Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig.
    Sylevester and the Magic Pebble is about a donkey who finds a magic pebble. Right after he finds the pebble he runs into a hungry lion. Sylvester is very frightened and without thinking he wishes he was a rock. Since he has the magic rock in his hand Sylvester turns into a rock. His parents search all day and night for many weeks to find him but they never do. Will Sylvester ever be a donkey again? You will have to read to find out. 
    This book was filled with all kinds of emotions. It was silly at the beginning, very sad in the middle, and happy at the end. This book also kept me interested because I wanted to know whether or not he turned back into a donkey. I thought the wording in this book was very advanced and may not be a good book for young children to read on their own. Over all it was a very cute book and the ending has a good moral, which was, eventhough we might want many things in life the best thing we could ever have is family.
    This book would be good for advanced third graders. It would also be good for second and third grade's vocabulary development. I wouldn't recommend this book for any grade lower than second because the words are a little difficult and it is longer than other books and the students may get bored because they don't understand what is going on. Children of either gender will enjoy reading this book and can relate to a few of the things that are talked about in the book. The moral of the story may not be very obvious for young children so the teacher may need/want to talk about the moral with their students. This book could be used to read and then discuss new words then create a word wall with the new vocabulary words. This is a very enticing book that will keep the readers attention throughout the whole book.