Blog Entry #7 Market Day

Market Day

Written and Designed by Lois Ehlert
Harcourt Books Inc.
2000
34 pages

Realistic Fiction

I chose this book because it was the Best Illustrated Children’s Book by The New York Times Book Review. This book is about a Mexican family who are farmers. It depicts a day in the life of the family as they prepare to go to the market. They pack up all of their goods and begin the journey to the market. When they finally arrive, the family unloads all of their goods and stays at the market all day selling what they can. Finally, the market shuts down, and the family packs up all of their remaining items, and travels home. When they arrive at their house, it is time to eat! 

            The illustrations in this book are particularly unique because they are comprised solely of folk art from around the world. Each page there is a scene comprised of pictures of varying 3-dimensional objects. This multimedia form of illustration is vibrant and visually interesting because it is something that isn’t seen every day. The use of folk art brings character and life to the story and really puts the reader into a state of mind in which they can envision themselves at the market and the items that may be sold there. 

            This is a wonderful book for a multicultural lesson. A great way to use this book could be for teachers to have students make their own 3-dimensional shadow box representing a day in their own lives. Elements included in their shadow boxes could represent how their culture affects the array of items and experiences in their lives. It is also an excellent book for introducing and teaching rhyming in lower grades (K-2^nd) because of the simple and predictable rhyme scheme throughout.

To check out activities for the classroom involving folk art click on the word folk art.