Stranger in the Mirror

Title: Stranger in the Mirror
Author: Allen Say
Publisher/date: Walter Lorraine, 1995
Reading level: 8-11
Number of Pages: 32

Summary: A little boy that loves to skateboard wakes up one morning looking old like Grandfather.  No one recognizes him and he has to convince everyone of who he is.  He goes to the doctor and is told that he has a skin condition and to just wait for it to go away.  One day he finds a skateboard and does all these tricks even though he look elderly.  He decides to not care what anyone thinks about him.  After he is fine with the person that he was,  he realizes that he is a boy again and everything is all better.

Reaction: I found this book to be a little odd.  This just did not seem to be a book that children would like to read.  I had no idea that this book was going to turn out the way that it did.

Potential Problems: This book might make children afraid of getting old.  The book turned getting old into something horrible and I think that they could have put a different twist on it so it didn't become a fear of children.

Recommendations: I do not recommend this book.  I didn't feel like it really got any sort of point across and I found myself thinking, "what is the point of this book and why would anyone want to read it?" I think that this could have been a different story and have a different moral, such as pointing out the positive things of growing old.