I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean

Title: I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean.

Author/Illustrator: Kevin Sherry.

Medium: Watercolor background, paper-cut and 100% squid ink.

Genre: Modern Fantasy

Theme: Expect the unexpected and the concept of big.

Summary: A giant squid swims through the ocean naming the other sea animals he was bigger than until a whale swallows him and he was not the bigger animal anymore.

Literary Elements: The illustration regarding mood in the book was cool. The color consists mainly of pleasant blues, purples and greens with the occasional off white, grey and orange. The style of illustration was simple with bold and thin flowing lines and told from a first person point of view. The illustrations reflected the integral oceanic setting with cool colors and flowing lines with the giant squid, whale and other sea animals. The main character, a giant squid was flat and static and his main action in the book was to point out how bigger he was than other sea animals such as shrimp. clams and crabs. The plot was episodic with the giant squid floating along in the ocean mentioning the sea animals he was bigger than until the whale swallowed him which was the major point of the plot. The theme was the concept of big. The author constantly used the word, big in nearly every monologue the squid spoke and toward the end of the book you can see the theme of unexpectedness popping up when the whale swallowed the giant squid.

Evaluation: This was a simple and straightforward book and would be great for an emergent reader. The book emphasized on the concept of big and it would be good to teach toddlers the concept of big. Older children would enjoy this book, especially the surprise of whale swallowing the giant squid and I was surprised myself when I read the part. Teachers will be able to come up with different in classroom activities for with the book with young students like having them illustrate things that are smaller or bigger than themselves.