Big+Al




 * Bibliographic Data: **

Reading level: Ages 4 and up

Paperback: 30 pages

Publisher: Simon & Schuster (September 1997)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0689817223

ISBN-13: 978-068981722-9

Andrew Clements is an author and a teacher. He taught in the Chicago public schools for seven years before he began his career in publishing. He was born in New Jersey, raised in Illinois and currently lives in Westborough, Massachusetts. He has written many children books including the bestseller //Frindle//. Clements believes that his passion for reading and writing children’s literature comes from the roots of his childhood. Growing up, he was flourished with books; his parents were both avid readers and read to him often. Clements takes pride in his writing and believes it to be privilege as he gets to play a great role in the childhoods of many young minds. When speaking to young crowds, Clements always explains that writing is simple when you write one word at time.
 * Author Biography: **


 * Summary: **

“Big Al” is a fictional story about a fish named Big Al who struggles to make friends because of his appearance. He is one of the nicest fish in the sea but the other fish don’t give him a chance because he looks big and scary. Big Al tries everything he can think of to make the other fish like him; he disguises himself, buries himself in the bottom of the ocean and even changes the color of his scales just so he can fit it in. Unfortunately, something always goes wrong and the fish swim away scared as ever. Big Al feels lonely and wonders if he will ever have a friend. Then one day, a fisherman captures the other fish in a net and Big Al saves the day, showing the other fish how wonderful and kind of a friend he can be. After that day, Big Al had more friends than he could ever ask for and lived happily in the big blue sea.


 * Review: **

I chose this book because of the message it sends to young children (and adults). Too often children judge others by their appearance on the outside. They see someone who is different from the norm and they don’t give them a chance. Children need to learn that every person is unique and that we should never judge by how someone looks on the outside but rather by who a person is on the inside. The scariest, ugliest person could be the nicest person in the whole wide world and be one of the greatest friends anyone could ask for but someone would never know that unless they took the time to get to know them beyond their physical appearance. This books sends the message “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Big Al isn’t the prettiest fish in the sea but after the fish get to know him they realize that he has a very kind heart and makes a great friend. This book will teach children the importance of accepting and being friendly to others no matter their physical appearance.

An important literary element in this story is the illustrations. It is obvious that Andrew Clements and illustrator, Yoshi, worked carefully together because the illustrations compliment the story so well. The illustrations are simple but stand out and strongly support the story. For example, the very first line in the book is “In the wide blue sea there was a very friendly fish named Big Al. You could not find a nicer fish.” The picture that compliments this phrase takes up the first two pages. It is a wide blue sea with a shadow of a single fish. This picture brings the reader’s attention to the one shadow of the fish and allows them to begin to analyze this character. The next page again is a simple illustration that compliments the phrase. Yoshi illustrated three different views of Big Al to show that he was “very, very scary.” Throughout the story Yoshi uses two pages to display his illustrations. It illustrates the beginning and end of each sentence so perfectly and helps the reader to understand exactly what is going on. Another, thing that really stands out in the illustrations is the emotion that Yoshi puts into all the characters. He is able to show how sad Big Al is feeling on page 4 and then at the end on Page 23 you can see by just the look in Big Al’s eyes that he is so overwhelmed with joy because he now has so many friends. The illustrations in this story are very appealing and really bring the reader in and keep them engaged.
 * Analysis of Literary Element (Character Development): **


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