Skippyjon Jones (2003)

     Judy Schachner's Skippyjon Jones  is packed with literacy lessons. For example, this book plays with print. Our eyes are drawn to an enlarged font that rhymes as it dances on the page: "not a mouse or a grouse . . .not a moose or a goose . . .not a rat or a bat . . ." When Skippyjon bounce-bounce-bounces higher on his big-boy bed, the word for this action also grows in a new eye-catching font. A sneeze, "aaaaAAAAAAAHHCHOOOO_PICHU!" flows across two pages. "Yip, Yippee, Yippito! It's the end of Alfredo Buzzito!" and other rhyming verses turn up in italics. The way this story plays with space is dazzling. This book helps children pay attention to print on the page.

    I was so mesmerized by this book that my Picture Book Talk had four lessons and 55 pages! Educate Engage Enrich has a "Skippyjon Jones Writing Lesson Plan" for grades 2-5; Mrs Mac and The Apples has a Skippyjon Jones Cutout Friend for the younger crowd. Teaching Talking is one of many resources that offer Fonts for Personal Use. 

the Salamander Room (1994)

      Anne Mazer's the Salamander Room is lovely practice in future possibility. On the first page, young Brian brings home a salamander he found in the forest. The rest of the story is a conversation between Brian and his mother about how Brian will care for his new pet, there are many examples of the future tense will + verb. "I will carpet my room with shiny wet leaves and water them so he can slide around and play. I will bring tree stumps into my room so he can climb up the bark and sun himself on top. And I will bring boulders that he can creep over."

    Children are expected to feel comfortable using past, present, and future verb tenses by third grade. (Durden, p. 234) TeachFirst has a basic sorting game: Present and Future Verb Tense which would be simple to expand by adding more cards. Fancy Pants Teacher has an activity specifically for this book: Visualizing with the Salamander Room. My Picture Book Talk and Study English Lessons also complement this story. 

*Unspoken (2012)

      Henry Cole's wordless picture book, Unspoken, illustrates the story of a farm girl who finds a runaway slave hiding in a barn. Afraid, thoughtful, and then compassionate, she silently helps in the way she can. When I first "read" this book, I was frightened. The fear on the face of the protagonist is palpable. However, after reading Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, I reread this book with a feeling of sheer terror. Readers and nonreaders of any age can walk through a wordless picture book. Each person will experience it differently, and this can spark conversation. A wordless picture book can bridge generations and communities.  Teach 'N Tex has a graphic organizer specifically for this book. 

   Tania McCartney shares many more wordless books at  "Wordless Picture Books and the Power of Visual Literacy."  And, there's also a two-page guide packed with suggestions at Imagistory's Guide to Using Wordless Picture Books.

    

The Ballad of Booster Bogg (2011)

     In second grade, students learn about "how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song." (Durden, p. 174) A ballad has a rhyme and tells a story--it's both poetry and narrative. ClassroomPoems.com has an example here. Good Human Project has a lesson here.

    In The Ballad of Booster Bogg, 

 "Booster Bogg 

 Is a rambling dog

Who wanders wild and free,

Through alleys and valleys

Over hill and dale

And down to the boundless sea."

Booster is a "mighty fine" dog, but four well-meaning adults fail to domesticate him. Young listeners will enjoy the poetry and large, colorful illustrations. A sprinkling of more difficult vocabulary and idiomatic expressions challenge the average reader. High potential learners can research wild dogs, many roam the world.  (Written in 2016, it's kinda fun to see how my lessons have changed since then.)

Written by Ellen Jackson, illustrated by Christine Mannone 

    

The Weatherbirds (1999)

     The Weatherbirds are stuck floating on the ocean when a giant white albatross explains, " 'You're in the doldrums, dude! . . . Yar, dudes,' said the albatross, ' down here in the doldrums, the wind doesn't blow, but there's some awesome surfing a few thousand metres up.'" Ted Dewan sprinkles his prose with alliteration--in this case dudes, down, and doldrums--lightening up a book packed with background knowledge about how weather works. The Weatherbirds travel through Europe and Africa on their way to Costa Rica in a hot air balloon. Their journey is a colorful science lesson that includes air pressure, wind, acid rain, cloud formations, snow, a tornado, and much more.

Alliteration is the use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable, which is often the first syllable in English.  It is a way to play with letter sounds in the first grade. (Durden, p. 135)   Alliteration A-Z  illustrates alliteration with a page full of tongue twisters. 

Ben Has Something to Say (2000)

     In Ben Has Something to Say: A Story About Stuttering by Laurie Lears, readers meet Ben. Ben "did not like to talk because he stuttered." When we see him at the water fountain in school, we need to infer from his expression how he feels--and what he thinks and feels when he doesn't share in class conversations, and when he buries is nose in a book, so he won't have to speak with other children. Furthermore, we should wonder aloud about what other activities Ben may avoid. Ben teaches us about inference as we watch him understand the plight of a neglected dog. Why does Ben remove ice from the dog's water dish and replace it with fresh water? The dogs' fur is dull and matted--what does this imply? Learning about inference is one reason we talk about picture books. My Picture Book Talk for this story is here.

    More information about stuttering can be found at The Stuttering Foundation. 

