Bad Day at Riverbend Reader Response

A. Bad Day at Riverbend
B. Chris Van Allsburg
C. Chris Van Allsburg
D. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995
E. picture book, fiction
F. 2-3
G. Bad Day at Riverbend is the story of a small sleepy town. One day, a stagecoach shows up in the town and the horses are covered in some red sticky slimy stuff and the driver is missing. The sheriff of the town, Ned Hardy, tried to pull it off but it was stuck on like it was their skin. He rode out in the direction the horses had come and found the driver, also covered in different colored slimy stuff. Ned decided he would ride out in the direction of a mysterious light that flashed in the sky to figure out what was causing all the commotion. When he got out there, the light appeared again and he was frozed and covered in the slimy stuff. On the penultimate page, the reader finds out that the sticky stuff was crayon because the characters were in a coloring book.
H. This is probably my new favorite book because of the imaginative story line. Never before had I heard of a story about the characters in a coloring book. It kinda reminds me of Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book when the little boy draws mustaches on all the characters. The illustrations are also fantastic. It took me a while to figure out what was happening, I just thought a little kid had gotten a hold of the book and had decided to color in it. The ingenuity of this book is just incredible. Who would have thought to write a story about the characters in a coloring book?
I. This is just a great read-aloud for any classroom. However, I think this book would lend itself well to a discussion about perspective. Everyone colors in coloring books but what if the characters were real? How would they feel about being colored?