The Important Book

The Important Book is written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Caldecott winning artist Leonard Weisgard. The target audience for this book is boys and girls in grades kindergarten through second grade.

-Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars ****

-Summary: Goodnight Moon author Margaret Wise Brown writes about simple objects such as shoes, a spoon, and the wind and breaks them down into simple but vivid descriptions through imagery and repetition. The question about what is important about different things in life lingers long after the book is closed.

The Important Book is simple but has a strong meaning. The descriptions of the objects that are described really make the reader stop and think about the object in a new and different way. For example when the wind is being described, it really captures what wind really is. “The important thing about the wind is that it blows. You can’t see it, but you can feel it on your check, and see it in the trees…”. It really incorporates the different senses that people experience everyday in the world around them but not really stopping to think about it or appreciate it. The illustrations also do a great job at capturing what the text is referring to. Looking at the illustrations, the reader can imagine what is being highlighted in the text even more by having a visual. The pictures also alternate between black and white renderings to full color pictures that are extremely detailed and full of texture. There is a lot of evidence that this is well-written book. Tunnel and Jacobs recognize well-written literature through figurative language and music in the language. There is an immense amount of imagery throughout the story that focuses in on bring the five senses to life. The story also flows well, especially as it is read aloud. There are no hang-ups or stumbles when speaking the words.

I would use this book in my classroom in a number of different ways. I would first use this book to highlight teaching the five senses and how the senses are used. There are examples such as how snow feels, how an apple tastes, what the sky looks like, and so on. There are countless examples. This book can be read aloud and the students can imagine how each example affects them. Another angle I would take on this book is to have students highlight what is important to them and see how they would describe it, tying in the five senses and enforcing imagery, which ties in my last way I would use it in a classroom. This book is an excellent tool to describe and explain imagery. Even though simple objects are explain, it goes into great detail and the reader cannot help but to imagine the path of the story in their minds.