Weekly Reading 7 - Picturebook Review

Hot on the Scent by Peter Lind

Text

1. The text of a children's book is usually organized into simple sentences and short paragraphs. How is the text organized in the book that you have chosen to review? Explain whether this organization was sufficient for the story that this book is telling.

            I chose a wordless picturebook to review.  Since there are no words to read aloud, additional time must be provided for students to explore the images in greater detail (Serafini, pg. 112, 2014).  There isn’t any text organization within the book other than on the cover page.  Reading the title and any information provided on the book jacket or author-illustrator note can help students prepare for the visual narrative within (Serafini, pg. 112, 2014). 

2. Children's book authors often employ literary tools to help make the story more vivid in the readers minds. Commonly used literary tools are rhythm, alliteration, repetition, refrains, onomatopoeia, simile, personification, rhyme, and imagery. Identify three different areas in the text where a literary tool has been employed. For each example you identify, state the type of literary tool that is used and how the employment of the tool helps support the story.

Repetition- The little mouse’s picture is on every one of the stories pages, and he is repeatedly faced with obstacles along his trail of tracking where exactly this good aroma is coming from.

Personification- The mouse is portrayed as a human wearing clothing, having a wife and kids, and sitting at a table eating dinner with his family.

Imagery- This is what this story is all about, pictorial images.  The 27 images are sequenced to tell a story even without words.  The images illustrate that the little mouse is “Hot on the Scent” and it turns out to be aroma of his wife cooking dinner.

3. Identify two areas in the text that use a question or other device to help move the reader to the next page.

 There isn’t text in the story but the pictures lead you to wonder what will happen next.  Such as, when the mouse almost falls off the rocks and is stopping on his heels.  Does he stop or did he fall?  It makes you curious to flip the page!

  

Images

1. Some picture books have an image on the front cover that presents the main conflict or point of the story. Identify two or more elements from the front cover of the book you are reviewing and explain how they relate to the story.

 The front cover has the main character of the story, a mouse, sitting on a rock.  This tells me that maybe the mouse is hot on the scent for some acorns since he’s holding one, or possibly something is hot on the scent for him?  The background looks like the mouse is out in the wilderness so it makes me curious to what scent the mouse smells or what smells him?

2. What is the primary medium (collage, drawings, photographs, etc.) used in the images?

 The primary medium used in the story was drawings.  All of the images used were drawn by Bente Bech.

3. Identify the image that in your opinion is the most effective in developing the story as a whole. Explain how two or more elements in the illustration help support and develop the story. If you can, insert a screenshot of the image into your blog.

 I think the third image in the story is the most effective in developing the story.  The mouse almost falls off a rock cliff and has to figure out a way across.  He chews down a tree and makes his way across.  I think this shows he is very determined to find where exactly this scent is coming from.

4. Identify two elements that are repeated throughout a majority of the images. Explain how these elements support the story. If you can insert a screenshot into your blog.

 The mouse is continually faced with challenges and obstacles throughout the story.  He almost falls off a cliff, he falls in a mole’s hole, he almost gets scooped up by a shovel, eaten by a vulture, caught by a cat, washed down a waterfall, and caught in a spider’s web.

5. Find an example of how the images and text work together to create irony,metaphor and/or metonymy. If you can insert a screeenshot of the image into your blog.

I think the mouse crawling up the cat’s tail and back would be classified as irony.

Characterization

1. What is the easily identifiable dominant trait of the story's main character?

 He is a very intelligent and determined mouse.

2. Identify a character trait of the main character that is established through the text.

 There isn’t text to establish and identify any character traits of the mouse.

3. Identify a character trait of the main character that is established through the images.

 The images establish that he is a husband and father of mice that live in the roots of a tree.

4. Identify two character traits of the main character that young children identify or sympathize with.

By the expressions on his face in a lot of the images he is scared.  Children can relate to being scared in uneasy situations.  Also, he is happy when he gets home to his family.  Children can relate to being happy when they are at home with their families.

5. What was the main problem that the main character faces in the book? How is this problem similar to a problem that most children have faced before?

 The main problem of the story was all the obstacles the mouse faces trying to find where the scent was coming from.  Sometimes children are chased and scared.  Sometimes children are frightened by birds, cats, and water.  The little mouse makes it home and is happy to see his family.  Most children are happy to get home and see their families!

6. Sometimes a children's book character will solve the main conflict on his or her own. How did the character in the book you selected turn to self-reliance to solve the main conflict of the story?

The mouse ran fast, chewed down trees to cross over the deep trench, and ran away from a vulture and a cat to save himself to get to find out the scent he had been tracking was his wife cooking him and his children dinner!