Illustrator: Brendan Wenzel
HarperCollins Publishers (2016)One Day in The Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree is a children's book that is written by Daniel Bernstorm, with illustrations by Brendan Wenzel. The story is a folktale, which has a total of sixteen pages. Bernstorm got the idea of the story from a preschool he was working at. The type of tree that he decided to use was inspired by his mother, it is her favorite. Luckily for Bernstorm, Wenzel has a love from drawing things in nature, especially snakes and trees. This book took me on an adventure that I was not ready for. It offers fun pictures with an out of the box plot, that matches. I ended up enjoying this book very much.
The story takes place in one spot the whole time, a eucalyptus tree, which the title eludes the reader to. It starts off with a young boy who is walking along the bottom of the tree. The boy, who happens to be looking for shade, is being preyed on by a very large snake who he doesn't even notice until it is too late. After the snake winds down the large eucalyptus tree, he captures the boy and gobbles him up! The boy conjures up a plan while sitting the snakes stomach, deciding that he is going to make him eat something else. After tricking the snake using some reverse psychology, the snake agrees that he should eat something else and moves on to a bird with a worm. The bird had the same fate as the boy and with that, the snake is once again convinced he should eat something else. This continues until the snake has eaten a furry cat, mossy sloth, grape eating ape, rare kind of bear, hive full of bees, and finally a teeny fly. After becoming too full, the snake lets out a blech that sends out all the creatures that were once eaten, free. All of them ran away while the snake was left with an awful tummy ache.
Throughout the story the reader can experience rhyming and repetition that makes it fun to be read out loud or by themselves. Words that are repeated or that rhyme can be seen in bold lettering which causes the reader to say the word with emphasis. There is also emphasis on specific words throughout the story that make it more exciting and enjoyable to read, like the word gobble. This makes the reader want to continue to the next page.
A young reader may not understand right away why the boy is making the snake eat other creatures. Of course, they find out in the end it is done so the snake will have to get rid of them all because he is too full. But until then, it makes them dig deeper and ask themselves why. I love this method being used in a children's book for a child this age because it keeps their interest and makes them want to read on. The young boy's ingenuity is also a good inspiration for young readers. He was put into a situation all by himself and had to think his way out of it. Children at a young age are just beginning to learn how to think for themselves, a book promoting this can help a child to become self-aware and see that it is possible for them to also think through a predicament on their own.
The pictures throughout the story bring the book vibrancy which help bring the words on the page to life. The illustrator uses bright bold colors throughout the whole story unless he is representing the snakes stomach which happens to be dark. The boy is shown consistently throughout the book with a windmill toy, which brings him a sense of innocence. All of the characters have large eyes and rounded features which make them seem more friendly and inviting.
Even though the story does not offer much moral value, I think this would be a very fun book to read in the classroom to capture my students' attention. The book does not have to large of a vocabulary so it would not be intimidating to most. It has great repetition and rhythm that could keep young readers attention. I would definitely have this book in my classroom.
Review by Ashleigh Osterling
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