First and foremost, who doesn't like Arthur!? I thought this was a great book to add to my children's literature collection because many are familiar with the television show. Muffy is hosting her spring fling party and invites the crew over. Before they start their first game, they have to wait on Arthur who is always slow. Finally, the games begin! From the egg push to the bunny hop, Arthur comes last in every single game. The crew ridicules Arthur for being so slow. For the last game, they decide to see how can collect the most jelly beans in fifteen minutes. Everyone is excited to play because the winner gets a big chocolate egg! Muffy blows her whistle, and everyone but Arthur races around the yard fast. Francine, Binky, Buster, Fern, and the Brain fill their bags with jelly beans to the top before Muffy can even blow her whistle. Everyone but Arthur starts counting their jelly beans and eating from their full, heavy bags. Five minutes left, and Arthurs is still crawling around the floor trying to find as many as he can to add to his bag. Muffly looks at her stop watch and yells "Oops! Time's up!" Everyone lines up and pours their jelly beans as Muffy walks down the line counting. Then she comes to Arthur, "One, two, three"...and she keeps counting "twelve, thirteen, fourteen." Muffy announces Arthur as the winner and hands him the prize. Arthur knows he can't finish the egg because of how slow he is and shares it with his friends.
This cute fiction book has a great lesson in it. Unfortunately bullying is something young children might have to face. Although Arthur's friends laugh at him and make comments about him being so slow in all the games at first, Muffy does not let Arthur feel left out. Feeling accepted is important to every young child, and many will be able to relate to Arthur with this aspect. I highly recommend this book for younger children.
Your right who doesn't love Authur! As a mother of five I thought I had watched ever Authur show there was but this one is new to me. i love the way the characters share the jelly beans with Authur because he is slower at collecting them. I think this book would be a good way to introduce what you would expect from your students if you had a special needs student entering or in your class. Students know that they have to be nice to special students but sometimes most of the time they do not understand why. This book could spark converstation about these very important issues.
ReplyDeleteI loved Arthur as a kid, and I remember watching it as I got ready for school when I was younger. It would be a great book to use with a younger classroom because most of them should recognize the characters in the book. This would be a great book to use to teach kids to be nice to one another.
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