Bad Case Of Stripes

Literary fiction · Allegory · Comedy

First published: 1998
Print length: 32 pagesScholastic Audio Books, 2007

Description

Camilla Cream loves lima beans, but she refuses to eat them because her classmates dislike them and she wants desperately to fit in. Her anxiety over fashion and popularity takes visible form when bright stripes suddenly cover her body. At school, teasing makes her skin adopt whatever colors and patterns other children call out, turning embarrassment into a spectacle she cannot control. Doctors and experts arrive with absurd diagnoses and treatments, each producing a more fantastic transformation instead of a cure. The escalating visual comedy gives Camilla’s fear of judgment a literal shape, showing how completely other people’s opinions can overwhelm a person’s sense of self. Her predicament centers a playful story about bullying, conformity, and the courage required to admit an unfashionable truth.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Conversational · Direct · Witty

Pace

Brisk

Tone

Hopeful · Humorous · Playful · Warm

Structure

Linear

Focus

Character · Plot

Emotional intensity

2 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 1 / 5
Ideas: 2 / 5
Structure: 1 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

BelongingIdentityOppressionTransformation

About David Shannon

David Shannon writes and illustrates picture books, creating his own stories and providing art for other writers, including Melinda Long’s How I Became a Pirate. His work turns childhood impulses into brisk, visually emphatic comedy. The David books use spare language, repeated prohibitions, and exaggerated episodes of misbehavior to stay close to a child testing limits and learning responsibility. A Bad Case of Stripes makes the pressure to conform into a literal visual predicament, while Duck on a Bike builds from one absurd experiment into communal exuberance. Shannon’s characteristic method is to enlarge a simple, recognizable feeling or transgression into an image-driven spectacle, with direct prose and comic escalation keeping the child’s point of view central.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Scholastic Audio Books
Language: English
ISBN: 9780439924948

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