I used to be Afraid

I used to be Afraid

Author & illustrator: Laura Vaccaro Seegar

Pop-up book

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Grade Level: Pre-K to 2^nd grade

This book starts with a girl being afraid of the spider as it hangs from a web. Then you flip the next page. She is not afraid anymore because she sees the spiders. Then the readers find out she is afraid of the shadows. But when you flip to next page she is not anymore because she finds out she can make a huge heart shape silhouette out of shadows on the wall with her hand. Then the readers find out she is afraid of the dark. But when we flip the next page she is not anymore because she is enjoying the moon in the dark with her dog outside. Then the story goes on of the things that she is afraid of and how she overcomes it. The thing that makes this book come alive is the illustration and the careful engineering in all pages. The little cutout on one page is used for the page after in a very clever way. Oh, and at the end, the only thing that she is afraid of is her brother because he uses a monster mask to scare her. But not always….just sometimes. This is a perfect book for the young readers as they too will be afraid of similar things that the girl is afraid off. 

Thoughts:

This book brought back memories when I used to be afraid of almost everything. And just like her, I used to be afraid of my brothers…well only sometimes. The book is cleverly design. Each page just has one sentence since the book relies heavily on illustration. This will be a perfect book to read aloud to students at the end of the class. I can use this book and ask students to act along with me which I think will be a fun thing to do! Excellent book : )