Me...Jane

I fell in love with this historical fiction picture book! The story is about a little girl named Jane and her stuff chimpanzee named Jubilee. On the title page, we see an actual photo of a blonde headed girl and her stuff monkey that it nearly the same size as her. The book followed Jane’s life as a child: playing outside, learning about animals, climbing trees, studying plants, etc. Throughout the book, there are illustration and examples Jane’s notebook where she would write down all the information that she would find out about animals. Jane loved to read. She would climb to her favorite tree, which she named Beech, and sit there with Jubilee and read about Tarzan and another girl named Jane who lived in the jungles of Africa. Jane wanted to live in Africa one day too. She dreamed of this life were she could help the animals there. Every night, Jane would go to bed after tucking Jubilee into bed and pray that she would end up in Africa. Finally one day she did. On the last and final page of the story, there is a picture of Jane all grown up with a real baby chimpanzee.

This book really was a cute story and there are so many ways that I can incorporate it into my own classroom. In the back of the book, there is an explanation from the article about the real Jane Goodall. She even wrote a letter to the audience explaining that children can make a difference in the world- no matter how small they may be. They just have to have a dream, like she did. She also encourages children to make a difference in their environments- even if that means picking up a piece of trash. Teachers could use this book to promote recycling and keeping our Earth healthy and clean. It really is an inspirational book for students and I feel would get their imaginative juices flowing. The students can connect to Jane and her dream, maybe helping them to create their own. I like how the story allowed spots for students to be able to predict what was going to happen next. The actual picture of Jane and her stuffed monkey gave the students an opportunity to predict who that was a picture of. It provoked a lot of open-ended questions that really would make the students think. The book was also very cleverly written. It flowed beautifully. I also really enjoyed how there were items in the book that came from Jane herself. The illustrations on the left side of the pages throughout the book, were her actual drawings. The notebook page with all the animal information was also taken from Jane’s notes from when she was younger. This story could inspire the students to do more research about Jane Goodall, animals, and Africa. But most importantly this story is a great way to get students to think about what they want to do when they grow up and how they can accomplish their own dreams one day. 

Me...Jane

Author: Patrick McDonnell

Year Published: 2011