REVIEW: My Brother

Browne, A. (2007). My Brother. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

0374351201

Written and structured in the fashion of a grade student's assignment, My Brother shows all of the ways a young boy admires his big brother. The writing style is very simple with many positive adjectives and repetitions of the phrase "my brother."

The illustrations are drawn in a style children will appreciate, with many arrows and labels that students will likely want to trace or emulate.

Activities:

My Brother lends itself to being used with siblings, to discuss how younger children often admire their big brother or sister and how the older child often sets an example for his or her little brother or sister.

After viewing this picturebook, students could write their own books in response, perhaps about someone they admire.

A teacher could point out how different words are emphasized in the various sentences, and how the fact that those words are in ALL CAPS would encourage a reader to emphasize them as he or she reads them aloud.

Quotes of Note:

"My brother is really COOL."

"He's REALLY cool, my brother."

"My brother's read HUNDREDS of books, and he writes BRILLIANT stories."