Today I Read…I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More!

Today I read I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More! written by Karen Beaumont and illustrated by David Catrow.

Mama caught me paintin’ pictures on the floor and the ceiling and the walls and everywhere else, so she took my paints away and made me take a bath. ICK! She says I can’t paint no more. And I won’t after…

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The grammar is atrocious, particularly when Mama hollers “YA AIN’T A-GONNA PAINT NO MORE!”, but kids will get a kick out of singing the repeated lines along. This book really needs the rhymes to be sung, especially the lines “I ain’t gonna paint no more, no more, I ain’t gonna paint no more.” The rhymes can also be used to teach children the different body parts that the little boy paints. This is emphasized by the words for the body parts being set aside from the rest of the lettering and being in a much larger font, as well as the accompanying illustration focusing on said body part.

The illustrations nicely compliment the story, especially how everything in the house is black and white except for the little boy’s paint. The painting is certainly creative, even if the adult reader may want to slip in a reminder not to paint on furniture, body parts, or anything else that adults would disapprove of getting painted. The reader can encourage the children in the audience to point at the body parts named and to go along with the action, such as making faces along with the little boy during the dreaded baths.

This book is suitable for reading to younger children, especially preschoolers.

Today I Read…D.W.’s Guide to Perfect Manners

Today I read D.W.’s Guide to Perfect Manners, written and illustrated by Marc Brown.

Arthur dares his little sister D.W. to be perfect for one whole day–join her as she shares her tips and tells you how you too can have perfect manners. It’s not always easy, but it’s worth it!

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This book is a spinoff of the popular Arthur series, following his sister D.W. There is another spinoff titled D.W.’s Guide to Preschool, which is approximately the age level for the audience of both books. Her tips on perfect manners are things that preschoolers can do, like saying hello and goodbye, please and thank you, sharing toys, cleaning up after youself, taking your bath and going to bed, and generally trying to be nice to people. The last page is a multiple-choice test with scenarioes, and you pick how to behave. For example,

“1. Your neighbour offers you something to eat, but it looks really gross. What do you do?

a. Say “yucky!” and stick out your tongue.

b. Run away screaming.

c. Say “thank you” and try a bite.”

This is more a book to be read to preschoolers than one that they can read themselves. The majority of the words are in short paragraphs with the same size font, and the vocabulary is too challenging for a beginning reader. However, the pictures are large and often contain details that you can use to engage your audience, such as pointing out when D.W. makes a mess in the bathroom during her bath.

My only quibble is that the book conflates the idea of being perfect with having perfect manners. I’m not entirely comfortable with the way this is phrased, though I’m possibly overthinking things.