Aunt Chip & The Great Triple Creek Dam Affair

Aunt Chip & The Great Triple Creek Dam Affair - Patricia Polacco (also illustrated)
Philomel Books
ISBN: 0-399-22943-4

My rating: 4 out of 5

Patricia Polacco does a fantastic job creating this town where no one reads anymore, except for one woman - Aunt Chip. I think Polacco's story is very well-told and gives forth a good message that reading can be fun and exciting. This book is entertaining for younger readers and, as an older reader, I found it to be intresting in another respect - that the town is an allegory for how society in general, has slowly given up reading for pleasure because of the TV and its popularity. I have seen this with many of my old classmates who cite that they do not like reading because they can watch the same story on TV.

The illustrations in "Aunt Chip," also done by Polacco, are incredibly detailed and very close to life. Personally, I'm not crazy about her style, but I think they are very well-done illustrations, nonetheless.

As opposed to "Click, Clack, Moo," I would not recommend this for a read-aloud. It is much too long and the students will quickly lose interest if forced to sit through a full reading of this book. However, I would recommend "Aunt Chip & The Great Triple Creek Dam Affair" for older elementary students. It is a fun story with a good message that reading is both fun and exciting.