The Big Orange Splot

The Big Orange Splot is a children's picture book by Daniel Manus Pinkwater. It was published in 1977 by Scholastic Inc., New York. The age range is ages 4–8, and all 32 pages have a full color picture, which helps the child visualize when reading.

The Big Orange Splot
AuthorDaniel Manus Pinkwater
IllustratorDaniel Manus Pinkwater
PublisherScholastic, Inc.
Publication date
1977
Pages32
ISBN0-590-44510-3

The vocabulary and themes in the book suggest it is targeted at adults as well.

Plot

The main character, Mr. Plumbean, lives on a "neat street" where all the houses look the same. A seagull flies over his house and drops a can of bright orange paint on his roof, but instead of repainting his house to look like all the others on the street, Mr. Plumbean paints it to resemble his dreams. His neighbors send people to talk him into repainting his house to look like theirs, but everyone he talks to ends up painting their houses like their dreams also. In the end, all the neighbors say:

"Our street is us and we are it. Our street is where we like to be, and it looks like all our dreams."

The drawings were made with markers, and if one looks closely one can see the marker lines. In an interview in 1978 Daniel Manus Pinkwater revealed the hallucinogenic undertones clearly referenced throughout the story. Due to this interview the book was pulled from most libraries in Missouri in the early 1980s.

Use in education

The book is being used in elementary school education in the US and Canada.[1][2][3]

See also

References
  1. "e-readers Lesson Plan: The Big Orange Splot". e-readers Project (Seminole County). Retrieved 2007-10-19.
  2. "Lesson: Dream Houses". TeachNet-lab.org. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
  3. "It's a Beautiful Day In This Neighborhood... Won't You Be My Neighbor?". Chariho Regional School District, Rhode Island. Archived from the original on September 23, 2006. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
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