Author Study: Angela Johnson

Title: The Leaving Morning

Author: Angela Johnson

Illustrator: David Soman

Picture book for ages (approximately) 5 and up

Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Summary:

This book is about a brother and sister who are moving. It takes you through their day as they wake up, pack, say goodbye to friends and family, and finally, leave.

Opinion:

This is a pretty good book. As it goes through all the aspects of moving you see and feel what a child feels during something like that. It doesn’t focus at all on where they are moving probably because as a child that’s not something that gets a lot of thought until you get there. Kids don’t often think ahead, they think in the present and what’s happening to these two children presently is moving day. They aren’t thinking beyond that. Although this is a good book it doesn’t really evoke strong emotions with me. I didn’t get a deep connection with the text and there really wasn’t any insightful thinking going on as I read it. For those reasons this is a decent book, but not a great one.

In slight contrast, the illustrations in this book are really quite wonderful. They seem to be watercolor which I think always gives illustrations a dreamy appearance. They follow the thoughts of the kids as they consider their situation. I would have to say the best is the page where they are saying goodbye to their friends. The little boys on the monkey bars are so emotive. You can almost put yourself in their shoes and feel what they are feeling as they say goodbye to each other.

Overall, I would use this book in my classroom. It is a nice story that would fit well into a genre study or a family unit. I might also bring it out if I had a student that was going to move or had moved in recently.  It might help them to know that this happens to lots of people and its normal to be a little sad and a little scared.