A Bad Case of Stripes

Title: A Bad Case of Stripes

Author and Illustrator: David Shannon

Genre: Fantasy

Awards: None

Age Group: Pre-K–2nd 

A Bad Case of Stripes is a story about being yourself. Camilla Cream secretly loves lima beans, but she is too embarrassed of what others will think if they see her eating them, so she pretends to hate them. All of a sudden, her skin becomes striped in all the colors of the rainbow, and none of the doctors know what to do. It doesn't end with stripes though; anytime someone says a design or pattern, her skin soon reflects what they say. She is the laughing stock of school and still has no solution to her stripey problem. She has turned into a giant pill, sprouted fungus, and become a house before a little old lady finally gives her the key to this disaster...lima beans! Once she eats a handful of them, she is back to her normal self, and from then on, she ate lima beans proudly.

I will definitely use this book in my classroom! It is such an entertaining and fun book with a good lesson to be yourself. Camilla Cream worried a lot about what people thought of her, and it got her into a stripey situation to say the least! It was when she embraced her love of lima beans that she turned into herself again, and by then she was confident in who she was.

I would recommend this book for Pre-K up to 2nd grade, although I think even older kids would enjoy it. It would make a great read aloud with the vibrant pictures and engaging story. 

Here are some lesson/activity ideas for A Bad Case of Stripes:

• Color the Stripes Worksheet: This book would be a great way to supplement a lesson about colors for younger children. I found a worksheet on Teachers Pay Teachers that has Camilla's face with stripes, and each stripe has a number that corresponds to a crayon on the top of the page. Students match the number to the color to fill in the stripes. This combines matching, number, and color skills!
• Inside v. Outside Traits Anchor Chart: This book has very obvious outside traits in it, such as stripes, tails, fungus, polka-dots...you name it, Camilla probably has it! She also has personality traits that you can see while reading. You could create an anchor chart comparing some of the inside and outside traits that Camilla displays.
• What Makes Me Special: A writing prompt that goes along with the lesson of this book would be to have students write about what makes them unique or special. For Camilla, this was that she loves lima beans.