In this amazing book about being different, the main character , Mr. Plumbean, lives on a street where all the houses are the same. When a big orange splat of paint drops on his house, Mr. Plumbean must learn a valuable lesson about how important it is to be unique.

     The reading level for this book is K-2.A great way to use this book in the classroom is to teach children about expression of individuality. One way to do this would be to use discussion prompts.

A Bad Case of Stripes is perfect for 1st-5th grade. A girl named Camilla Cream loves lima beans, but she will never eat them. She is very worried about what the other kids will say because she is the only one who likes lima beans. When she tries to fit in, she becomes covered with stripes! She changes colors to match what is going on around her. People try to teach her to just be herself, but will she ever learn to be comfortable with who she is? Students could complete a character trait graphic organizer, or for younger grades, they could complete a coloring sheet and make their own case of stripes!

Lexile Level: AD610L

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon is about a girl named Camilla Cream who loves lima beans, but pretends not to like them to fit in with her classmates at school.  On the first of school, Camilla comes down with a bad case of the stripes and changes into everything the people around her tell her to change into.  Camilla's situation becomes so bad until an old lady gives Camilla lima beans to eat.  When Camilla eats the beans, she is cured, and when she returns to school she accepts who she is as a person and eats lima beans without caring what others think about her.  A Bad Case of Stripes gives the perfect opportunity for teachers to help students embrace the things they like and accept who they are as a person.  An activity that could be done in the classroom is having the students make a drawing of themselves with the stripes, but draw the things that make them unique and that they like.  The reading level of A Bad Case of Stripes is 610L (2nd Grade) according to the Lexile leveling system.

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon is about a girl named Camilla Cream who loves lima beans, but pretends not to like them to fit in with her classmates at school.  On the first of school, Camilla comes down with a bad case of the stripes and changes into everything the people around her tell her to change into.  Camilla's situation becomes so bad until an old lady gives Camilla lima beans to eat.  When Camilla eats the beans, she is cured, and when she returns to school she accepts who she is as a person and eats lima beans without caring what others think about her.  A Bad Case of Stripes gives the perfect opportunity for teachers to help students embrace the thinks they like and accept who they are as a person.  An activity that could be done in the classroom is having the students make a drawing of themselves with the stripes, but draw the things that make them unique and that they like.  The reading level of A Bad Case of Stripes is 610L (2nd Grade) according to the Lexile leveling system.   

"All those maxims about judging others by yourself, and putting yourself in another person's place, are not, I am afraid, reliable. I had them dinned into me constantly as a child, and I was constantly trying to obey them, and constantly was astonished at the unexpected results I arrived at; and now I know that it is a proof of artlessness to suppose that other people will think and feel and hope and enjoy what you do and in the same way that you do."

True. But then, you also had the courage to defy convention, Elizabeth ...

And I still think at least when it comes to cruelty vs. common decency, there is something to be said in favor of "don't do to others what you don't want to have done to yourself."