Children's Work

The Yellow Family recently read Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle. During the past couple of weeks, we have been familiarizing ourselves with Eric Carle’s work through an author study. Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me was one of the student’s favorites.

The book is about a daughter and a father. Monica, the daughter, decides that she wants to play with the moon and asks her father to get it for her. Her father gets a very long ladder and climbs up the ladder to get the moon for his daughter. To show the length of the ladder, the book has special fold outs. These fold outs received ‘oohs and ahs’.

While the Yellow Family students enjoyed the fold outs, they also expressed their concern. They thought the father was making a dangerous choice by climbing up the very tall ladder. We discussed if climbing up a tall ladder to get the moon would be possible in the ‘real world’. Some children right away said ‘No!’ When asked why, one responded that it wouldn’t be possible because his dad doesn’t have a tall enough ladder.

When the father finished climbing the ladder and reached the top the father started talking to the moon and the moon responded by saying, “Every night I get a little smaller. When I am just the right size you can take me with you.” At this point one of the students cut me off and with a confused look asked, “Why is the moon talking?” The students giggled and agreed that it isn’t possible for the moon to talk in the ‘real world’. During this point we discussed Eric Carle’s decision to give the moon a face. Eric Carle includes this same feature in some of his other books that we have read such as, Little Cloud and Pancakes, Pancakes!

While we were beginning to read the book, the students commented on the colorful end pages and the pattern that was shown through the moon phases on the dedication page. After finishing the book, I asked if anyone had a favorite part to which I received the following comments: I liked all of the parts, I liked the big part because you can even see it, I liked the up down part, and When he gets the big moon!

This book gets two thumbs up from the Yellow Family!