Teachable Texts

45. A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

August 11, 2009 at 1:06 am Leave a comment

Retell: Camilla Cream is very worried about what other people think of her.  She loves to each lima beans but would never admit that to anyone at school.  One day she wakes up covered in stripes.  No doctor can cure her, people make fun of her and the media is obsessed with her.  In the end her condition improves when she learns to be herself.

Topics: teasing, fitting in, self confidence, first day of school

Units of Study: Talking and Writing About Texts, Character, Social Issues

Tribes: right to pass, mutual respect

Habits of Mind: persisting

Reading Skills: interpretation, synthesis

My Thoughts: A Bad Case of Stripes is a great book for encouraging discussion about the importance of individuality.  I think it may also be a good text for modeling how important it is to pay attention to details that may seem small but are actually really important.  For example, if the reader passed over the part about Camilla liking lima beans, the ending of the book could be confusing.  If you are teaching the Habits of Mind, you could ask students to pay attention to how the doctors and specialists ‘persisted’ when trying to solve the problem.

Entry filed under: Male authors, Picture Books. Tags: character, first day of school, fitting in, interpretation, mutual respect, right to pass, self-esteem, social issues, synthesis, talking and writing about texts, teasing.