She recognizes that she has worth and should be respected. Amber Brown is a person.” This statement stands out more than any other. Amber announces, “Amber Brown is not a crayon. Then when a boy is unwilling to share a brown crayon he tells another boy to use the top of Amber Brown’s head as a crayon. Hannah, a classmate, criticizes the way Amber looks in her passport picture in an unkind way. There are a few problems with other students that Amber has to deal with at school also. ”They just seem to know what the other one is thinking.” When they eat Oreos, Amber eats the cream center and Justin eats the cookie. Justin helps Amber with fractions (not her favorite thing), and she helps him with words from the stories they read in class. Whoever learns something first helps the other one learn it. In school, they work on projects and help each other with school work. Amber considers them a good team at school and at home. Her best friend and classmate since preschool is Justin Daniels. The students in her class are as varied as any third grade. During the trip to China, Amber eats a fortune cookie containing the message, “Experience is the Best Teacher.” She begins to feel ill as she gets a sense of foreshadowing of what is ahead. Then the children produce follow-up activities and sample foods from each place. The class uses their “passports” and travels by “plane” to visit these destinations.

Cohen, immerses the class in activities that help students with different learning styles experience places such as: Hawaii and China. Her third grade class has a dynamic learning environment.

We can see that at the beginning of her story she is struggling with the emotions of losing her best friend when she says, “When I grow up and remember third grade, I’m going to immediately try to forget it.” This is her journey. Amber is facing a very difficult year however. When she begins a sentence with “I, Amber Brown….” it signals that she is about to make an important announcement about herself and her present state of mind. She expresses her feelings so well throughout the story that the reader is allowed into the special places in her heart.

Her teacher says she has “an active imagination,” and she doesn’t argue that point. She knows she is messy, has a good memory, and can sometimes be sarcastic, according to her mom.

“I want my friend to miss me as long as I miss him.” Saint AugustineĪmber Brown Is Not a Crayon by Paula Danziger is a realistic story about Amber, a spunky third grader, who is almost always very confident.

Amber brown is not a crayon