Not a Box, by Antoinette Portis
Picture Book
Grades PreK-K
Rating: 4 Stars
Summary: A defiant little bunny rabbit proves that the square next to him is indeed not a box, and demonstrates how the imagination can transform this simple object into a racecar, a mountain, a building, a spaceship, a hot-air balloon, and many other things.
Not a Box is a story that I wish had been around when I was younger. It is so much fun to flip through the pages and see how the bunny has transformed the box into a new adventure simply by using his imagination. This innocent sense of creativity reminded me of the forts that my brother and I would build out of blankets and pillows. These forts would become a castle, an army bunker, or a space ship, and we would entertain ourselves in these blanket structures for the entire day. Like the bunny in the story, as children most of us dream up the wildest situations and use our imaginations to make these places come alive, and as adults I think we lose this sense of creativity. This book serves as a great reminder for me now as an adult that imagination can transform daily life into something a bit more magical. The same is required while reading this book—a willingness to let go of what “makes sense” in the real world and experience the simple drawing of a box in the same adventurous way as the bunny.
Overall, I think kids would be thrilled to read this story as a class read-aloud. It is such an authentic expression of the imagination, and creativity is something that comes much easier when children are young and not embarrassed by the crazy things they come up with. In a class of younger students, I would love to use this story as inspiration for them to either write about or draw something that is a little out of the ordinary. I think it would be fun to pass out pieces of paper with boxes drawn on them and have each student draw their own interpretation of what the box really is, just like the bunny demonstrates in the story. Children have such a unique way of thinking and constructing meaning, so it would definitely be fun to see what they can come up with.
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