picture book (read aloud for older kids, grades 2 and up)
* great illustrations, you have to see them to get the whole story (not a good choice for dial a story), with funny visual gags throughout.

Haven't tried this yet as a read aloud, but I'll put it on my list of possibilities for older/mixed grade groups.


Themes:
* books can take you anywhere (summer reading 2018)
* Boredom (pair with I'm Bored)
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One of my students stumbled across this book in the library and brought it into our classroom demanding that it be read! They loved it. It's about an ostentatiously boring family who are committed to staying that way. It's a charming story, with illustrations that really tickle. ( )

This is a very dull book. Just kidding! The parents try hard to keep life as dull as possible, but the children have something else in mind. Despite the parents best efforts at avoiding excitement, ("There's never a dull moment," said dad, pointing to an upsetting commotion in the driveway-- a snail!) the children in the book have their own opinions, expressed soley through the illustrations. While the text is telling the parents' activities, the illustrations are showing the children's activities, which often don't agree with the parents'! ( )

"Meet the Dullards" is about a a boring family that includes Mr. Dullard, Mrs. Dullard, Blanda, Borely, and Little Dud. In the beginning, Mr. and Mrs. Dullard are horrifically surprised to see their children reading exciting books about the circus. They take the books away from them and instead give them blank paper to "read." After this happens, they think their very boring neighborhood isn't boring enough for them and they decide to move to a different house. They try to make their new home dull enough by making the children do boring tasks like watching paint dry and eating unflavored ice cream. The children soon find out how they can make their boring lifestyle exciting: by putting on their own circus in the backyard. After the parents witness this and disapprove, they pick up the whole family and move back to their first home to make them dull again. On their way back, the children see a sign promoting a circus coming to town that night. While Mr. and Mrs. Dullard are asleep at home, the children sneak out of their house to go have fun at the circus. No matter how hard their parents worked to make their children boring, it would never stick because they had their minds set on having fun and expressing themselves. Overall, this story is anything but dull. Even though the author portrays "boring" scenarios in the story, her words and the illustrator's artwork provide vivid imagery and bring the story to life. A lesson it centers around is to always be yourself wholeheartedly, no matter who disapproves or sees. I think young children in kindergarten through 3rd grade would enjoy this book and learn from it. ( )

This book was described in the title, DULLards. The book was about a family, the Dullards, who wanted NO excitement in their lives. Well their kids wanted something different, something more exciting. So overtime they moved to different places that were suppose to be more dull than the first. The kids wanted to play or read, but they had to stare at the freshly painted custom dull painted wall. They snuck out the window to play. Finally they move back to the originally house, which is in the town where the circus is coming. To me I didn't see any significance in this book other than a good laugh. ( )