"Before Julius was born, Lilly was the best big sister in the world."
Title: Julius: The Baby of the World
Author: Kevin Henkes
Illustrator: Kevin Henkes
Publisher: Greenwillow
Date of Publication: 1990
Genre: Fiction
Readability Lexile: 460L
Summary:
Summary:
Lilly’s parents are expecting a new baby soon and Lilly is very excited... until the baby actually arrives. Lilly becomes very jealous of all the time her parents are spending with her new little brother, Julius, who they call the baby of the world. Lilly begins to act out and be very naughty. She tries scaring Julius, making him disappear, and ignoring him but nothing works and all she earns is time in the uncooperative chair. Her attitude toward her little brother doesn’t change until her cousin says mean things about him. Then her family pride and love kicks in. Lilly learns that she really does love her little brother. This book is best suited for kindergarten through second grade students.
Evaluation:
This is a good story and once again is very relevant for children, especially those with new babies at home. This book helps parents and children to adjust to having a baby at home when before there was only one child. The events in this story could and have actually happened in real life. I always here about the first born getting very jealous and naughty when a new baby comes home. This book might help those children to realize that its okay to be upset but that one’s family is super important. The characters fit well with the plot and the language used by the character fit well with both the plot and the characters. The setting is at home with Lilly and her family. The setting fits well with this story because usually the first born child tends to act out when at home or just around the new baby in general. The author doesn’t use any offensive, degrading, or stereotypical language or illustrations in this book.
Literary Elements:
1. Theme: The author uses theme to wrap up the story and make it meaningful to students. The theme of this story is about the importance of family and how, even thought sometimes we may not want them, they are always there for us and stick up for use when we need them too. Lilly learns that her family , including her new baby brother, Julius, are important and care about her.
2. Juxtaposition: On several of the pages in this book, the author uses this literary element to contrast the same kind of action but done differently by different people. The author places these actions side by side and has pictures to further the meaning and humor of the text. There is one page that shows Lilly’s mother and father saying that they love Julius and that he is beautiful. Right below that picture and description is one of Lilly’s telling Julius that she hates him and that he’s ugly. Places these two actions side by side makes it funny and shows how different her feelings are than her parents.
3. Onomatopoeia: The author uses sound words to give baby Julius some dialogue. All he says in this book is Ga-a-a-a Maa-ooommoo which fits with the fact that he is a newborn baby and not an older child like Lilly.
Illustrations:
As I said before with the juxtaposition of the illustrations and text to create humor and an extended meaning works well in this story because it shows the contrasting attitudes of the parents and of Lilly. They illustrations are fun to look at and find all of the cool details. The illustrations in this story add a humorous aspect to the book that would not be captured if not for the pictures.
Mini-Lesson Idea:
I would use this book to teach juxtaposition with text and illustrations. The author does an excellent job of showing the differences between the characters by using this literary element. I would have the students think of an event that could be seen in very different ways for two people or two groups of people. Then they could illustrate that part of their to make the juxtaposition more obvious.
This is a good story and once again is very relevant for children, especially those with new babies at home. This book helps parents and children to adjust to having a baby at home when before there was only one child. The events in this story could and have actually happened in real life. I always here about the first born getting very jealous and naughty when a new baby comes home. This book might help those children to realize that its okay to be upset but that one’s family is super important. The characters fit well with the plot and the language used by the character fit well with both the plot and the characters. The setting is at home with Lilly and her family. The setting fits well with this story because usually the first born child tends to act out when at home or just around the new baby in general. The author doesn’t use any offensive, degrading, or stereotypical language or illustrations in this book.
Literary Elements:
1. Theme: The author uses theme to wrap up the story and make it meaningful to students. The theme of this story is about the importance of family and how, even thought sometimes we may not want them, they are always there for us and stick up for use when we need them too. Lilly learns that her family , including her new baby brother, Julius, are important and care about her.
2. Juxtaposition: On several of the pages in this book, the author uses this literary element to contrast the same kind of action but done differently by different people. The author places these actions side by side and has pictures to further the meaning and humor of the text. There is one page that shows Lilly’s mother and father saying that they love Julius and that he is beautiful. Right below that picture and description is one of Lilly’s telling Julius that she hates him and that he’s ugly. Places these two actions side by side makes it funny and shows how different her feelings are than her parents.
3. Onomatopoeia: The author uses sound words to give baby Julius some dialogue. All he says in this book is Ga-a-a-a Maa-ooommoo which fits with the fact that he is a newborn baby and not an older child like Lilly.
Illustrations:
As I said before with the juxtaposition of the illustrations and text to create humor and an extended meaning works well in this story because it shows the contrasting attitudes of the parents and of Lilly. They illustrations are fun to look at and find all of the cool details. The illustrations in this story add a humorous aspect to the book that would not be captured if not for the pictures.
Mini-Lesson Idea:
I would use this book to teach juxtaposition with text and illustrations. The author does an excellent job of showing the differences between the characters by using this literary element. I would have the students think of an event that could be seen in very different ways for two people or two groups of people. Then they could illustrate that part of their to make the juxtaposition more obvious.
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