Ella Sarah Gets Dressed

Chodos-Irvine, M. (2003). Ella Sarah Gets Dressed. New York: Scholastic

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Age Level: 2-5

Summary: In the story, Ella Sarah Gets Dressed, a little girl wants to wear a certain outfit for the day. There is person-to-person conflict when her parents and older sister try to get Ella to wear different outfits. She continues to repeat her outfit of choice over and over when they try to tell her what to wear. Finally, Ella dresses herself in the outfit of her choice and thinks her outfit is perfect. When her friends come over to play they also think her outfit is perfect. You can tell from the illustrations, her friends also dressed themselves for the day.  

Reflection: I thought this book was so cute and brought up memories of my niece. One day we decided to visit my mom at the hospital in which she worked and she needed to get dressed. I laid her clothes out but when she came out of the bedroom she did not have on what I laid out. She picked out her own outfit. I tried and tried to get her to change but she wouldn’t. Then she saw my jewelry and wanted to wear every beaded necklace I had and every bracelet I had. I told her to only wear one and she refused. She wore every beaded necklace and bracelet I had. She thought is looked beautiful and so I let her wear it.

            That day taught me that it is ok to be different. Who cares what I thought of my niece’s outfit when she had the confidence to wear whatever she wanted and felt she was beautiful. I think it is a good idea to let children pick out their clothes. I feel it helps them make choices and develop their opinions without relying on someone else to make them.

The story is realistic fiction because it could happen in real life even though the author made the story up. This book is very short and is an easy reader for those children who are in a beginning reading stage. I would read this story to children within a kindergarten class to help with making predictions because it repeats the same phrase throughout the book making it is very predictable. I would also use these for older students within a 2^nd or 3^rd grade class when working on personal narratives. Some of the questions I would use to help students write their narratives are: When you were younger did you have a favorite outfit you loved to wear? What did it look like? How did the outfit make you feel? Do you still have a favorite outfit now?