Tag: picture book

Two Books Perfect for Our Youngest Readers

I remember a few years ago when I read Everybody in the Red Brick Building by Anne Wynter and Oge Mora. I read it and thought “What a perfect book for young readers!” It has so much of what I look for when I am looking for books to share with PreK-2nd graders. I have read this book over and over to so many groups of children and I was right. This book is perfect in that it is engaging AND it has so many invitations for young readers to build so many literacy skills-the illustrations, the change of fonts, the repeated phrases and so much more!

Well, I felt the same way last month when I picked up Oh Dear, Look What I Got! by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury (the team that brought us We’re Going on a Bear Hunt so many years ago!). I’ve had the chance to share this book with a few groups of young readers and I was right—it is PERFECT for so many reasons. When I picked it up, I could not imagine it could possibly compare to We’re Going on a Bear Hunt but I loved it just as much and I think it offers just as much for young readers who are beginning to understand story and print and rhyme.

First of all, the book invites the kind of engagement that young readers need. They are predicting, joining in to the repeated phrase, using rhyme, noticing changes in font and supporting their thinking with evidence in the text and illustrations. It is a book you can’t help but fall in love with —a book you want to read over and over. 

I love the many access points that both of these books provide for young readers. The plot is one that is easy to follow and retell and the ending is definitely worth talking about! Some readers pick up the rhyming words quickly. For those not picking up on rhyme, they may use the illustrations to make predictions instead. Some might recognize the eclipsis at the page break and this invites a discussion about punctuation and the meaning of this. This is a book that young readers can get more of each time they read the book. 

Time is precious and I know teachers choose books they share during read aloud with great care—always looking for a book children will love AND a book that helps them grow as readers. These two books definitely meet that criteria!

*You can watch the author/illustrator team of Oh Dear, Look What I Got! share some of the book here.

Slice of Life-Books that Stay with Me

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

It is very common for me to finish a book and then forget the details (and sometimes even the main plot) a few weeks after I’ve finished. I enjoy these books but nothing about them is powerful enough to stay with me. Then there are the books whose characters stay with me forever.

Lately, I find myself thinking back to a few picture books as I watch the news. Books that were so powerful, they have stuck with me for years. Sadly, I did not learn much history in school and did not love it as a young adult. But then as I collected books for my classroom library as an elementary teacher and school librarian, I learned so much from the picture books I read. It is interesting the ways picture books can build background knowledge, even at my age. I could learn just enough to learn what I didn’t know that I needed to learn and then I can move beyond that and dig deeper. Two picture books have been taking up lots of my thinking lately because they were powerful learning for me and they are very timeline today.

I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story by Martha Brockenbrough and Grace Lin is a story about the Supreme Court case that solidified birthright citizenship. This decision has guaranteed birthright citizenship since 1898.

All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimentel tells the story of Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins and her participation in the Capital Crawl when she was eight years old. This event was a critical step toward the American with Disabilities Act. Keelan-Chaffins has spent her life advocating for disability rights.

The third book that has been popping into my thoughts more often than usual is The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs. It is not a picture book but it is one of the books that helped me understand so much history that I had not learned. I listened to the audio book and it was incredible. (I noticed that Anna Malaika Tubbs has a new book coming out in May–which I will sure preorder!)

So today, in the midst of all that is happening in our country, I am so grateful for these authors who write these important stories that have stuck with me over time. Each one helped me begin to understand history and how so many people have fought over centuries for things that we take for granted now.

Dear Bookstore by Emily Arrow

Some of our favorite family memories are visits to bookstores. It is something we’ve done together since my children were very little and it is something we still enjoy!

I seem to be a collector of books about books and reading. There are so many great books that capture our love of books and many of these help start great conversations with elementary readers as they begin to build their identity as readers.

Dear Bookstore by Emily Arrow and illustrated by Geneviève Godbout is a new favorite in my collection of books about books and reading! I am a long-time Emily Arrow fan so I was thrilled when I saw she had a new picture book out-the fact that it is about books and bookstores makes it even better.

The simple book does an incredible job of capturing the joy of bookstores as we follow a reader from her very first visit! I can only imagine the kinds of memories and conversations this book might ignite in classrooms.

The illustrations are unique and magical. I love the author’s note from Emily Arrow–about her visit ot Parnassus Books (a bookstore I am dying to visit because who doesn’t love Ann Patchett!?) . Both the author and the illustrator dedicated the book to bookstores and booksellers.

And of course, Emily Arrow has a “Dear Bookstore” song🙂 A great companion to the book!

In this time of reading mandates, book censorship and more, this book came at the perfect time. A reminder of the importance of our indie bookstores and the magic inside.