No, David!

No, David!  by David Shannon

            Picture Book—Grades PreK and Up

            Rating: 5 Stars (out of 5)

            Summary: David seems to constantly find trouble and be reprimanded to stop being bad, but is finally consoled with a hug.

            No, David! is the author’s depiction of himself as a young boy. This story captivated me as a reader because I could definitely relate to the series of scolding that young David receives. In fact, I think everybody could remember themselves as having a little David in them growing up. When he is fooling around in the bathtub and splashing water everywhere, the illustration reminds me of myself as a child. I know that I was reprimanded for splashing my mother during bath time, but who can blame poor David when he has all of those awesome toys to play with? Sometimes as a child, it seemed like the only word I heard was “No,” and this is definitely what David is experiencing. My favorite thing about this book is that the words are so simple and repetitive, but the pictures supply so much depth. I spent quite a long time on each page just taking in the illustrations in sheer amazement at the story they provide which is absent from the text. As a reader, I got a sense of David’s disobedience from the words, but was really able to see his personality through the devilish grins. The illustrations also made me laugh along to see the joy on his face as he is causing trouble and having so much fun regardless of the scolding from his mom. At the end of the story, David finally seems affected and is given a hug by his mom, who says, “Yes, David…I love you!” This was a great reminder that at the end of the day, parents will love you no matter what.

            No, David! is an easy read and would be great for young kids because the repetitive nature would help them to learn and read it. However, I think this book would work with older students as well. Its message is simple but significant, and so I would use this story to talk about the message that is intended—that no matter what, our parents will always love us. As a teacher, I think it would be important to share a personal story of a time when I misbehaved to show students that we all make mistakes and can be forgiven. This message can then be applied to classroom behavior to remind students how much I care about them even if they do something wrong. Finally, this book could also be used with students to encourage them to pay attention to and pull out information from the illustrations. I think No, David! would be an excellent choice of literature to practice this strategy. So much of the action relies on the pictures and the text is simple enough that it would allow students to make independent discoveries of what they can learn from a book’s illustrations.