Diary of a Fly

Diary of a Fly

Written By: Doreen Cronin

Illustrated By: Harry Bliss

HarperCollins Publishers, 2007

32 Pages

Picture Book

 

     I picked this book, because it is by the same author of Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type and Duck for President; I really liked both of those books.  The book is about entries that a fly has written in his journal about things he does at school.  The story is kind of funny because it shows what a fly would be doing in school and contrasts certain things to humans.  He talks about flight class and a writing project where he writes about his life.  He writes about his life cycle from the time he is an egg to now.  There are also facts in the book about flies.  Fly’s mother tells him that he can’t have a room to himself, because he has 327 other siblings.  On one page he also says he learns how many times a fly moves their wings; he says that it is 200 times per minute.  In the end of the story, Fly talks about having 4,000 lenses in his eyes, and how he could be a great superhero.

    

     The illustrations in this book are really detailed.  There are a lot of pictures that explain journal entries from fly about school or what he is thinking.  I love how humor is brought into this story by comparing a fly’s school life to humans. The illustrations are done in water color.  They are proportioned large to show how the fly is small.  All of the other objects or people in the book are larger.  I thought the artist did a great job.

 

     I would use this book to explain the importance of writing and relate this to my student’s writing journals.  I would get them to compare and contrast how they do things in school as opposed to what Fly does.  I would have my students write about this or make a picture book where they draw things that they do in school and things that Fly does on the other side.  They could also write a short sentence explaining their drawing.  Another idea I could do is to have them make their own little diary flip book about various things they have done throughout the school year.  This way, more purpose would be incorporated into their writing.  I could also have students make a fly craft and write facts about the fly from the book.  I think this book is appropriate for kindergarten, first grade, and second grade.