A Sick Day for Amos McGee (Module 1)

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Stead, Phillip C. 2010. A Sick Day for Amos McGee. Ill. by Erin E. Stead. New York, NY: Roaring Book Press. ISBN 9781596434028

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Amos McGee is a zookeeper whose every movement is measured and habitual. His routine moves with calm ease from awaking to getting ready for work to arriving and spending time with each of his friends in the zoo. The friends are all animals with distinctive characteristics that play with stereotypes for that animal (i.e. the elephant thinks a lot, the tortoise wins every race, etc.). Amos’s routine is broken when he is sick, and it really bothers his friends that he is missing. Their logical conclusion is to go visit him. Of course, the charm of it all is that this requires some rather large animals getting on a bus, entering a house, and even spending the night.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Philip Stead uses repetition with a twist in this book to turn the habitual behavior of Amos on its head. When Amos first visits the animals, each has its own characteristics and actions. As the animals visit Amos, the characteristics of the animals turn out to be characteristics of Amos also. This creates an engaging memory device for readers as they can anticipate what Amos will do with each animal at his house.

Erin Stead’s illustrations help keep the story moving at an even pace. On many of the pages, there is either a little mouse, little bird, or red balloon sitting amongst the scenery, which adds a layer of fun hide-and-seek to the pages. In the middle of the book, the illustrations convey the whole story without text in a delightful manner as the animals leave the zoo, wait for the bus, ride the bus, and arrive at Amos’s house. The woodblock printing and pencil gives the illustrations a light feel that enhances the overall cozy mood of the book. She rightfully deserved to receive the Caldecott award for such detailed and well-drawn characters that convey emotion so easily (even the animals).

The theme of the book, friendship, is portrayed in the dedication and care that Amos takes with each animal. As the author shows how each aspect of the animal turns out to be an aspect that Amos himself carries, the lesson deepens, and we learn that friendship and similarities can be found in spite of huge differences (even between species).

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

• Caldecott Award Book
• ALA Notable book
• Starred review in Kirkus: “This gentle, ultimately warm story acknowledges the care and reciprocity behind all good friendships.”
• Starred review in Horn Book: “The attentively detailed pencil and woodblock illustrations reveal character and enhance the cozy mood of the gentle text.”
• New York Times review: “It delightfully takes its loony scenario for granted.”
  

5. CONNECTIONS

• On the page that shows Amos leaving the house, we see that his house is set in the middle of huge apartments. This falls in line with a character that is so habitual and steady that he isn’t concerned with the modernization of the world. When considering this topic, the classic book The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton (ISBN 039525938X ) can be used to illustrate how even though time moves on not everything has to modernize.
• Another fun book about role reversals between humans and animals is Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown (ISBN 0316015482). Readers can brainstorm other ways we could reverse the human-animal roles or characteristics of humans that can also be found in animals.
• Other books about feeling sick:
  

Hayes, Geoffrey. Patrick and the Get Well Day. ISBN 0-7868-0719-9

Rockwell, Anne and Harlow. Sick In Bed. ISBN 0-02-777730-8

Wiseman, Bernard. Morris Has a Cold. ISBN 0-396-07522-3

Dealey, Erin. Goldie Locks Has Chicken Pox. Ill. by Hanako Wakiyama. ISBN 978-0-689-87610-3