I read this with my little girl. Actually she read it to me. Then we looked up the bold print words to see what the definition of each word was. It is a good book to show the many people that create diversity in a neighborhood. However, if you are afraid of people and have a fear of your child talking to strangers you may not want your child to see that a little boy roams the streets alone talking to all the nice people. Laundry Day by Maurie J. Manning is a graphic novel about a boy who is a shoeshine boy who finds a red scarf. The boy searched all over town looking for the owner of the scarf. When he is looking for the owner of the scarf he comes across a lot of diverse people who he becomes friends with. After the owner realizes how much time this boy spent looking for her to return the scarf. She decides to snip the scarf in half and give the boy one half. The lonely shoes shine boy is no longer lonely due to all the friends he made while looking for the owner of the scarf.Text to Self: This story reminds me of when I was a kid. When I found something I always wanted to get the item back to the original owner. There were a lot of times I was not able to search for the person who owned the item, so I always made sure it was placed in the lost and found. I actually made a friend once when he left his jacket at the park. He had written his name and address in the jacket so we were able to return the jacket to him. The next time we saw each other in the park we played together and became great friends. Text to Text: This book reminds me of a book I read to my son. It is called Little Blue Truck. The Little Blue Truck has a lot of friends and is very nice to them. However the dump truck has big important things to do and doesn’t have time to slow down for the animals. He doesn’t have very many friends in this area since he is to important and doesn’t have time for them. Then he gets stuck in the mud and the Little Blue Truck and the animals help him get out of the mud. Once they get Little Blue Truck and Dump out of the mud, Dump says “you helped me and they helped you.” Then he goes on to say that now he see a lot depends on a helping hand from a few good friends. Text to World: What I pulled from the book the most to connect to the world is how one good dead a person can do can change there life. The lonely boy is no longer lonely after he tried returning the scarf to the owner, he made lots of friends of many diversity’s.
What do You think about Laundry Day (2012)?
Not in love with the ethnic stereotyping in is book. At all. But it has a really great ending.
—Bre
The illustrations are a feast for the eyes!
—Cassidy
