Wemberly Worried

 

Wemberly Worried

Written and illustrated by Kevin Henekes

Greenwillow Books, 2000

32 pages

Children’s/ Picture book

I choose this book because Mrs. Jones read it to us the first day of class. I instantly fell in love with it and the way that she is so scared and worried about everything. Little Wimberley worries about everything, from her spots, to her school and to being liked by her classmates.  When she worries her father tells her that every time she worries her father worries. Wemberly worries her little mind rampid about school and how she doesn’t want to go even though her father takes her by the school and shows her it’s not that bad. When Wemberly gets to school the teacher introduces her to a little girl who to is shy and is worried about starting school. The day she has at school and the way she ends it is a shock to everyone.

The illustration in this book is very simple and uses basic pictures, and drawings. I feel that this illustration was done using pen and ink, and watercolor. The way that Wemberly looks sad and yet has bright colors on her and her clothes is a contrast to each other. The text in this story was all over the pages. Some text was on the top and bottom. Some text went from the top, middle, side, and all over the same page. I feel that this could be hard for a student who is just learning to read and goes left to right.  Wemberly’s grandmother is also seen in the backgrounds of the pictures in shirts that say “go with the flow” and “Don’t worry” which is the opposite of how Wemberly feels.

 

This story would be perfect to read to any grade level. I feel this because everyone knows what it is like to worry about things. The students can bring in their own little stuffed animals or blankets that helped them when they were young and tell the class all about them. A Language arts lesson would be that the students can write about what they were nervous and worried about on their first days of school, and how they relate to Wemberly.  Also a social studies activity on communities, since your school is a part of the community.