Blog #10

Do Unto Otters (A Book about Manners)

Written and illustrated by: Laurie Keller

Scholastic, Inc., 2007

35 pages

Fantasy

             I chose this book because of the title, “Do Unto Otters.”  I am familiar with the play on words taken from the golden rule in the Bible.  It sparked my interest and I had to pick it up.  This story is about animals who live in the forest who are neighbors.  The rabbit is worried when he comes home to his new neighbors: a family of otters!  He doesn’t know how to react because he has never known an otter before and he is afraid they will not get along.  Throughout the book, the rabbit expresses all the things he hopes otters are like so they will get along and be friends.  The book defines what it’s like to be friendly, to be polite, to be honest, to be considerate, to be kind, to cooperate, to play fair, to share, to forgive, and to apologize.  At the end of the story, the rabbit realizes all he has to do to get along with others is to: “Do unto otters as you would have otters do unto you.”

            The illustrations in this book were drawn by the author, Laurie Keller.  Keller used acrylic paint on Arches watercolor paper to create the artwork.  I love the book’s layout! Wow! IT makes your eyes go crazy, but all the caption bubbles and tiny drawings really define what Keller writes about.  I love how it makes you slow down to appreciate the illustrations and really defines every subject.  Keller uses a lot of onomonopia in this book.  It is incorporated into her drawings.  For instance on page one, the word ‘donk!’ is written vertically in a whimsical pattern showing the excitement in the word.  The illustrator uses mainly blue and green paint in her drawings.

            This book is appropriate for children in at least second grade.  The concept is simple enough, but the language used and the humor would not be appreciated in young children.  Older students would like this book for the wacky illustrations and the humor.  I would use this in my classroom for character education.  This book is all about respecting your friends, and even enemies.  That is an important concept for young children to understand.  This would be great to read to a class at the beginning of the year when talking about the classroom rules.  I like this book because of the theme and clear definitions of character education concepts.  This book has won no awards.