Have Fun, Molly Lou Melon by David Catrow

• Title: Have Fun, Molly Lou Melon
• Author: Patty Lovell
• Publishing: G. P Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers. October 25, 2012. 
• Synopsis: This book is a part of a series following a little girl named Molly Lou Melon who is having fun learning about life and who she is. In this story, Molly Lou Melon’s grandma teaches her that she should love and believe in herself no matter what comes in life. This theme comes to light in another Molly Lou Melon book called Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon, which I grew up reading because my parents bought it for my younger sister Molly. The grandma tells Molly about how when she was a little girl she didn’t have and couldn’t afford fancy toys bought from the store and instead created her own toys using things she could find like sticks. She continues on by saying how she was able to create her own fun, which is the best kind of fun to have. After hearing this, Molly Lou Melon does as her grandmother did before her and creates her own fun, learning that using her imagination is the best way to have fun.
• The illustrations, by David Catrow are very vivid, colorful and whacky really adding a sense of fun to the book. In addition, the illustrations really show the creativity and imagination that Molly Lou uses to create her new toys. 
• I grew up know of the Molly Lou Melon book series ever since my parents brought home the book Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon for my little sister Molly. I really love how this book series uses a spunky interesting character like Molly Lou Melon who is easy to realtor to for little girls growing up and uses her power to teach important lessons about life and growing up. In this book in particular, Molly Lou Melon is used to teach children the importance of using their imagination and creating their own fun, which I feel are very important skills for children to learn. This book teaches this lesson in a fun a creative way which makes this book an excellent choice for young readers. 
• While reading this book I thought of a fun activity I would do with my own classroom after reading this book. After reading, we would have a short discussion on what it means to use our imagination and how children can make their own fun. I would then take the students outside where we would have a competition. I would let the children loose to find different object such as grass, rocks, and twigs (already fallen from the tree) to create their own game activity or toy. I would give the students atlas an hour, and when the time was up, they would each present their creative masterpiece and the class would vote on which student used their imagination the best. This way I would be giving my students an actual opportunity to use their imaginations and do as Molly Lou Melon did in the book. 
• In addition to the imagination activity, I also found an awesome YouTube clip in which the illustrator David Catrow, discusses the main character Molly Lou Melon and how he relates to her in this story, while drawing the character as he did for the book. I feel this would be an interesting thing for my students to see, and we might even try to step by step draw our own Molly Lou Melons. The link to the YouTube video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUC4XJbDgyM