"I Want to Be Somebody New!"

By: Robert Lopshire

Reviewed by:Amanda Nichols

"I want to Be Somebody New!" by Robert Lopshire is a fun book that could be used for any grade level in an elementary school. The story starts out with Spot, a zoo animal, who begins to dislike himself and wants to become somebody new. Therefore, he turns himself into an elephant but it does not take long for him to realize that he is to big and can not have fun. So he turns himself into a giraffe. However, he realizes now that he is to tall and it is hard for his friends to see his face so again he wants to change himself. This time he becomes a mouse. He realizes that as a mouse you are not to big or to tall but you are to small. Before he can change himself into anything new his friends tell him they liked him best as their old friend Spot. So on the count of three he turns himself into........back into Spot!

In the early grades this book could be used to talk about rhyming and rhyming words. As you read each page you could have the children tell you the rhyming words. Another idea is to read the whole page but the last rhyming word and then have the children fill in the last word. The book could also be taken to a deeper level, for older children, to talk about the meaning of being yourself. You could discuss how it is important to be yourself and not what others want you to be or to be someone that you are not because as Spot saw it is not always fun as somebody else. The book could be used to fill time when you are having trouble with students copying others or when other students pick on eachother because, again, you can talk about being yourself and not doing things that you know are not right. Overall, this book is just a fun rhyming book with colorful pictures that all students can enjoy.