Feb
4
Review: Just a Dream
Filed Under Reviews
This is my one of my favorite children’s environmental books. Chris Van Allsburg’s illustrations are fabulous, as always, and greatly add to the drama of the story. I read this book to students (5th-6th grade) at the end of almost every week at outdoor school. This is a great book to read aloud, especially because of the way the illustrations are separate from the text. What I love about this book is that it is in the end very hopeful. Walter’s first dreams of the future show a world of great environmental problems, based on his actions of not caring in the present; but when he changes his ways, the future changes also. I like to emphasize this when reading it to students: The future is not written yet, but we are creating it every day with the choices we make. This is definitely a children’s environmental literature classic, along with Dr. Seuss’ “The Lorax” and Lynne Cherry’s “The Great Kapok Tree,” but is even better for older children.
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