MY LUCKY DAY book review

My Lucky Day

Written and Illustrated by Keiko Kasza

Penguin Young Readers Group- GP Putnams and sons, 2003

30 pages

Picture Books

          I chose this book because my son really wanted to read a book about pigs!  A silly reason, I know, but it turned out to be a good story.  The picture on the front makes the book quite enticing, the fox looks mean and the pig looks like he is up to something.  The story is all about a little pig that has a plan to get a free meal and spa day out of some hungry predators.  He shows up unexpectedly at the fox’s house just as the fox is about to go hunting for his dinner.  The pig is surprised to see that he is at fox’s house.  He acts as though he has resigned himself to his fate of being eaten. 

Every time that the fox tries to put the pig in the oven the pig finds an excuse for why he can’t put him yet.  Each of his excuses results in the pig getting some sort of ‘spa’ treatment from the fox.  At the end of the day, the fox is exhausted and the pig marks the fox’s name off of his list of stops.

          The illustrations in this book are done in gouache. They are printed on three ply Bristol illustration paper.  The illustrations are very detailed oriented and make the emotions of the pig and fox very easy to see.  The majority of the pages use a formal type of illustration format; the pictures are on the opposite side of the text.  The illustrations are done in realistic colors and design.

          This book would be great for students in any grade.  It could be used to prompt a discussion about pre-planning for older students. For younger students, it could be used to prompt a discussion about fiction books or as a way to guide students into a conversation about what would happen if he had not planned out his moves and a create your own ending activity.  This book has received no awards at this time, but it is a versatile and fun collection to add to any classroom library.