A Bad Case of the Stripes

Shannon, D. (2004). A bad case of stripes. Scholastic Paperbacks.

Age Level: 5-9

Genre: Picture Book

Camilla is a girl who wants to fit in.  She gives up lima beans (which she liked) just to fit in and then she gets a ‘bad case of the stripes.’  She starts to change color and transsform into thinkgs surrounding her.  Her parents take her to the doctor but they cannot find anything wrong so she goes to school.  While at school, she’s teased because of her color.  Camilla’s journey to fit in takes her through many colorful transformations.  Will Camilla ever learn to love who she is? 

David Shannon’s illustrations are very vivid and life-like.  Shannon does a great job making the illustrations come to life.  The colors in the illustrations contribute to the character’s emotions and overall mood of the story.  The composition of the book also helps to focus your attention on the important aspects of the story.  The realistic illustrations are great as they make the text easily relatable!

I would absolutely recommend this book and already plan to use it in my classroom!  Children will find this story very easy to relate to as many of them have hoped to fit in at some point in their lives. 

Ideas for teaching/comprehension strategies that can be used with this text:  This book would be great to use when teaching theme because it clearly promotes being yourself.  It would also be a very cute book to use with cause and effect. 

Questions to pose:

Have you ever felt like Camilla?  Explain. 

What do the illustrations represent?  Why are they so important to the story?

Additional Resources:

Read this book online at www.storylineonline.net

Story Lesson Plan : http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/bad-case-stripes-lesson-plan