Carlson, N.(2002). There’s a big, beautiful world out there!. New York : Penguin group.
ISBN # 0-670-03580-7
This story is about a girl who is scared of a lot of things such as big dogs, thunderstorms, roller coasters, all the creepy crawly bugs and dark shadows in her room. She is even scared of people who look different from her. She hides her herself in bed and does not want to come out. Soon she finds it boring and starts think differently and see the bright side of things. She thinks about the rainbow after thunders, the joy of riding of roller coasters and interesting adventures with bugs. She now believes there is a big beautiful world out there just waiting for her to explore.
This is a really enjoyable book for children of 3-5 year old because it talks about their fears, but in a fun way. Even though children may be scared of the same things as she is. They can have a lot of fears about something which they are not familiar with. If something is new and strange, then children can have fears about it. While children read this book, they can learn to deal with their own anxiety.
The illustrations in this book are amazing because they use bold and bright colors and the characters look very funny like cartoon’s. The pictures inside take up most room in a page and the sentences are placed at the bottom of the pages. So children can enjoy large and beautiful pictures as much as possible.
Ways present the book:
1) Light and shadow with recording voice – You make the room a little dark and you prepare a big paper window and a flashlight. You also need some paper-cut characters of the book and a tape recorded with your voice of reading it. While children listen to the tape, you can show the shadow of the characters with a flashlight and paper windows. Before you turn the light, you should make sure they are O.K. and safe.
2) Felt board – We can make a felt board and characters of a girl. Or buy them at the 3H Craftworks. It would be exciting to use felt because characters stand out on the board. Besides, there are some interesting characters like crawly bugs or roller coasters so it would be fun for children to watch them.
3) Puppet – Using puppets, teachers can present the book. You can change your voice whenever the girl feels scared or changes emotions.
Extensions:
1) Art - Ask children what they do and how they feel when they are scared of something. Ask them to draw something that can soothe and relax them when they are scared. Later, hang the pictures on the walls.
2) Sing a song with the children - We can find calm songs which can soothe children when they get scared. Examples are: “The moment I saw you” or “Lightly Ro”. Children can sing these songs and later, they can sing more exciting ones such as “Big Blue Boat” to change the mood for transitions.
3) Play with flashlight in the dark – Ask the parents to bring a flashlight the day before reading the book. Turning off the light, children can hide under the covers with their flashlight. They can light each other in the dark and see people’s faces. It is not only fun, but also helps children get used to darkness and spooky shapes in the darkness.
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