in what kind of hair they will have. Students could interact with the text in that they could see that the young boy in the story learns to accept is hair and becomes proud of it. After reading An Enchanted Hair Tale students might be able to understand that hair does not define who you are as a person. Alexis De Veaux is the author and she is also a poet and author of African American literature. De Veaux does a good job of giving a very detailed story about self-acceptance about things that may just be out of your control. This book can teach children that different hair textures come from people being different and coming from different places.