The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig

Title: The Invisible Boy
Author/Illustrator: Trudy Ludwig/Patrice Barton
Genre: Fiction
Major Awards: School Library Journal Best Book of the Year (Winner); Georgia Children’s Book Award (Nominee 2016)
Kentucky Bluegrass Award (Nominee 2015); IRA Teachers’ Choices (Selection 2014); Nebraska Golden Sower Master List (Selection 2015)
Age: 6-9

This book is about a boy who feels invisible to his classmates and even his teacher until a new student comes along and becomes friends with him. Everyday people ignored him and didn't care to notice him. One day at recess they were picking teams to play kickball and the best players were picked, then their best friends, then the friends of the players already on the team, and when one of the team captains saw that Brian was the only option left, he said they had enough on each team, when there was really room for him to play. At lunch they were talking about how great Madison's birthday party was, and Brian felt so left out because he wasn't invited. At what looked like a time for centers, Brian worked on his drawings and drew many different things. At then one day a new student arrived, Justin. At first, everyone wasn't sure if he was cool enough to be in their groups but they eventually figured him out. At lunch Justin had a traditional Korean dish his grandmother made and the kids made fun of him for it, but Brian put a cool note in his cubby saying he thought it was cool. At recess the next day, Justin came up to Brian and said thanks for the note and complimented him on the drawing he was working on. In class the teacher told them to get into groups of two or three and Brian wanted to be with Justin but he was already taken and Emilio, the other group partner tried to make no room for him, but Justin said they could. they all worked together to create an amazing story to go with the photograph that was given to them. At lunch the next day, Brian had been dreading it, but Justin waved him to come over and eat with them, and after all he didn't feel so invisible anymore.
Brian is considered the invisible boy because nobody ever seems to notice him. the teacher doesn't pay attention to him, his classmates don't let him play in any games,they didn't invite him to birthday parties and at lunch he always sits by himself.

I really liked this book and would absolutely recommend it to others. I think it's important for students to see that we should be kind to one another. I would use this book in a lesson on friendship, and how to establish my classroom rules and guidelines, this would be an example of how we should treat one another (the ending of course) and the beginning would be what we don't want to see in the classroom. Another thing i liked about this book was how at the beginning Brian was in black and white and didn't have much color to him, but when he met Justin and became friends with him he found some color and was apart of things and had an overall happier and better mood than before. I think this book would be great for Kindergarten - 3rd grade.
- Peace. Love. Giraffes.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Childhood Book Memories

The Rooster Prince of Breslov by Ann Redisch Stampler

The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone