Not Me!

Title: Not Me!

Author/Illustrator: Nicola Killen

Publisher: Egmont USA (October 12, 2010)

Children's Picture Book

Readability Lexile: Preschool-1st Grade

Summary and Target Audience:

Jake, Jane, Bertie, Paul, Louise and Jess the Pup are on an adventure of making a mess.  The kids all take turns making messes in the house and it's a guessing game of who it is leaving water all over the floor or driving a dirty bike across the rug.  At the end, the only innocent character left is the dog who refuses to clean up. 

In my opinion, children from preschool even up to 1st grade.  It would be a great book for a read aloud in a classroom.

Evaluation of Literature:
Could this story really happen- this story with the children could really happen.  However, most likely they would not be alone in a house causing a mess without any adult figures.  The plot of younger children making a mess could really happen and I'm sure you could find students in the class who have made a mess in their own house.
Theme worthwhile- as far as the theme it was a little difficult to put a finger on the point of the story.  The children in the story were making a mess and pretending they didn't make it.  At the end the author alluded to the fact that the children then cleaned it up.  However, I think the rhyming and predicting was the reason for writing the story.
Characters as individuals- the characters were all given their own two pages and portrayed as individuals.  However, at the end they were all a group again as they were pictured in the beginning of the book.  They each had their own outfit and particular props that identified them.

Literary Elements:
Assonance- For every character, there is a rhyme of their action with their name: "Who's been playing in the rain?  Not me! said Jane." ("rain" and "Jane")
Foreshadowing- In the beginning of the book there are pictures of all the characters and their names.  They each have specific outfits and props that help in identifying who is making the mess.  For example, Jake is carrying a dinosaur and on the first page there is a missing cake and a dinosaur is sitting in its spot.
*The story is very short with very little text

Illustrations:
The illustrations are fun and very detailed.  The characters faces don't show a ton of expression but as mentioned before the illustrations hold clues to who is making the mess on the next page.  It also has clues on the page as to what the next mess is going to be. The messes made are full of color and detail and completely above and beyond fantastic to give some great clues.

Mini-lesson:
The rhyming is fantastic as well as the prediction in this book.  I would use it as a read-aloud and then have the students work on their own story of the messes they have seen using rhyming words and illustrations.