The Big Orange Splot

I have been a teacher and librarian and have read this book to probably several thousand children. It is the very best book to read aloud. It gets gasps, smiles and laughs from every group. Best of all, I never get tired of reading it. I gave it to an art teacher who used it for a project. Ask students to draw a picture of their Plumbean house and to write an explanation of it.

We first read this book to our son when he was a toddler, now that he's ten, we still use it as a way to encourage his (and our) appreciation of others' choices. Pinkwater is one of the great storytellers and educator its around, and this book deserves as wide an audience as possible. It's that good. As usual, Pinkwater doesn't spend much time on developing a plausible plot: Things just happen, and, because of his dry matter-of-fact tone, you accept it. One day a seagull with a can of bright orange paint "dropped the can (no one knows why) right over Mr. Plumbean's house." The resulting big orange splot upsets the neighbors, who all live in identical brown housed with gray roofs and green shutters. When they ask him to paint his house (to get rid of the orange splot), Plumbean follows the letter--but not the spirit=-of their request. He paints the house red, yellow, green, and purple. He adds more splots, strikes, and "elephants and lions and pretty girls and steam shovels." The neighbors are aghast. In a recurring motif, the neighbors exclaim that something must be wrong with their neighbor: "Plumbean has gushed his mush, lost his marbles, and slipped his hawser." Mr. Plumbean resists their pressure, explaining in one of many memorable lines from the book: "My house is me and I am it. My house...looks like all my dreams." One by one, over tall glasses of lemonade, Mr. Plumbean casually talks to the other neighbors, one by one, about their own dreams. The following day, each neighbor expresses those dreams through his or her house. The book isn't so much about nonconformity as about self-expression, or what Maslow called "self-actualization." That everyone eventually paints their house in wild colors is not so much a new form of conformity, but rather the flowering and unafraid celebration of their individuality, and an acceptance of this in others. Very highly recommended; it may be a book you'll treasure for years to come.

The Big Orange Splot is, according to me, the best children's book I have ever read. It shows children (as well as adults) that being yourself is the right thing to be. Creativity is sometimes stifled in this world, and this book shows that it is a wonderful thing to be creative. This book helps the reader to grow as an individual, and to heighten their level of self-esteem.

Our copy of The Big Orange Splot is dog-eared from reading. Mr. Plumbean, whose house is splotted upon by a paint-wielding seagull, expands himself by creating the home of his imagination. He causes a revolution on his neat street, not combatively, but persuasively, by living his dreams and inspiring his neighbors to do the same. This book takes the band from around the conformist's heart and allows it to expand to fill one's personal space. Please read this to your children often.

Let your dreams become your reality! Make waves! Be who you are, not who everyone thinks you are! Share your dreams and bring joy and a sense of freedom to all who come in contact with you! These are the messages of "The Big Orange Splot", Daniel Pinkwater's utterly, delightlful tale. Mr. Plumbean turns the disaster of the "big orange splot" of paint dropped on his roof by a sea gull into an opportunity to break away from the constraints of conformity. You will smile as you read how his daring actions liberate his whole "neat street". Recommended for children and adults who all need reminding that there is still a child in all of us. I LOVE this BOOK!!!!!!