Iggy Peck, Architect

Beaty, A., & Roberts, D. (Illus.) (2007). Iggy Peck, Architect.

New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers.
ISBN #: 978-0-8109-1106-2

Summary:
Iggy Peck, Architect is a delightfully silly yet also educational story about a young boy named Iggy Peck who is a lover of all things architectural. At the age of two he begins to display his talent for building when he creates structures in his home out of odd items such as diapers (dirty ones at that!) and dirt clods. Throughout the book Iggy uses his gift to recreate famous structures, and as the story progresses he becomes more and more creative with the items he uses (ex. using pancakes and coconut pie to replicate the St. Louis arch). Iggy meets a hitch when he enters second grade and is told by his teacher, Miss Lila Greer, that they are to learn nothing about architecture as she feels it has no place in grade two. We learn that as a child Miss Greer had had a damaging experience on an architect's tour of a famous building that caused her to dislike anything to do with buildings. Poor Iggy is forbidden from designing and building and thus school becomes a bore to him. Until one day on a picnic field trip with the class Miss Lila Greer gets herself into a spot of trouble and it's up to Iggy's talent as a builder and his classmates teamwork to save her!

Reason for reading:

I would read this book to three to five year old children because I think it is an amazing way to get them engaged with the concept of architecture. Architecture is something that I have always been fascinated with, so to be able to share my interest in the subject with children is something I think would be quite incredible both for them and for me! By exploring architecture it would enable the children to engage with different kinds of math, science, art, problem-solving and of course social skills from working cooperatively with the other children. Iggy Peck is an extremely clever, funny and relatable character and the story is the perfect balance of educational and silliness. The rhyme scheme and choice of wording are very appealing - it is surprisingly easy to get the words stuck in your head. Besides the architectural theme and the written flow of the story, I would read Iggy Peck, Architect to pre-school aged children because I think it gives a very good message to the children of following your passions no matter what. Iggy was forbidden from doing what he loved, which killed his interest in school altogether. is a message for teachers as well: that we should make education fun and appeal to the children's interests!

Illustrations:

The illustrations of Iggy Peck, Architect, done by David Roberts, are colourful and quirky. The illustrations have been done in watercolour paint, pent and ink. For some of the pieces pencil was used, and some of the pages are on graph paper to fit with the architectural theme. I was drawn to the book because of the above mentioned colourful, quirky and rich images. Also, I enjoyed reading the book over and finding new things hidden that I had not picked up on before: references to famous buildings, different styles of architecture or just humorous background pictures. When I was babysitting two young boys recently (aged four and six) they were drawn to the colourful pictures and immediately began pointing out certain details and sharing their wonders. When we finished the story they asked me to repeat it, and when that was finished the younger boy wanted to take the book and study the pictures himself. I observed him sitting tucked away in a corner chuckling at certain pages and even touching them as if to feel a texture. When I asked him why he was feeling a page he said it looked like some parts were “popping out at him”.

	Provocations:

A perfect provocation I can think of would be to simply observe children building at the block station in a centre and ask them if they could explain their creations to me. Did they have a specific design in mind or were they just winging it? I would say to them that they are being architects right now, and would ask if any of the children knew what an architect was. Through their own block building I would begin a discussion with them on architecture and design, and we would find the different elements of it in their own buildings/bridges/roads/whatever they happen to have built. Another provocation I could use (after the block centre provocation) would be to put up a slide-show on a projector screen every day for a couple of days before I read the book. The slide-show would contain images of the famous buildings and structures that are depicted in the book. If a child came up to me wondering about the images I would tell them that these were world famous examples of architecture that we had talked about in the block centre previously. We could have a discussion about the famous structures and even try to build recreations if the children wanted in the block centre or out of found items.

Presentation:

Iggy Peck is a little on the long side, but I do not think it is so long that chunking would be necessary. I

believe that chunking the story may draw away from the flow of it. The wording, rhythm and storyline of the book should keep the children's interest for the entirety of the story.

There are certain words that I may need to explain to the children:

ñ Gothic & Romanesque – I would probably need to explain these two words, I can imagine a curious child would pipe up and ask. I would explain that these were two different styles of architecture, and we could possibly look into these styles later when doing extensions.

ñ Arithmetic – The children may wonder what this word means, I would simply explain that it was another word for mathematics or a way of working with numbers.

