I'm Here By Peter H. Reynolds

Title: I'm Here 

 Peter H. Reynolds

 Atheneum Books for Young Readers

 August 16, 2011

 32 Pages

 Picture book/ Realistic fiction

     I chose to read and then write about the book I'm Here  because the message behind the story is so near and dear to my heart. This book was written with an autistic child in mind but could really be about any child who may be secluded, lonely or reclusive. If there is a child who is isolated he or she will definitely see themselves within in the book. I'm Here is a simple yet refreshing story about children and their friendships. The story starts out with a young boy all alone while the rest of the children are playing together on the playground. The young boy looks lost and sad but continues to let the world know that he is here and he wants for his voice to be heard. Finally his voice is heard and this is when I remembered how meaningful children's friendships can truly be. 

     The illustrations in this book are mostly sketches although the author does use some watercolors throughout the book. The sketches are very simple yet so unique. The type of medium he chose to use makes the illustrations look transparent. The sketches are emphasized by the use of the watercolors. The text and the pictures share most of the pages and then there are some pages with hardly any illustrations at all. I am not sure if I just really loved the illustrations that much or if the story behind the pictures allowed me to love them even more.

     This book would go great with a language arts lesson. After reading the book aloud to the class the students could all write about a time that they felt alone. This book could also be used as a read aloud for a literature lesson. The teacher could stop on important pages and ask questions such as "What do you think is going to happen next?" As part of the literature lesson the teacher could ask the students to place events in the story in the order that they happened. This would allow the students to become more familiar with sequence. I chose this book because of the important life lesson I believe it shared. This would be an amazing book to share with a kindergarten or first grade class when learning about communities, friendship and rules. I would actually read this book the first week of school. It is never to early for children to learn valuable life lessons. So far this book has not received any awards.