Parent and Child magazine takes a different bent, focusing on the idea of stripes. Here are a few for you: Scholastic has a lesson plan that focuses on the worries children feel at school, and how this book addresses those worries.

Resour ces: There are a plethora of resources available online for this book.

In fact, she’s so worried that she’s about to break out in… a bad case of stripes! And Camilla Cream is very, very worried about what other people think of her.

Why? Because the other kids in her school don”t like them. Synopsis: (from Amazon) Camilla Cream loves lima beans, but she never eats them.Camilla was always worried about what other people thought of her.” All of her friends hated lima beans, and she wanted to fit in. Opening: “Camilla Cream loved lima beans.Topics/Themes: Individuality, Peer Pressure, Learning to be Yourself.Published By: The Blue Skye Press, March 1, 1998.Written and Illustrated By: David Shannon.And after reading it, she says, totally unprompted…”I guess Camilla learned that she should just be herself and not worry about what everyone else was thinking.” wow….yeah! So here it is, in all of its nightmare-inducing glory, this week’s Perfect Picture Book… A BAD CASE OF STRIPES. She proceeds to ask question after question about what exactly is happening to Miss Camilla Cream, the main character in the book. We read the book again, and she is completely fascinated. I have gushed about David Shannon’s artwork before on my blog here, and will gush yet again this week.

It is so fantastic that you might even say it’s…haunting. And to be honest, once you see this book, you might understand why. She found the book quite worrying and even had trouble falling asleep a few nights after we read it. In each instance, there was one thing that stopped me…and that thing is the sheer terror that my 5-year-old experienced as a result of reading this book. Today’s book is one that I have almost recommended several times.

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon