By David Shannon
ISBN: 9780439598385
Camilla Cream loved Lima beans, but never ate them because her friends hated them and she wanted to fit in. On the first day of school she found herself all stressed out and worried because she couldn’t decide which outfit would work best to impress all the people she’d come in contact with.
But what she saw when she looked in the mirror, horrified her – she was covered in stripes! And no matter which doctor or specialist or expert examined her, they couldn’t find out what was wrong with Camilla, much less could they suggest a cure!
Camilla eventually made the news as “The Incredible Changing Kid!”, and her appearance kept changing until it was hard to even recognize her.
It took the insight of a sweet old woman to cure Camilla and restore her to her old self. Afterwards, she doesn’t mind what others think or say about her.
This book fits right in to a lesson about germs and disease, with a bit of a twist: to think about how it makes people feel when others tease them, and how to accept differences in others (and ourselves). Using this theme at our Book Club Hour at Thorntree Preparatory School today, topics covered were:
- magnifying glasses and microscopes
- bacteria and viruses
- germs and disease
- simple things we can do to prevent getting sick
- diversity and fitting in
- how we define ourselves and what it means to “be yourself”
- things we worry about when we start something new or make new friends
- being laughed at
- teasing and bullying
- spreading “news”
- name calling
- personal identity – how to be yourself
- its okay to be different
We then discussed how we need all our parts (members) to function properly: The hand cannot go on strike because it is not a foot, and the ear cannot decide to stop working because it can’t do what the eye can (see). We need one another to be complete human beings – we excel in different areas and can help one another where we struggle. But if we tease or mock or bully one another, we don’t only harm others, we harm ourselves as well.
The session ended with a tasting of Lima beans (butter beans). Most of the kids tried them (one or two didn’t want to), many of them didn’t like it, and one special boy couldn’t get enough of it!
You can listen to a reading of the book here:
