Journal Entry #20

 

 

 

Yuck, a Love Story

By Don Gillmor

Illustrated by Marie Louise Gay

Stoddart Publishing Co., 2000

28 pages

Fantasy

 

            I chose Yuck, a Love Story because it reflects the typical relationship between girls and boys when they are children. This book is about a boy named Austin Grouper who liked to play with his dog, Fresco, his friend, Sternberg, and his red bicycle. This was pretty much his life, until he got a new neighbor, Amy. Everything Amy did and said was yucky, but all he talked about was…Amy. Austin was not fond of any girls, especially not Amy, but he was always going to Amy’s house. One day, she had a birthday, and Austin spent all night roping the moon for Amy. When he gave her the moon, they figured out it was made out of bleu cheese. So they both tasted it and said, “Yuck. Let’s go eat some cake.” This is a cute book, about a confusing first crush.

            The illustrations in this book were done by drawing and painting. The drawings were done in black pen, and the painting is watercolor. The background colors are very soft hues, and the characters stand out with a few pops of bright color. Most of the texture is shown in the drawings of the characters, and the background has simple lines and a clean look. The day time scenes are very bright and the night time scenes are darker hues. When the moon shines down in the illustrations, the ground is white, and everything the moon shines on is left in white. One thing I noticed about the illustrations is the sky, in the background of every page, is done very beautifully in watercolor.

            This book would be appropriate for early elementary grades and would be a good fit for an independent reader. Yuck, a Love Story would be a good teacher read aloud, and it could be used before a science lesson on the moon. It would be easy to integrate into a science lesson. A teacher could talk to the earlier grades about how the moon is not really made of cheese, and they could investigate into what the moon is really made of. It would create a good opportunity for creative writing about the moon. I think this book really identifies well with how young boys and girls interact with one another. This book has no awards or honors.