The Recess Queen - Realistic Fiction

Realistic Fiction Book Blog

Title: The Recess Queen

Author: Alexis O'Neill

Illustrator: Laura Huliska-Beith

Publisher: Scholastic

Copyright: 2002 

# of Pages: 32

Genre: Fiction

     The Recess Queen is a story about a girl named Jean who is mean to all the students during recess and does not allow them to play until she has played. Until... Katie Sue moved to the school. Katie Sue was playing on the playground when Mean Jean came and grabbed her by the collar! Katie Sue did not act like the other students. Instead, she got sassy right back and kept playing. Then Katie Sue did something no one else had done. She invited Mean Jean to play with her. To know what happens next you will have to read the book.

     The illustrations by Laura Huliska-Beith are very colorful and expressive. She does a great job showing the emotions of the students. She uses bold lines and curves throughout the illustrations. I love her cartoons for the characters. The characters are very animated and have unique features. It looks like she uses paint for her illustrations.

Content Area and Grade: English - 2nd Grade

I would read this book during character building standards and learning about bullying and kindness. I would have the students describe characteristics of both Mean Jean and Katie Sue from the story and wether they would see that as good character towards others or not. 

For an ELL student, I would make sure they understood the slang words in the book and have a background in characteristics people have. I would have this book available for them in their native language or allow them to keep listening to the story at the speed they need while doing the writing assignment.