Llama llama misses mama

Llama Llama Misses Mama

Written and illustrated by: Anna Dewdney

Published by Penguin Group, 2009

31 pages

 

        Who has a tough time adjusting to a new situation? Perhaps you remember your very first day of school when you thought your mom or dad had abandoned you in such an unfamiliar place. Anna Dewdney writes about just that in her story, Llama Llama Misses Mama. The story follows a young llama experiencing school for the very first time and certainly does not like it one bit. But will he figure out that it could actually be fun, or will he choose to spend his first day alone and afraid? Find out if this little llama can make it through his very first day of school!

 

       Dewdney uses bright, kid-friendly colors to illustrate her story. Each page is filled with so many things to look at, plenty to hold a young child's attention and to spark the imagination of someone older. Every picture covered the entire page with the text wrapping around and through the images. Each painting is detailed with fun lines and shapes to capture of the fun of the llama's first day.

 

     I would use this book mainly to encourage any lower elementary school aged child on their first day of school. A lot of students, especially in Kindergarten, haven't ever spent a lot of time away from their parents and this book demonstrates that fear of the unknown, as well as a positive outcome for the students to look forward to. This book could also be used for a fun math activity. Little Llama has a ton of new friends to count, (twelve that I counted myself)! By documenting the numbers on paper or the board, the students can go through the page and count llama's friends one by one, leaving out the friends they've already counted once before. This will also help develop skills for recognizing or memorizing. Last but not least, I would use this book for a language activity to compare and contrast the ways the llama in the story is like a person, and why he is different We would do this by making predictions before the story and then after the story.