Family Photo

by Dana Meachen Rau, Mike Gordon (Illustrator)

A boy tells each member where to stand and how to pose so that they may take a family picture, in a story that is told using prepositional phrases.

Genres: Picture Books

31 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 2006

About the author

Dana Meachen Rau is an author, editor, and illustrator of children's books. She has written more than 100 books for children, many of them nonfiction in subjects including astronomy, history, and geography, as well as numerous biographies. She lives in Burlington, Connecticut, with her husband and two children.

Reviews

[Rose Rosetree]

Clever concept! A boy (unnamed) has evidently put himself in charge of arranging family members for a group photo. Great practice for using prepositional phrases!

I'm not sure I would like to know much more about this boy. It's enough that he bosses around every single member of the family, even the dog.

Still, the combo of lighthearted illustrations and apposite words... brings a lot of life into this lesson.

See Pages 26-27, for instance.

We see the bossy boy giving instructions.

On the facing page, four kids are building a human pyramind. They're about to fall down, clearly.

Then words display, coming from the left page and the nameless boy:

"Sally, come on over! Can you kneel over there?"

As a sort of visual afterthought, a cat is hurtling over the white picket fence to the back yard.

Funny, funny, funny. This book deserves FIVE STARS for quality, as well as good-enough content.

[Read Rest Recharge]

Cute, liked the diversity.