Freckleface Strawberry by Julianne Moore

Book Genre: Comedy and Humor

Publishing Info.: Scholastic Inc., 32 pages

Awards or Honors Received: N/A

Summary: This book is about a seven-year-old girl who thinks she is like everyone else, except for her red hair and freckles. The children at school call her Freckleface Strawberry because of all her freckles. She is so upset about her freckles that she tries everything to get rid of them, such as scrubbing them off and coloring over them with a marker. When that doesn't work she decides to wear a ski mask to school. No one knows who she is. At the end of the day, she meets a grown-up who tells her that she also had freckles when she was little, but hers disappeared when she became an adult. Having some hope, the girl takes off her ski mask and all of her friends are happy to see her. She realizes that despite her freckles, she has a lot of friends who love her very much. The story ends by showing the girl as a grown-up who still has her freckles, but she comes to not let her freckles bother her.

Personal Rating and Reason for Rating: ***Good. I liked this book. I thought the story did a great job of showing readers that some people may look different, but they have feelings just as everyone does. The illustrations in this book were just okay, but I think that the content is definitely a topic that young children can relate to and would be interested in.

Reading Level: 1.6

Interest Level: K-2

Possible Uses of the Text in Integrated Units of Study (Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum): This book could be used as a springboard of ideas for writing about a time when the children were made fun of or witnessed someone being made fun of because they were different. This would be a great social skills lesson on how to treat other people, particularly people who look different. This could be extended to talk about people who have to use wheelchairs, wear braces, wear glasses, etc. This book could also be the introduction to a research project where children have to find out what causes freckles and why some people have them and some people don't.

Potential Problems or Difficulties: I do not see any problems with this book.