This is my third reflection of a Kevin Henkes picture book. After I reflected on Owen, Dr. Gibson suggested Julius, The Baby of the World, and I also noticed it listed on the link for "Books to teach literary devices" under persuasion from our course homepage. I had never heard of this book so I borrowed it from my school library. What a SWEET and HILARIOUS story! This book is an ALA Notable Children's Book.
In the story, Lilly, the eccentric little girl is blessed with a baby brother who she is extremely jealous of. She hates that he gets so much attention and that his parents love him so much and think everything he does is perfect. Lilly just can't understand why her parents and all of the other adults in the family just love him so much. She goes out of her way to do terrible things to him like scare him, tell him the numbers and letters out of order, tells him insults, and tries to make him disappear! Throughout the entire story Lilly's parents are complementing his little black eyes, pink little nose, and sweet soft fur and his ability to babble, scream, blow bubbles. The main idea of this story is the fact that Lilly now has a little brother and he isn't going anywhere which her parents remind her of several times. Finally at the end of the story at a family gathering a cousin of Lilly's starts bad mouthing Julius just the way she had been doing the entire story. Instead of agreeing with the cousin she gets angry and sticks up for her baby brother Julius telling her cousin all the wonderful things he can do and how cute he is, the same compliments her parents had been giving him the entire story that Lilly had never agreed with. From then on she adored Julius, protected him, and played with him, she finally changed her mind and believes that he really is "the baby of the world".
Like all of the other Henkes stories I have read so far this story teaches a valuable lesson to children who will be getting and already have younger siblings. Students who may have some of the same feelings Lilly first had about having a baby in the family can see Lilly change her mind on her feelings for baby Julius.
As this book was listed under persuasion on the list of books to teach literary devices the teacher could have a discussion with students about the power of persuasion and what it means to persuade. Big questions to ask during the discussion prior to reading could include: "Have you ever been persuaded?", Have you ever persuaded someone?" During reading the teacher could ask, "Do you think Lilly's parents will persuade her to change her opinion of Julius?" The students could make predictions about this question before reading on to find out what happens.
During lunch one day with my fellow teachers last week I was raving about Henkes stories and the first grade teacher that I collaborate with chimed in as well, turns out she is a big fan too! As a first grade team we have decided to spend a full week to complete an Author Study of Kevin Henkes with our first graders in two weeks! We have selected lots of his books (and not just the ones with the cute mice that I'm partial to) that we will be sharing over the week with our students and using to teach story elements. We will be able to compare and contrast the characters, settings, and plots of each story we share. We will also teach about Kevin Henkes himself. I can't wait to share the Kevin Henkes books I love and read a few that I haven't read yet that I'm sure to love as well!
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