Module 2 - The Important Book

Summary

This book presents the important attributes of various objects, including rain, apples, snow, the sky and you.  For each item, the book first gives the most important attribute of an object.  For example, the most imortant thing about an apple, according to the book, is that it is round.  The book then list other desriptors of the items.  Finally, it reiterates the most important aspect of the object.

Bibliography

Brown, M. W. (1949).  The important book.  New York, NY:  HaperCollins.

My Impression

I found the simplicity of this book to be enjoyable and to be a very creative way to disect objects.  As I was reading it, I kept thinking of ways I could use this same format in my high school classroom to assess for understanding of a skill, piece of literature or other objective.  I liked the repetative nature of it in that while it gave multiple attributes of each object, it stressed the most important attribute.

To Read or Not to Read:  If you have small children, then this would be a good book for you to share with them.

Professional Reviews

Amazon.com
"Goodnight Moon creator Margaret Wise Brown's The Important Book is a deceptively simple exercise--taking familiar things like an apple, spoon, or shoe, and finding the most basic association with those things. The most important thing about an apple? It is round. A spoon? You eat with it. A shoe? You put your foot in it. But why, according to Brown, is the most important thing about grass "that it is green," while the most important thing about an apple is "that it is round"? Why is "that it is white" the most important thing about snow and a daisy? Whether or not you'd distill these things in the same way that the author does, Brown makes us think about the essence of everyday entities in new ways. The illustrations, by Caldecott Medal winner Leonard Weisgard (The Little Island), perform the same function--capturing the spoonness of spoons, the roundness of an apple, the motion of wind."
[Review of the book The important book, by M. Brown].(2012).  Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com.

Library Uses

After reading this book at storytime, this can be used to discuss other things that are important to children or that children need to know about.  For instance, using the book as a model, the children could write a passage about the importance an various parts of the library.  This could help familiarize them with the library and reinforce the knowledge about the library and how it works.


Image retrieved from:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/important-book-margaret-wise-brown/1101953364?ean=9780064432276