Draw Me a Star

Title: Draw Me a Star
Author: Eric Carle
Publisher: Philomel Books
Date of Publication: 1992
Illustrator: Eric Carle
Genre Designation: Children’s Fiction
Readability Lexile: K-2 (ages 4-8)

Summary:
It all starts with a star, so the artist drew a star.  Then the star wanted the artist to draw a sun, so the artist drew a sun.  This continued throughout the story the artist built a beautiful world with stars, suns, people, houses, dogs, flowers, among many other beautiful things.  At the end of the story we see the rainbow ask the artist to draw the dark night, and a star.  Then we see the artist fly through the sky on a shooting star. 

Evaluation:
This was an interesting story by Eric Carle.  I believe that it can be interpreted in a variety of ways, which could either be good or bad in this case.  I particularly enjoyed this story because it brought out the main characters inner artist as the story went on.  We saw the character grow as the story went on because at the beginning he seemed shy about drawing his star, but towards the end he was drawing whatever was asked of him.  It seemed as if he became more confident as the story progressed.  I worry about this book because I think that parents/teachers could find the similarities between the story and biblical stories to be concerning and/or offensive.  Another spot that may stir some controversy would be the illustration of the nude man and woman.  The illustration is done in classic Eric Carle art, but it is a nude illustration which may or may not be troublesome to some.  Carle does do a nice job of using metaphors in this story, which are supplemented by his illustrations.

Illustrations:
As previously mentioned the illustrations are classic Eric Carle artwork.  They are beautiful and what we have come to love from Carle.  However, there is a surprising illustration of a nude man and woman that may surprise both young readers and their parents if not warned ahead of time.  The illustrations work wonderfully along side the text helping show the metaphors that Eric Carle had built into the story. 

Mini-Lesson:
This mini-lesson will focus on metaphors.  Students will get to be an artist or sculptor, by using whatever art supplies available to them they will build their own piece of art.  Students will then use a metaphor to describe their art. 
Example: This lump of paper is as heavy as mashed potatoes.