Blog #1

Me…Jane
Written and illustrated by: Patrick McDonnell

Hachette Book Group, Inc., 2011

38 pages

Biography

I chose this book because it was named an Honor Book of the 2012 Caldecott Medal by the American Library Association.  The story is about a young girl named Jane and her favorite stuffed animal, a chimpanzee named Jubilee.  Jane takes Jubilee wherever she goes, including outside on adventures.  On these adventures, Jane and Jubilee discover the world of plants, animals, and the outdoors.  Jane soon falls in love with nature and dreams of living in faraway lands helping animals.  The story ends with Jane’s dreams coming true.  The story is actually about Jane Goodall when she was a small girl.  The last two pages of the book share a brief biography of her life’s work in Africa working with chimpanzees and also a letter written by Jane Goodall herself.

                The illustrations in the book were drawn by the author, Patrick McDonnell.  He completed these illustrations with India ink and watercolor on paper.  The colors he used are bright and eye-catching.  McDonnell also used an interesting layout for some of his illustrations which are around and underneath the text on some pages.  Also, the author used some of Jane Goodall’s pictures she actually drew when she was a little girl studying animals.  Also, there are actual pictures from the 1950s Jane when she was a small girl with her stuffed animal, Jubilee, and also one of Jane in the 1980s when she was an adult working in Africa.

                This book is appropriate for any age, but especially older children such as third grade and up.  The book uses some large words and the content is more appropriate for children with a large vocabulary, reading ability, and knowledge base.  I suggest using this book for character education, social studies, and science.  This book can be used in character education for inspiring and motivating children towards learning and believing in your dreams to succeed.  Jane Goodall is a role model for children in that she worked hard to get where she wanted to go, no matter how hard the path was for her.  Also, the book could be used for social studies.  Jane Goodall was a real person and her true story in the back of the book would go with any lesson studying the time period of the 1950s which she grew up in.  The book would also go well with a science lesson on animals, plants, and even the conservation of nature.  I liked this book because of the surprise ending. The story about the little girl whose dreams came true really happened in real life!  Me…Jane is awarded as an Honor Book of the 2012 Caldecott Medal by the American Library Association.