Rathmann, P. (1995). Officer Buckle and Gloria. New York: G.P.        Putnam's Sons.

This picture book is another Caldecott Medal winner for its illustrations. One of the things that jumps out to me about the illustrations is the color. Peggy Rathmann uses cartoon illustrations in this book with little or no background. In fact, on many pages there is a lot of negative space around Officer Buckle and Gloria. This use of negative space creates dominance and makes the relationship between Officer Buckle and Gloria really stick out to the reader. 

The conflict in this picture book is person-against-society. Officer Buckle goes to local schools sharing safety rules to the students, however, they do not listen. In fact, they all fall asleep. He gets very frustrated with this and can never seem to grab their attention and make them take his rules seriously. One day, the new police dog goes along with him, and suddenly the students pay attention. Officer Buckle thinks they have suddenly come to their senses, but it turns out they are paying attention for some other reason. In the end, Officer Buckle learns the most important rule- but you will have to read it to find out what that is!

The plot of this story is a chronological, progressive plot. A brief background is given at the beginning of the book and then the events follow in order as the conflict is introduced, it develops, and of course it is resolved. 

This is a cute and fun book that teaches students the value of a good friendship. It is also a cute way to introduce creating the rules in your classroom. All students have rules to follow and will probably relate to the students listening to Officer Buckle's rules. This is a good way to show students that rules are important and can have a fun side to them. It also shows students that even though the "silly" person in a friendship may get all of the laughs, every situation also needs someone who is going to be responsible or else chaos will break loose. 

After presenting for the first time with Gloria, Officer Buckle may have tweeted the following:

"These kids sure do love my #rules, I knew they'd come around"

Gloria may have tweeted this in response:

"They aren't excited about your #rules #turnaround"

BIG QUESTION: Imagine what school would be like if there were not any rules. Describe some problems that might occur during school day if rules were not in place or followed. 

-Haley