Blog #12 The Blue Ribbon Day

The Blue Ribbon Day

Written by Katie Couric
Illustrated by Marjorie Priceman
Doubleday
2004
26 pages

Poetry

            I chose this book because it was written by Katie Couric, and I thought it might be an interesting to read. This book is about a young girl Carrie who tries out for soccer with her friend but doesn’t do well. She gets discouraged when she doesn’t make the team, but her mom tells her that everyone is good at something they just have to find what it is. Later that week Carrie enters a science fair with her friend Lazlo, and they win first place! She then goes and watches her friend at the soccer game, and her friend wins too. 

            The illustrations in this book have a child-like quality and looked to be mainly watercolor. The lines of the people are simplistic and cartoon in form. On some pages a panel effect is used to depict the sequence of events in the story. There is a considerable amount of negative space with colorful illustrations on the pages. This creates a bright and optimistic tone to the book. The cover of the book has a single panel design with the author’s picture and description on the back. 

            This book had an excellent flow of rhythm and rhyme scheme. Because of this, it would be a great book to introduce with narrative poems. It would also be an excellent choice to read for character education when explaining that everyone has strengths and not everyone’s strengths are the same. This book would be most appropriate for students in grades 3^rd and up. One great project to do with this book would be to have students write about something at which they excel. Teachers may use a prompt stating, “How can you relate to Carrie? Carrie’s strength was science instead of soccer. If the story was about you, what would your strength be?” Another method a teacher could use might be to have students create a Venn diagram depicting similarities and differences they have with Carrie. This would also be a good book to use for in integrated language arts lesson when introducing solvents and solutions. 

Click on Katie Couric's name to go to the link of The Blue Ribbon Day website.