Weslandia



//Weslandia-// Paul Fleischman Illustrator: Kevin Hawkes Publisher: Candlewick; Reprint edition (August 1, 2002) Hardcover: $11.19 (Amazon.com) ISBN-13: 978-0763610524 Pages: 32 Age Range: 4 and up Language: English
 * Bibliographical Data:**

“Weslandia” is a story about a boy named Wesley who is just very different from everyone else. He doesn’t like pizza or soda like normal kids and adults think he is crazy. He has no friends and gets bullied. Every afternoon when Wesley comes home from school his mother asks him what he learned. On the last day of school, he was told that he should find a good summer project. He decided that he would use what he learned in school that week about sees and civilizations go create the best summer project. Throughout the summer Wesley created his own civilization in his backyard that included unknown plants and fruits. Everyone became interested in what Wesley was doing, and now the people who tormented him wanted to help him. At the end, he created his own alphabet to record what he did that summer. When he went back to school in September, the kids who used to bully him now wanted to be his friend.
 * Summary**:

//Weslandia// is a great book for students to read. The story exemplifies a boy who is very different from everyone else but he just does not care. He takes his own original idea and runs with it throughout the story. This book will be very useful for students who feel like outcasts or like they do not fit in. It gives them the opportunity to see that it is okay to be different and not to care what other people think. It also teaches students to be creative. A project that starts off as very independent can turn into something that everyone wants to be a part of. This book is useful for students of all ages, both boys and girls, because anyone can relate to what Wesley goes through. Everyone goes through a time where they feel different or like they don’t fit in, and Wesley shows them that being different is cool.
 * Book Review**:

Paul Fleischman is from Santa Monica, California. His father is children’s book author Sid Fleischman. Many of Fleischman’s books experiment with multiple viewpoints and performance. In 1989 he received the Newbury Medal for Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices. He also received the Newbury Honor Award for Graven Images, the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction for Bull Run, and was a National Book Award finalist for Breakout. Most of his books include history, music, art, and theater. He currently lives on the central coast of California.
 * Author Biography**:

There are many themes in //Weslandia// but one of the most important ones is uniqueness/originality. Wesley is a very different and unique person and does not let other peoples judgments bother him or get in his way. In the first two pages of the story the reader sees that Wesley can hear his parents talking about him being odd and he agrees with them, but he did nothing to change that. He takes what he learns about civilizations in school to escape from the civilization where he doesn’t belong and creates a brand new one where he will. Everything in Weslandia was different, and Wesley was always creating something new from his civilization. From cups to clothes, from games to an alphabet, everything in Weslandia was original and had nothing to do with where Wesley currently lived. This book encourages students to be different and creative. It also teaches them that being different is not a bad thing. One day all the people who you once wanted to be like might want to be just like you. You can have students write about a time where they felt like they did not belong and what they did to no longer feel that way.
 * Literary Elements**:

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