Module 10: The Eraserheads by Kate Banks

Summary: This creative book features an owl, a pig and a crocodile who are nothing more than erasers sitting on top of a little boy's pencils at the beginning of the story.  The erasers help the little boy fix his mistakes when he needs them.  One day the little boy creates a road, but needs to erase part of it.  Well, the crocodile goes a little crazy erasing the road and before you know it, the road has completely disappeared.  This leads the owl, the pig and the crocodile to get stuck inside the boy's drawings.  Once inside, the erasers find fun, adventure and face a variety of dangers.  How will the erasers make it back to safety?

Citation:


Banks, K. (2010). The eraserheads. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus

        and Giroux.

My Impression: This clever tale is sure to provide hours of entertainment for readers.  The adventures of the erasers as they journey through the boy's artwork is a lot of fun for readers.  It is easy to sit at the edge of your seat to find out whether or not the eraserheads will get out of their sticky situations depicted within the pages of the book.  Boris Kulikov provides wonderful illustrations.  Kulikov's colored pencil pictures engage readers in a world of whimsy as they venture through the story. It would be interesting to see if any of the drawings correspond to real-life places all over the world.

Professional Reviews:


Kirkus Review

"Banks imbues three pencil erasers--a pig, a crocodile and an owl--with earnest personalities and important jobs to do for an artistic boy, who is never named. The critters correct math errors, check vocabulary and interact within the boy's elaborately rendered tableaux. When a sketched road disappears, the croc reacts by over-erasing--and quickly, they're stuck in the middle of nowhere. The premise--we learn from mistakes--is nearly submerged by author and artist. Menaced by an island's wild animals, the erasers are suddenly stranded when the boy crumples his drawing and leaves in irritation. Crocodile redeems himself by erasing bits of a snake till there's an "SOS" for the boy. Smoothing out his drawing, he rescues the trio by adding a boat and a sign reading "Beach." The complex story line doesn't always cohere--the setup for the stranding seems too random for primary children. Kulikov delivers a dizzying visual stew that includes everything from the boy's penciled and crayoned drawings, the erasers' shiny opacity, a Sendakian Wild Thing and a big frothy wave evocative of Hiroshige. A bit gimmicky but nonetheless engrossing. (Picture book. 5-8)"

Kirkus Reviews. (2010, March 15). The eraserheads. [Review of the book


        The Eraserheads, by K. Banks]. Retrieved from http://www.kirkus

        reviews.com

Publishers Weekly

"Banks and Kulikov's (Max's Words) latest collaboration stars three plucky pencil-top erasers-a green crocodile, blue owl, and pink pig-who work conscientiously to erase the mistakes of their owner, a dark-haired schoolboy. When they find themselves stranded on the surface of one of the boy's drawings, they realize that they can save themselves from various dangers by strategic erasing (the pig is too scared to erase some scary tiger fangs, so the owl does it; "my head is sore," he remarks afterward). Kulikov combines loving attention to detail-it's possible to read the labels on the pencils and count the hairs on the paintbrushes-with beguiling portraits of the erasers in various attitudes of dismay and distress. In the story's dueling realities, the "real life" sections of the spreads feature three-dimensional figures, while the boy's drawings are done in gawky crayon. Once the erasers learn to control their surroundings, trepidation turns into triumph. It's a fruitful exploration of the important role of error: "Hooray for mistakes," the owl says, as the crocodile agrees that without them, "There'd be nothing to learn." Ages 4-8." (Apr.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly. (2010, February 15). [Review of the book The eraserheads,

         by K. Banks]. Retrieved from http://www.publishersweekly.com

Uses within the Library:


1. Dear Diary: Have students write a story using a "Dear Diary" format.  The story of The Eraserheads will now be told from the point of view of one of the characters.  Have students choose either the little boy, the owl, the pig or the crocodile in the story.  Then students will share their stories if desired.

2. Characters Come to Life: Have the students cut out a cardboard cube that has been copied for them.  While the cube is still lying flat, have students draw a picture of their favorite character in the story.  Then have students write character traits that they get from within the actions of the characters in the story.  Have students label a particular action of the character to identify how they arrived at the character traits.




Book Cover: Book cover courtesy of the Mansfield Public Library.
Retrieved from http://www.mansfield-tx.gov/department/library/