Julius by Angela Johnson

As a child, I always wanted a pig for a pet so I was immediately drawn to Julius, by Angela Johnson.  It is the story of a little girl, Maya, who is given a big, Alaskan pig by her grandfather.  Maya names the pig Julius and they become instant friends.  Her parents do not like the pig very much because it is loud and makes lots of messes, but Julius and the pig do all kinds of wonderful things together.  In the end, Maya teaches Julius manners so her parents will appreciate him as much as she does.  Although this is a very short book with a static plot, we do see some character development in Julius.  We also get to see the relationship between Julius and Maya blossom.  May doesn’t have any brothers or sisters and longs for one in the beginning.   We get to see Julius fill this void for her.  As always with illustrators that use mixed media, I found them to be dessert for the eyes!  The book says they are a combination of acrylic, watercolor, fabric, instant coffee, crayon, and India ink.   This combination comes together in a very bold way and gives the book the energy that it needs in order to effectively pull off a story about a pet pig.  Lots going on in a big way!  The pictures match up with the words of the story but also add humor to the story because we get a visual of the pig doing all these silly things.  There is a lot of detail in these illustrations so I would be sure to let children have ample time exploring the pictures and all there is to offer in them.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book because I think it accurately captures the love between humans and their pets.
            I would use this book with a text set about pets or by itself as a read aloud to lighten the mood because it will give children, and myself, a good chuckle.  After reading this book, I would provide opportunities for students to write, draw, or talk about their own pets and pet experiences.  What do you have to do to care for your pet?  What do you and your pets like to do together?  How did you name your pet?  How do you teach your pet things?  I have found that children love talking about their pets and can go on and on and on about them.  My goal for this assignment would be to inspire students to turn their verbal enthusiasm for their pets into enthusiasm for writing about their pets.  Some students will not have a pet of their own at home so I would give them the option of writing about a pet they know or writing about a pet they would like to have in the future.  Since a pig is somewhat of an unusual pet, along with this unit I would talk about exotic pets that some people have.  I would find clips on youtube where people are keeping animals, such as monkeys, buffalos, and alligators, as pets.  Students could then write about exotic pets they would like to have and possibly make up a story about the crazy things these pets do.   I think any activity in which you give students a writing prompt about a topic they are interested in goes a long way as far as sparking interesting in writing.
Year Published: 1993          Illustrator: Dav Pilkey