In 5th grade I was wearing hot pink shorts, with pockets b/c why not, for my elementary school basketball team. I loved those shorts my mom made! I remember free-throws were not a strength of mine, okay they still aren't, but in 5th grade my glasses broke. I had to play my basketball game with very blurry vision. I was not looking forward to my very blurry basketball game.
Yet, during that vision impaired game I scored the most points I ever scored in a game in elementary school. I scored a whopping 15 points. It was a big game. I'm not sure why my lack of vision increased my score 10 times from normal, but it probably means I'm not a great basketball player.
I tell you that above story b/c what I was doing in 5th grade, and what a lot of people are doing at 10-11 years old is not what Isabella Murphy was doing. Isabella Murphy wrote and published a book. #wow
Isabella Murphy is a 5th grade student author who wrote From Dark to Light. This book, with personification aka an inanimate object gave human like qualities, is about a pumpkin who wants to feel loved. This pumpkin gets planted, grows, and becomes picked by a family. It's a cute story, but definitely text heavy.
From Dark to Light gets 2 out of 5 stars. The illustrations are cute, the story given from the perspective of a seed is fun, and the fact that a 5th grader wrote it is cool. I also love that a story from the perspective of a pumpkin includes the carving of the pumpkins; I personally thought carving would be scary for the pumpkins, but for these pumpkins it is just fun. There are some great parts to the story.
Though, I try to be honest, fair, consistent, and critical in my reviews. This story is obviously an indie book. The story doesn't quite flow smoothly, and the text could've definitely been condensed. There are many parts of the story that don't add anything to the overall story line and should've been taken out. I realize this book is written by a child, but I still hope a published book would have better character development. The character development was too quick; one minute Pumpker is being laughed at and treated cruelly by his sisters and then the next moment they are giggling with him.
Overall, the story is good, but it isn't great. I'd purchase this book if I was a 4th, 5th, or 6th grade teacher to show my students they can be an author. However, the text heaviness and the unrefined writing make this book I wouldn't read aloud in the library.
What were you doing in 5th grade?
Happy Pumpkin Personification Picture Book Reading!
From Dark to Light by Isabella Murphy
Rating: 2/5 stars
Best For: 6 years old and up, 1st to 3rd grade.
Clean Read: Yes
Worth a Check Out: Yes.
Buy It or Not: No.
Read Aloud: No.
Lesson Ideas: Personification. Pumpkins. Seed to plant. Family. Student Authors.
I received this book from Pink Umbrella Books in exchange for my review and honest opinion. All of my thoughts, opinions, and words are my own.
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