Simple & Sufficient

The Best Teacher Ever

Written by Mercer Mayer

Published by Scholastic Inc.

Copyright 2008

23 Pages

Fiction

 

I decided to read this book mostly because the title reminded me immediately of my favorite teacher. She was an older lady, kind of like the character on the front cover. The story is very well –rounded and the author did a great job of incorporating a simple central theme to it. The main character is a student that adores his teacher Miss Kitty. He briefly describes her and all of the different ways that she goes out of her way to teach and encourage her class. With teacher appreciation day quickly approaching, he decides to get Miss Kitty the best gift ever. Through a series of misfortunes he finds himself on the bus with nothing but a handful of plucked flowers from his front yard. Well, he leaves the flowers on the bus and must draw a picture for Miss Kitty as a last minute gift. All of his friends had gotten her these big huge presents, but she loved his picture the most and she put it up on her bulletin board. This is why I loved this book. Its intention is to show that it’s the thought that counts and that sometimes the simple things are the best things.

The illustrations in this book are full of facial expressions amongst every character. The images are very busy, yet detailed. Each picture has a lot going on. Most of the images have a disappearing edge, which gives the picture character. It seems as if the purpose is simply to just add effect for the viewer.

 

This book would be appropriate for all elementary age students. The students can easily relate to this book, because the main character is a student as well. This book could be used as a read aloud during student of teacher appreciation week. It would serve great purpose in reminding the students to not lose sight of the reason for celebrating a specific person instead of becoming consumed in buying the perfect gift. The students could write about a gift that they had received that was most sentimental to them. The students could also use this as an opportunity to write about what they appreciate most about their teacher and classmates. This book has not won any awards.