Fiction: A Bad Case of Stripes

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon is a very colorful and interesting story that is loved by kids across the world. In this story, a young girl becomes extremely worried about what to wear and how others will think of her on the first day of school. It is because of this fear she refuses to eat her favorite food, lima beans, because none of the other children eat or like lima beans. As the young girl continues to deny herself the lima beans, she wakes up one morning with a case of the stripes! With her stripes, the young girl turns into what ever others verbally say she should look like which causes her to be sent home from school and several doctors to come to her house. Nobody could figure out what was wrong with her, until a little old lady came to the house and offered the young girl lima beans. After eating the lima beans, she was cured!
    A Bad Case of  Stripes  is a great book for young readers because the book has very simple, everyday language and ensnaring illustrations. David Shannon makes a great use of color and acrylics to make this colorful story come to life on the pages. For example, each time someone tells the girl how she should look or something she can do to make the stripes go away, the illustration perfectly matches the description which activates the imagination.
  I have read this book several times in my reading history and I can say that I absolutely love this book. It taught me a lesson that all children need to learn--to be yourself regardless of what others think. Which is another reason that all children should read this book. In a society where there are several different "must look like" models, children need to know that it is okay to be and look like themselves.

Motivational Activities:
  • This would be a great story to teach students how to accept themselves, and  a great activity for doing that would be to have the students color in a blank head silhouette with how they think their case of the stripes would look and then write a sentence or two at the bottom about what they think is unique about themselves. 
  • EXTENSION: For higher grades, the same activity could be done but to add a fun twist on it have the children pass around the papers and write one thing they like about the owner of the paper. This will make this very motivational because the children will be uplifted.
  • This story can also be used when teaching colors. While reading, randomly point to a color and have the students repeat the color after you and say something from the book that they think of when they see that color. 
Discussion Questions:
  • Connection: Have you ever felt like the young girl in the story? How did you deal with these feelings?
  • What lessons can we learn from this story and how can we apply them in our daily lives?

References:

Shannon, D. (2011). A bad case of stripes. New York: Scholastic.

Shannon, D. (2011). A bad case of stripes. New York: Scholastic.
Shannon, D. (2011). A bad case of stripes. New York: Scholastic.
Shannon, D. (2011). A bad case of stripes. New York: Scholastic.

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