Pete the Sheep-Sheep

Title: Pete the Sheep-Sheep
Author: Jackie French
Illustrator: Bruce Whatley
Publisher: Clarion Books; New title edition (September 12, 2005)
Genre: Children's Picture Book
Readability Lexile: Kindergarten-2nd Grade

Summary and Target Audience:
This story is about a sheep shearer and his sheep who come int a town of three other shearers who simply do not want to share.  Shaun uses his sheep to heard the other sheep as well and the three other goofy shearers get jealous and their sheep go to Shaun for all their shearing needs.  The three shearers become annoyed and run Pete and his Sheep off the property so Shaun and Pete the Sheep open a sheep-shearing barber shop.  All the sheep start going there, as well as the three shearers dogs, and the three men decide to help Pete out at his hop instead o fighting. The audience for this book may be children anywhere from the ages of kindergarten to 2nd grade, especially students who like to learn about sheep!

Evaluation of the Text:

Good story- I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It was entertaining and the characters had fun names that would be fun for a read aloud.  It also had a great message of accepting differences again and going with the flow which is so important. However, I read some other reviews online about this book which said the complete opposite and besides the illustrations it had no substance. Purely all about opinion!

Characters grew- Not only did Shaun and Pete the Sheep grow as characters and try new things as far as joining this small club of shearers but they also were able to move on from a not so positive situation and create their own store which brought in all sorts of different fun.  They even dealt with the issue of exclusion when they told the shearers dogs they couldn't be styled because it was sheep only.  They changed this rule, however which showed growth as well.  The shearers and their dogs grew from anger and resentment at this new character to humility and acceptance when they chose to help Shaun in his new shop.

Illustrations are nonstereotypical-  This is where I believe the text falls short.  There were no women in this story and all the men were white.  The sheep were white as well but some of them had slight distinctions.  The author is from Australia and I believe that is where the story was meant to be based out of.

Literary Elements:

Characterization- The characters in this text are different, which I think is why I liked it.  I wasn't sure if there was an underlying message other than the idea of accepting people who are different.  Shaun and Pete the Sheep are definitely different than the three shearers and their dogs and because they do things differently they are ostracized.  The story comes full circle when the shearers and their dogs get to try things a new way at the end. "In the end, it all worked out happily. Ratso could shear sheep styles that were almost as good as Shaun's Bog Bob specialized in sheep dog styles. And Bungo learned hot to speak to the clients."

Conflict-The conflict in this story seems to be the fear of change.  The three shearers have been doing things "their way" for what seems like a lifetime and when some new kid comes in and shakes things up their not quite sure how to react."That sheep-sheep is nothing but a troublemaker! He has to go!" cried Big Bob and Ratso. "If Pete goes, I go," said Shaun."

Point of View- The point of view of the story is from a narrator's perspective.  What is interesting is that the differences of the shearers are not only the way that they talk, sheer and treat their animals but also the way they dress.  The opinion of the new shearer towards the new shearer was interesting and I wam not quite sure if there is a GLBT undertone in the story.

Illustrations:
I love the illustrations in this book! The pencil sketched with the watercolors are truly fantastic.  The expressions on the faces of all of the animals and shearers are priceless and I liked that the three shearers who did not want to change look mostly alike except for a few small differences.  I also liked that Shaun looked different then all of them and that the author took some time to make the illustrations fun and related directly to the text.

Mini-lesson:
Because of the repetitive nature of this book it would be fun to do an interactive read-aloud and have the students hold up fingers if they think there is something "unfair" happening in the book.  With this recognition of issues in the story the conversation can then begin on how to change these differences or opinions on differences.  A story could be made by each student on what kind of shop they would create if given the opportunity or what they did to be proactive when they felt they were being left out.