- uses a lot of color
- decorates the inside of the front and back covers
- frequently uses animals as his characters
- uses a lot of repetition (or as one child eloquently put it, "He uses 'echoes' in his books").
Later in the week, the children used Eric Carle as an inspiration to create colorful collages.
We spent time this week discussing the concept that stories are told all over the world and in every language. We took this opportunity to look at several books written in different languages. The children have also begun to show an interest in the physical structure of books. They reflected on the difference between the soft pages and the hard covers. One child mentioned that the paper sleeve on top of the cover is called a dust jacket. Other children commented that their little bothers or sisters have books that have all hard pages and no soft pages. I asked them why they thought that was, and they responded, "Because they eat the pages!" They also noted that babies would rip the pages if the pages were soft.