So many of my book recommendations have been from the weekly shares on teachmentortexts.com. Thank you to Jen and Kellee for hosting and thank you to all who contribute their reading lists! To see what others are reading, head on over to the website and link into all of the reading recommendations.My main reading this week was Son by Lois Lowry. I loved this book so much that it has its own post that I wrote yesterday. If you haven't already read Son, the fourth book of The Giver quartet, I highly recommend it.
I spent time this week at Barnes and Noble reading through some of their featured picture books and thinking about how they could help children to write. Mo Willem's take on Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs is hilarious but also offers children who struggle to think of ideas an source of stories. Taking a classic and changing a part of it could inspire some of the children with the "I have nothing to write about" refrain.
I have been looking for books that offer mentor opportunities for punctuation and It's a Tiger by David LaRochelle is a great one for this! On many pages, there are questions, exclamations, and ellipses. When I was in a second-grade class a couple of weeks ago, I noticed a little boy using his dot-dot-dots so well as he created a cliff-hanger. When I asked him about this strategy, he shared that he had seen it done in one of his books. This book is a great lead-in to create cliff-hanger writers!
I have to be honest--I picked up Watch Your Tongue, Cecily Beasley by Lane Fredrickson because I have a daughter named Cecily, but I was not disappointed. Told in rhyme, it's a story with a great message--it reminded me of Babushka's Doll by Patricia Polacco. It could lend itself to list-making as a writing step for students since Cecily was really, really awful in the beginning of the book.Enjoy your weeks, everyone. Happy reading!
Funny, I read Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs at Barnes and Noble as well. Think I will purchase it later, would be great to teach some mini-lessons with.
ReplyDeleteIt's a Tiger is a fun and cute book for young children. (My 3 yr old loved it when it was shared during our library's storytime.) I hadn't thought about it's use of ellipses to create anticipation. What a great idea to share with young writers!
ReplyDeleteThe cover for Cecily Beasely looks too cute . . . I think I've seen that face at my house! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm embarassed to say that I haven't yet read The Giver, but I'm really looking forward to it when I get to it for the Newbery Challenge. Great to hear that Son rounds out the series well.
I thought Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs was a wonderful twist. It keeps the story fresh for readers who are already overly familiar with the original. And Watch Your Tongue might be one for our household too. It seems to be a stage we're currently struggling through...
ReplyDeleteI read your post on Son and am intrigued. I have read all of the other books. Love, love , love The Giver so am very excited about this title. Thanks for such a great review.
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