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CM . . .
. Volume XXIII Number 5. . . .October 7, 2016
excerpt:
The famous author-illustrator duo has done it again! Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko have teamed up to create another fabulous, laugh-out-loud funny children’s book.
Highly Recommended. Andrea Boyd is an early years educator who recently graduated from the University of Manitoba. She currently teaches Grade 4 in Winnipeg, MB.
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Next Review | Table of Contents For This Issue - October 7, 2016 |
It’s Pizza Day at school, and nothing is going to stop Jasmine from making it there—not even a blizzard! Her mother warned her about the storm heading their way, but Jasmine insisted on going anyways. She bundled up and went on her way.
So Much Snow! could be used as a tool to teach children several elements of poetry, including: rhyme scheme, repetition, and rhythm. Each time the snow gets deeper, Jasmine sings new lyrics to her song, but the structure of the song remains consistent. The author also italicized the song lyrics, and each short song is organized into a stanza with five lines.
Because the book is intended for a young audience, full-page illustrations are the focus of each page. The talented illustrator, Michael Martchenko, created artwork for the story using watercolour paint on Crescent illustration board. This superior quality art board allowed for finer details and outlines to later be added using a different medium. These additions enhanced each character and background image throughout the story by making them appear more "real". Readers may simply view the images on each page to understand the story. Each illustration accurately portrays all that is written in text. For example, the young girl has music notes drawn above her head on each corresponding page with one of her songs. What begins as many multi-coloured music notes at the beginning of her journey to school turns into a small cluster of icy-cold blue music notes once she is buried in the snow and wishing that she was home in bed. However, the illustrations also tell more than what is directly written in the text. There is a Saint-Bernard dog that appears on the title page as well as throughout the book, but the character’s story remains a mystery as it was not mentioned once in the text.