If Only I Could Get to the Ocean

Can’t Catch Me
Written and Illustrated by John and Ann Hassett
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company
Copyright 2006
32 Pages

Fantasy

 

This book didn’t immediately grab my attention. To be honest I almost didn’t get it at first. I actually put it back the first time I had picked it up, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. This book actually disappointed me in several different ways. Although the authors had great intentions when writing this book, they failed to make the end message resound the way it should have. If I was a child, I probably wouldn’t have remembered the moral of the story or even understood it to begin with. Basically the story is about a boy chasing after an ice cube that his mother wanted for some lemonade. She told the young boy to keep the freezer door shut, but of course he didn’t listen. The ice escaped and went on a mad dash for the ocean, where he wanted to,” Grow as big as an iceberg and bump into boats when they’re not looking.” He succeeded on making it to the ocean, but while in the ocean he was gulped up by a whale, a tragedy that could have been avoided if the young boy had just listened to his mother in the first place.

            The illustration in this book on the title page is surrounded by negative space, singling out the picture. The rest of the illustrations throughout the book are not the same. The book is full of single paged illustrations with very formal text placement. This book has a dual image cover. The picture on the front is different of the one on the back. The colors on the pages really portray the mood of the story. The images are rather organic in their shape. The lines of the pictures are horizontal, which implies a calm mood for most of the story. The lines slowly move into diagonal as the mood sways.

             The teacher could use this book in a classroom to relate to responsibility and obedience. The teacher could implement class jobs, and show the students the importance of those. The teacher could do a writing assignment on consequences for actions. The students could write about the discipline plan they abide by in the classroom and at home. The teacher could instruct the students to include why it is important to follow the rules that are set. The teacher could also use this in a Language Art assignment on fact and opinion. The students could write five facts about the book, and then they could list their opinion of the book.