A Bad Case of Stripes facts for kids
Cover of book
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| Author | David Shannon |
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| Illustrator | David Shannon |
| Country | United States of America |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Published | 1998 |
| Publisher | Blue Sky Press (an imprint of Scholastic Press) |
| Pages | 33 (unpaginated) |
A Bad Case of Stripes is a children's book written and illustrated by David Shannon published in 1998 by Blue Sky Press, a division of Scholastic Press. A Bad Case of Stripes highlights the theme of being true to oneself and is commonly used by educators to teach young students important values. Amongst some negative response, this children’s book is also praised for its creativity, illustrations, and meaningful lessons.
Plot summary
The main character is a girl named Camilla Cream who secretly loves lima beans. However, she doesn't want to eat them because her friends dislike them and Camilla wants to fit in.
On the first day of school, she wakes up to discover thick, solid-colored stripes all over her body. The family's physician, Dr. Bumble, determines that Camilla is well enough to attend school tomorrow. But when she does the next day, most of the other children tease her and some of the other children call out colors and patterns which cause the colors on her skin to shift around. The principal sends her home as she is proving to be a distraction, and calls her parents to keep Camilla home from school till her symptoms wear off.
At home, Camilla goes through a number of increasingly preposterous metamorphoses. She turns into a pill after being given one and grows roots, berries, crystals, feathers, and a long furry tail after receiving different medicine. She even has viruses, bacteria, and fungus colonies grow on her body after the community's expert scientists discuss these as a possible cause to her situation while examining her. Finally, she melts and merges into her room after an environmental therapist tells her to “become one with the room”.
Finally, an old lady tells her to eat some lima beans. Camilla is afraid to admit her willingness to eat them at first, but after realizing that this could be her only hope of being cured, she allows the old woman to feed her them. Camilla is successfully reverted to a human and continues to eat lima beans; although her friends consider her strange for liking them (and for her bow being covered in stripes), she doesn't even care a bit. She enjoys being different and never has stripes again.
