The Stranger

The Stranger is written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg.

Picture Book

2nd - 4th Grade

4.5 out of 5 Stars

The Stranger is about a stranger who was ran over and then taken and taken care of by Farmer Bailey and his family. This Stranger eventually leaves after growing a bond with the family changing the weather forever.

I loved this book. I thought that everything from the plot to the illustrations to the differing meanings was amazing. The plot was mysterious which kept me wondering and thinking about what was actually going on. Even at the end of the book I still had no clue who the stranger was and I still do not know who he is. This is good because it kept me reading and also makes me want to read it again. The book was a little creepy which made it that much better because it was not like a typical children's picture book. The illustrations are so detailed and amazing. The people are realistic. I like how they draw the stranger so that the reader wants to learn more about him. The literary element of time was important because its based in the fall when the leaves begin to change colors.

This book would be a lot of fun to use in a classroom because it is so mysterious and this will help get kids thinking and using their imagination. I used this book in a mini-lesson in class. In this mini-lesson I had the class predict mid-way through the book what they thought was going to happen and at the end I had them write who they thought the stranger was or what he meant. It was interesting to see what everyone said and also fun to see how their predictions differed from who they thought the stranger was. As an outcome of using this in class I wanted students to keep questioning and thinking about what they were reading.