Blog Entry #4 Llama Llama Red Pajama

Llama, Llama Red Pajama

Written and Illustrated by Anna Dewdney
Penguin Group
2005
29 pages

Fantasy

            I chose this book because of the quirky yet detailed illustration of a baby llama on the cover.  In the story, a mother llama puts her baby llama to bed. Baby Llama waits for his mom to come back upstairs, but she doesn’t come. Mama Llama is busy downstairs cleaning dishes and talking on the phone.  In the meantime, Baby Llama gets progressively more anxious and nervous for his mother to come back upstairs and finally pitches a fit because he’s afraid Mama Llama is no longer there. When Mama Llama comes upstairs because of Baby Llama’s tantrum, she tells Baby Llama that she was busy and he shouldn’t overreact. She tucks him into bed and tells him not to worry because she loves him very much. Finally, Baby Llama goes to sleep. 

            The illustrations in this book appear to be a mixture of acrylic and some type of crayon or pencil. They are simplistic in style, but there are detailed brush strokes on Baby Llama to give his character more importance. The scenes create unique perspectives and moods using colors and angles. Each page with Baby Llama is dark and focuses mainly on his face or his view of where his mother may appear. In contrast, the pages with Mama Llama have a bright color palette. 

            I thought this book was cute and used color and facial expressions well to emphasize the story. This would be most appropriate for K-1^st graders. I would suggest using this for a writing prompt such as “What do you think Baby Llama was scared of in the story?” You could have them draw a picture and explain in a couple of sentences. Another writing prompt might have students write about something they're afraid of. Also, this would be great for 1^st graders for a beginning rhyming lesson. A great feature of this book is that most of the rhyming words are bolded and colored. 

For more on Anna Dewdney click on her name to visit her website.