Skippyjon Jones
Written and Illustrated by Judy Schachner
Dutton Children’s Books, 2003
30 pages
Fiction
Skippyjon Jones was recommended to me by my practicum teacher. After reading this book, I completely love this character! Skippyjon Jones is a Siamese cat that gets scolded often, by his mother, for not acting like a cat. When he was in his room jumping on his bed, he saw himself in the mirror, and thought he was a Chihuahua. That gets his imagination going, and soon he is calling himself El Skippito. He pretends he is a great, Spanish-speaking sword fighter that saves his Chihuahua friends from the Bumblebeeto. It seems that Skippyjon Jones would rather be a dog than a cat any day of the week.
The media used in Skippyjon Jones is drawing using a pen and painting with acrylics. The illustrations in this book are extremely colorful using a lot of bright hues. The mood of the book is humorous, and that is easy to see in every illustration. The illustrations have a rough texture. The brush strokes and texture of the canvas, or paper used, is seen throughout the book. Almost every color is used in this book’s illustrations.
Skippyjon Jones is appropriate for a third or fourth grade reading level, because it is a lengthy book that uses uncommon language. I believe this book would be great for English Language Learner students. It would give them something to relate to, by having many proper Spanish words in the book, and their classmates could connect to them in some way. It would be a great opportunity for students to learn some Spanish words that could be used to interact with ELL students. Also, this book would be great for teaching new vocabulary and rhyming. The students would love this book! It is so funny! This book has received the following awards: the E. B. White Read Aloud Award in 2004, The Ladybug Picture Book Award in 2005, the Armadillo Readers' Choice Award in 2005, The Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award in 2005, and the Colorado Children's Book Award in 2006.
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