A Bad Case of Stripes

A Bad Case of Stripes

Written and Illustrated by: David Shannon

Age Group: 3rd and 4th Grade

Published: 1998

The book A Bad Case of Stripes is about a girl named Camilla Cream and she loves lima beans, but doesn't want to eat them because she wants to fit in at school. She wakes up one day and discovers that she has stripes all over her body, but since she isn't contagious the doctor says that she can still go to school. At school, all the other kids start making fun of her and saying different colors, making the stripes on her body change colors, which the disturbance has the faculty send her home. The family has other doctors to come and check her condition, giving her pills that will hopefully help. The next morning she wakes up and is a pill. The media and newspaper now get involved, and Camilla's case gets worse and worse. The family has an old woman come and visit her and offers her Lima Beans. At first Camilla wants nothing to do with them, but then she accepts. and suddenly she becomes all back to normal. Camilla learns her lesson and is never self conscious again.

This book has a great lesson for the kids, it teaches them to never be self conscious, and that if you love something (just as much as Camilla loves lima beans) then you should show that and be proud. At young ages, kids tend to be self conscious of different things about them, like skin color, if they wear glasses, what kinds of toys they have and many more. This book teaches children that they should be proud of who they are and we all have different things we love, and no one's is any stranger than someone else's. 

This book, has very complicated words and language use that would be tough for young children, so I gave this book about a 3rd or 4th grade level of reading. Children at young ages would love to have this book be read to them, because the illustrations in the book are great and go along with the story line perfectly. All of the colors in this book make it what it is. I enjoy reading this book more and more, because of all the pictures that bring me into the book and make me want to hear more of the story.

Overall, I would recommend this book. I think that it is a great story for children, they learn a very valuable lesson that they will use for the rest of their lives, while looking at the great pictures and reading the funny story.