Song+and+Dance+Man


 * Song and Dance Man**
 * Price: $7.99**
 * Reading level: Pre-K-2**
 * Pages: 32 pages**
 * Language: English**
 * ISBN- 10: 0394893301**
 * Author: Karen Ackerman**
 * Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf (1988)**
 * Illustrator: Stephen Gammell**

__//**Summary:**//__

This story is a Caldecott award winner. This book is about a joyful grandfather with three grandchildren. The point is to show the children how the people live before the television days. His attic was full of memories from years ago that the kids loved looking through. Grandpa was a dancer, so he has tap shoes, a bowler hat, a golden cane, which the children love putting on to pretend they are dancing until it’s grandpa’s turn. “Only as old as you feel” was a common theme as grandpa shows he still can do it all- a variety of steps, singing, playing the banjo, performing magic tricks, and telling jokes. The story is told from the child’s point of view.

__//**Review:**//__

This Caldecott award winning book did a great job of synthesizing a fun and loving relationship between a grandfather and his grandkids. The book showed the joy of the grandfather in reliving his old times and showing his grandchildren what life was like before different media consumed us. It was a warm and sweet story about family and reliving good times. I think it would be a good book to share with young readers because the pictures are very vibrant and helpful in understanding the story. Also, it represents a good family topic by portraying a very close relationship between a grandfather and his grandchildren.

__//**Analysis of literary Elements:**//__

In Song and Dance Man, the literary element that stood out to me was figurative language. The setting takes place inside an attic with a grandpa and his three grandchildren as the grandpa reminisces his days back when he sang and danced as a young man. The theme is family because the story tells of the grandpa and grandchildren spending time together as the grandpa dances and makes his grandchildren laugh until they get the hiccups (Ackerman, 1988). This use of figurative language can even be used for young readers because they know what laughing a lot is and relating it to “until they get the hiccups” shows how much they were really laughing. As grandpa performs for his grandchildren his tap shoes were described as “slippery sounds like rain on a tin roof”. Also, his steps were like a “woodpecker tapping on a tree”. This figurative language is called a metaphor. I love how Ackerman included this aspect because it lets kids imagination soar even more.

__//**About the Author:**//__

Karen Ackerman is from Ohio. She was born on October 9th, 1951. She went to Woodward High School, and continued her education to be a children’s author. She got a medal for “Song and Dance Man” in 1989. Some other books that she wrote were “Theo’s Vineyard”, “The Tin Heart”, “Moveable Mabeline”, and “In the Park With Dad”.