Once Upon a Twice

Title: Once Upon a Twice
Author: Denise Doyen
Illustrator: Barry Moser
Publisher: Random House (August 25, 2009)
Genre: Children's Picture Book
Readability Lexile: Kindergarten-3rd Grade


Summary and Target Audience:
What will happen to the brave mouse Jam when he breaks the rules and goes on a moonlit adventure... against the advice of elder mice?  Will he live to tell the tale?  Follow Jam on his risky adventure through the tall grass and see if he lives to tell the tale of his moonlit adventure to the younger members of his mouse clan.  The audience for this story would be anyone from Kindergarten to 3rd Grade.  This story was hard to define for an audience because it contains so many rhyming and nonsense words that students may be confused at the language.  However, the reaction on the faces of the children you decide to read it to will be priceless because of the climactic events in the story!

Evaluation of the Text:

Did I fell like I was in that time and place- For the most part I was there with Jam going through the tall grasses and fleeing from the dangers of the night marsh.  However, the language, as mentioned before, was tricky and complicated in some spots so that I used my imagination to visualize what it might have looked like.

Characters portrayed as individuals- The part that I most enjoyed is when Jam, the main character, went against the advice of his elder mouse mates to see if all of the warnings he had been told were true because it was believable and most of us have done something just to test the waters to see if all of the warnings we have been told are true.  We have been the curious George in some facet of our life! That is what makes us individuals and set apart from the "mouse clan," even though they prove to be correct in the end.

Illustrations authentic- Although this is a children's book the illustrations were almost too real for me to look at.  The mice were very life-like, especially as the illustrator depicted Jam as he got older talking to the younger mice about his adventure.  Although mice do not grow beards the visual of them getting wrinkly and old was pretty pointed.

Literary Elements:

Rhyming/Nonsense Language- As mentioned before, the author does a fantastic job of giving the feeling of eeriness as Jam goes on his adventure through the murky and dark pond by using nonsense and rhyming words such as, "The knot of mice comes quick undone; The rest resume their furtive run. Jam starts for home, but then, for fun..."

Conflict- The reason this book makes for such a fun read-aloud, although may be seen as too dark for younger readers, is because of the conflict Jam runs into by not listening to his elders.  They warn him of the dangers of going into the pond by himself, but for kicks Jam decides to entertain the adventure and breaks all the rules.  His conflict leaves him almost eaten by the naughty snake; "There's a roil!- a coil!- a lash!  Ssssssnake attacks! Mousling dashes! Startled squeak-eeek! A final Splash! Alas. Silence descends like mud a-deep."

Setting- The setting for this story is in a small and dark marsh with a dangerous pond that instills the mouslings with fear of being dinner for their prey.  The illustrations allude to the darkness of the night as well as all the other animals in the pond who watch helplessly as one mouse, Jam, tries to beat the odds of being dinner.

Illustrations:
As mentioned throughout this review, the illustrations are eerily creepy however somewhat realistic.  The mice are portrayed by age and the elder ones sport a very fashionable beard as well as wrinkles that gave me goosebumps.  The text is in yellow which appealed to the creepy tale and the page is filled with detail as well as an omnipresent moon.

Mini-lesson:
Upon writing this review, I would use this story for all ages around Halloween time.  It would be used as a read-aloud and predictions could be made about what will happen to little Jam as he disobeys his elders.  The next activity could be drawing an illustration or writing a story on personal experiences of disobeying adults in the lives of our students and what happened- were the adults right?  Did they avoid danger?  Will this change how they listen in the future? This book would be great for an interactive discussion and sharing as well.  Be careful, though.  It is kind of a spooky story!