ñ The names of the structures – Some structures Iggy recreates are named in the book (ex. The St. Louis Arch) so I may have to give a small explanation about that, and then of course we would explore it more in our extensions.

Pages I would stop and wonder about. What made me wonder?:

ñ In one of the first pages I wondered where Iggy lived since he had palm trees in his backyard.

ñ I wondered what kind of temple he had made from modeling clay and what it's name was (page five).

ñ I wondered where his mother and father were off to dressed up so elegantly (page six).

ñ I wondered just how many pancakes it would take to recreate the St. Louis Arch. And I wondered how it would stay up. (page seven and eight).

ñ I wondered what the helicopter was doing in the background on page fourteen.

ñ I wondered what they were having for lunch in their picnic basket (page twenty).

ñ I wondered when the last time I had been on a picnic was.

ñ I wondered who the initials D.R. & C.W. were carved into the tree on page twenty-two.

ñ I wondered who lost their underwear on page twenty-six.

ñ I wondered if the bridge on page twenty-seven and twenty-eight is the Brooklyn Bridge.

4 ways of Presenting:

1) Felt story:
For a felt story I would need a

ñ felt board

ñ laminated pictures of characters and structures from the story with felt glued to the back

After searching for an Iggy Peck, Architect felt story and finding nothing I decided I would have to make my own. I will photocopy pictures from the story and laminate them, then attach felt to the back so that they will stick to the board. I always loved felt stories when I was in preschool so I knew that I had to make my own.

2) Magnet story:
For a magnet story I would need

ñ cookie sheet

ñ pictures from the story laminated

ñ magnets

ñ glue

This would be similar to the felt story in the way that I would use laminated pictures from the book. Glued to magnets and used on the cookie sheet, we could either act out the story using the magnets or the children could manipulate the magnets themselves to create their own story.

3) Story Basket
For a Story Basket I would need

ñ picnic basket

ñ found items to create structures

ñ puppets for characters

I thought for my story basket I would have fun and let the inner architect in myself come out by building the props for certain structures that are in the book out of found items (I would look in nature, thrift stores, urban source). Also, since in the story Iggy Peck's class goes on a picnic I would use a picnic basket for the basket container!

 4) Acting Out

To act out the story I would need:

ñ costumes (optional)

ñ props (optional)

I say that the costumes and props are optional because I think that the children could act the whole story out without even using costumes or props, just their imagination. I think it would be really fun for children to act out Iggy Peck, some being the characters and some getting to do whacky poses to be the buildings and structures. I can imagine a child getting to be the sphinx that Iggy creates out of dirt clods, or a few children forming a pose together to create the bridge that Iggy and his classmates build at the end. We could even incorporate some yoga poses into this performance!

Extensions:

There are so many possible extensions that a class could do for this story, it really seems to be set up with the idea in mind that children are going to go out and explore architecture after reading it. The first idea that I had was to walk around the neighbourhood with the children and take pictures of any interesting buildings or structures that they see. We could have endless discussions about the many different types of architecture in our own environment, and even show the pictures to parents so that they could join the discussions as well. Another extension would be to have the children think about the architecture of buildings and structures familiar to them such as the school, the playground, their house, the grocery store, anything they can think of. We would think about walls, stairs, ceilings, windows, space, etc. The children could draw the familiar structures if they wanted, or we could even recreate them hands on. Once we had explored architecture in our own neighbourhood, we could branch off and explore further into famous structures throughout history. We could begin by talking more about the famous structures in Iggy Peck, Architect, but it would not end there: we could move on to other famous structures such as the Pyramids of Giza. Books could be set out about the different types of architecture and structures that we were discussing. My favourite extension idea is one that would probably be a long-term project for the centre. If there was a class pet, or the centre was thinking about getting a class pet we could have the children design and create a house for the pet. They could use their imagination, draw blueprints, and work together to help build the house. Obviously it would take a lot of work and effort from the teachers as well (making sure that the children's ideas are included, and finding a way to make some of the more imaginative or unrealistic ideas work) but I think it would be such a fun project for everyone. The children could take what they had learned about architecture and work together with found pieces and building materials to create something they could be proud of – like how the children in Iggy Peck work together to build a bridge for Miss Lila Greer!