The Friendly Four is written by Eloise Greenfield and illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist. The Friendly Four contains six chapters and a total of thirty-four poems. The book contains a table of contents that shows each chapter, the title of the chapter, and then the title of the poems. The book is about four children during their summer break from school. The book starts off with Drummond who is very bored and lonely. He wants attention; however, his parents and babysitter are putting most of their attention on the new baby. Then a new kid moves to the neighborhood. As a new friend is added a new chapter begins. The story follows as they meet new friends and then as they play together during their summer break. This book has topics that most children are familiar with. For example, gaining a new brother or sister and moving to a new neighborhood or street. There are some experiences in the book such as fostering/adoption and parental illness (Greenfield and Jan Spivey Gilchrist 2006). Children might not understand these experiences and there might need to be some basic explanation. The words used in the book should be familiar to the intended audience.
The poems are written in free verse and in a way to create a narrative. The poems are written in such a way, with different colors and lines noted with who is speaking, making it great for having solo readers or even chorus reading in different groups. The different colors make it easy to see who is speaking because the colors are the same throughout the book. However, when more than one person is speaking, or everyone is speaking it is only written in black. This might make it a little more confusing if the poem is performed. The author uses activities that most children do as activities that the four friends do. However, this book was written in 2006 and technology is more revenant than it was back then. The poems are not too sentimental at the end when one of the friends leaves, however, the feeling of going back to school and missing free time is something that most children experience.
The illustrations look to be mostly done in watercolor apart from their town, Goodsummer. The illustrations are colorful and depict what is happening on the page. The colors are bright and remind me of summertime. The illustrations invite you into the story of the four friends. The illustrator leaves large blank places where the poems do not overlap with the illustrations. It was interesting seeing the illustration for When Summer Ends and Rae is talking on the phone. The phone that is shown is a corded landline phone. That type of phone is not as relevant today as it was in 2006, although not extinct.
Who I Am
Drum: I’m Drummond Anthony Liggins,
mostly known as Drum,
who likes to wrestle,
likes to run,
likes to count
things.
I count my footsteps
from the porch to the gate,
and I wait.
Wait for fun to find me
in my big back yard.
(Greenfield and Jan Spivey Gilchrist 2006)
This would be a fun storytime or program focused on this one book, especially at the beginning of summer reading. I would invite other librarians or library staff to read the different voices. Another option would also be a time when I choose teen volunteers to perform the poem. I would introduce the poem by talking about being lonely on summer vacation. For an activity, if this was a poetry program, I would invite the children into a conversation to talk about how they related to the different aspects of the book. For storytime, I would have the children draw and create their own town and name it.
References:
Greenfield, Eloise, and Jan Spivey Gilchrist. 2006. The Friendly Four. New York: Harpercollins/Amistad.
Comments
Post a Comment