It Looked Like Spilt Milk

It Looked Like Spilt Milk. written and illustrated by Charles G. Shaw. 40p. 1947. New York: HarperCollins. (0060255668).

Author/Illustrator Website: none

Medium: torn paper collage

Awards and Honors: none

Audience: 3 years and up

Annotation:
A changing series of shapes are revealed to be a cloud in the sky.

Personal Reaction:
Sometimes "it" looked like spilt milk. Sometimes "it" looked like a rabbit, or a mitten, or flower, or a Great Horned Owl. But "it" was none of these things... "It" goes along changing form from page to page, spurring children to guess at each shape and keeping children engaged in guessing what the object in question actually is, until the very last page when the reader learns that "it" was just a cloud in the sky. 

It Looked Like Spilt Milk is the sole children's book authored by Charles G. Shaw, and despite the fact that it was published over 60 years ago, it remains a perennial favorite of librarians and teachers for its simple design and timeless subject matter. The repetitive text and easily emulated illustrations make this story an excellent flannel board. Children can create a simple craft to reinforce the story by putting a blob of white tempera paint onto a sheet of blue construction paper and folding it in half to create a unique "cloud" image. Caregivers can then prompt each child to describe their image.