What Are Friends For? (2020)

 Kindergarteners learn to "identify characters, settings, and major events in a story" (Durden, p. 104), which makes What Are Friends For? by Sally Grindley and Penny Dawn an excellent choice. Jefferson Bear looks very different than his friend Figgy Twosocks (a fox). So it's easy to identify the two characters. The setting is described and illustrated. "We share the sky and the hills and the trees," says Figgy Twosocks.  The places in the forest where these friends play help children talk about detail. The games they play will be familiar and easy for young readers to comprehend and recall. Their disagreement--the conflict in this story--is also a common occurrence for children. This story shows young readers how to dialogue about innocent mistakes, hurt feelings, and apologies. "A friend is forever," says Jefferson Bear reassuringly. You may like Miss G ELD's graphic organizer "Character, Setting Events."  My Picture Book Talk lesson for this story is here .

Coming On Home Soon (2004)

     I needed to teach a middle school student how to expand his noun-verb-predicate written sentences and found myself falling in love with grammar. Children in grade one are expected to be familiar with a variety of sentence types. (Durden, 160)  How did they get this far so quickly?

     To teach grammar, I began with Help Your Kids with Language Arts by Doring Kindersley Limited as the reference. Then, I purchased skill practice books and practiced rusty skills along with my student. He  struggled; consequently, I happened upon the power of diagramming sentences. I borrowed Sister Bernadette's Dog Barking by Kitty Burns Florey from the library and purchased Sentence Diagramming Level 1 . My student enjoyed this systematic visual mapping of grammar and so did I. And my own writing improved! 

    Like anything else, one must learn the craft before breaking free of standards to become an artist. And so, I appreciated "Creating Classrooms that Build Strong Sentence Muscles for Primary Writers" (Retrieved 4/23/21), a presentation within The Educator Collaborative, LLC. We need to study grammar--then we can break the rules and reveal voice. A lovely example of this is Jacqueline Woodson's book Coming On Home Soon. Her prose is composed of a blend of complete sentences and sentence fragments. It is eloquent. My Picture Book Talk lesson for this book is here and Study English lesson here.

Frankie's Bau-Wau Haus (1995)

 Books like Frankie's Bau-Wau Haus by Melanie Brown and Anthony Lawlor, illustrated by Elaine Arnold, welcome children into sophisticated nonfiction content in hilarious ways. This book is from 1995, a fun story with lots of language and little melodrama. The inside covers and centerfold show archictural drawings of a doghouse. The story is the sequence of steps necessary to build a house, carried out by a dog and mouse team. More specifically, this book introduces Bauhaus , and an arial view of the neighborhood shows how different this design is from the neighbors' homes. My search for "the world famous architect, Margaret Mallory Main" who designed the doghouse yielded a "Margaret Mallory endowment" at the University of  California at Santa Barbara. The names of the mouse children in this story are Miles, Van, Der, and Roche--names that reference a famous German-American architect. The technology in the story is now dated, but this doesn't detract from the the fun. 

 I always look for books like this one that blend particular world knowledge with a lovely tale. 

*Time of Wonder (1989)

     In March, I was enthralled by Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey. At 63 pages, this picture book had room for a rich description of a childhood summer vacation on Penobscot Bay, Maine. As usual, it took many readings for me to perceive the main theme--the title! This text references ancient, recent, present, and future time. However, I was so drawn into the poetry of each page that I couldn't see the forest for the trees (as they say). The first sentence of the story exquisitely foretells what to expect: "Out on the islands that poke their rocky shores above the waters of Penobscot Bay, you can watch the time of the world go by, from minute to minute, hour to hour, from day to day, season to season." And the word "wonder" serves as both noun and verb in this story. 

    (I saw an exhibition of Robert McCloskey's work at a local museum. It included illustrations from his book Make Way for Ducklings. McCloskey adopted several ducks to live in his apartment so that he could draw them accurately!)

    This book is for anyone at any age who values picture books, which is why I labeled my Picture Book Talk  as appropriate for any age group. Its length provided enough material for a Study English lesson also. Lucky are those who can enjoy the ocean!

A Sick Day for Amos McGee (2010)

      In A Sick Day for Amos McGee, by Philip C. Stead and Erin E. Stead, we discover the quiet joy between those who share a gentle temperament. Amos' animal  companions take a city bus to visit him at home to learn why he did not show up for work at the zoo.  They miss him.  When Amos exclaims, "Hooray! My good friends are here!", this uncharacteristic outburst shows us how precious friendship is.  We feel the camaraderie depicted in Erin Stead's illustrations. The elephant, rhinoceros, tortoise, penguin, and owl have learned empathy from Amos. They know that the finest cure for the flu includes the comfort of friends. 

     The sentences in this story feature examples of alliteration and assonance. In my opinion, the listener has a good chance of hearing Philip Stead's melodic word choices at Read to My Children

    My Picture Book Talk for this story is here. 

Welcome

 Hello and welcome! 

When someone asked how I created lessons for my Books Too store, I responded by referencing one source of my ideas, a handy paperback called Scaffolding with Storybooks , but the larger truth is that I draw upon my career as a speech language pathologist. Now I'm listening to Austin Kleon's Steal Like and Artist trilogy and learning that I need to share my process. How do I create my Picture Book Talk and Study English lessons? I'll start thinking aloud in this blog. 

My previous blog was meant for fellow speech langauge patholgists struggling to apply research to practice. It took hours of reading and writing time to produce each post. These posts will be conversational and brief.

 Austin Kleon says it's not necessary to allow comments. I didn't for my previous blog and I won't for this one either. Trolls drag everyone down. So, if you'd like to have a civil conversation, send me an email.