Title: Mr. Wayne's MasterpieceAuthor/Illustrator: Patricia Polacco
Lauren's Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Mr. Wayne's Masterpiece is about a young girl who is terrified to speak in front of an audience. Her teacher tells her to join in on the drama class. Mr Wayne, the drama teacher, tells her to let the play take her and not to focus on everyone else. He believed in her and when she went out on stage, she delivered her lines and did an amazing job without any problems!
This story is relatable to every person at any age. The way that the book resolves the children's fear is incredible. The teacher believed in her and gave her a chance for success, which in turn, made her believe in herself. The illustrations are unusual, in that, the sketch marks are still left on the page. The pencil marks show the fear in the child's face in the beginning of the book and toward the end, the illustrator used her pencil drawings to elicit confidence. The illustrations are very detailed and you could spend five minutes looking at each individual page. The text was longer but it did not use difficult language.
The message in the book is appropriate for the audience. I did some research and it turns out that the book was written about herself. The author had a fear of public speaking and this true story is how she overcame her fears! Children could read this book and become more confident in their abilities. I would recommend this to all advanced readers, parents and teachers. This book should be read in all classrooms.
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date: 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-16095-0
I agree that this book sounds relatable to anybody. I would also like to see what the illustrations look like as it sounds very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI like that so many of Pollaco's books are autobiographical. She has such a unique illustration style and her stories are always so relatable to the fears many of us share.
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