The Mixed-Up Chameleon Board Book (edição: 1998)

A trip and a half, this one. I greatly enjoyed it, though possibly not for the reasons one might expect. ( )

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Carle, E. (1998). The Mixed-up Chameleon. New York: HarperFestival.
This story teaches preschoolers that it is good to like the things that are different about themselves. As students are coming into school for the first time this is a great book to have when they struggle about being different. This is also a great book to teach about the different kind of animals you find at the zoo and why they have been designed to be a specific color. This book incorporates flaps to build a greater understanding of why the chameleon can’t have the pieces of other animals on his body.

"The Mixed-Up Chameleon" is illustrated by Eric Carle, a man famous for his collage style illustrations. He utilizes vibrant colors and paper to create pictures with depth and character. In this story, a chameleon is tired of being himself and wants to be like the creatures he sees at the zoo. He takes on pieces of them until he no longer feels like himself. He ends up wishing that he were himself again and able to catch that fly. The moral of the story is that we should be happy with who we are. I really like the moral and think sequencing of events could be taught through the story. The animals that chameleon tried to be like could be ordered with movable pictures. The Scholastic Readability of this story is grades PreK-2. ( )

One day the chameleon went to the zoo and was amazed. He had never seen so many animals. When the chameleon saw the polar bear, he wished he was big and white like the polar bear and his wish came true. The chameleon still wasn't happy and he started to wish he was like every animal he saw. Eventually the chameleon gained an attribute of every single animal. When a fly flew by, the chameleon was very hungry and wanted to catch the fly, but he couldn't because he was too mixed up being all these different animals. So the chameleon wished he were himself again and he turned back into a chameleon.

I really liked the message that this story gave. The chameleon turned into all these different types of animals and still wasn't happy in the end. He wasn't truly happy until he was himself again. This shows students that you can only find true happiness in being yourself. ( )