Timothy Tib (2001)

Timothy Tib by Liz Graham-Yooll is a page-by-page description of the many characteristics of the cat we see beneath the title. He’s walking toward us, tail raised in friendly greeting (Cox). On the left side of each two-page spread is story and a pencil sketch; on the right side is an oil painting of Timothy Tib. Each page of text has only two sentences.  The first sentence presents as two lines that rhyme, so students are exposed to both rhyme and lengthy sentence structure. The second sentence is italicized and summarizes the previous rhyme, usually with an adjective. For example, ”And sometimes he will stare for hours at lizards hunting in the flowers. Timothy Tib is a curious cat.” A painting puts the three lines of text in picture form. This book can function as an English lesson in disguise.

 At first glance, this may look like a book for young readers because the print is large and the text sparse. But there’s nothing childish here. This is my favorite kind of book for the older student who struggles with reading. The language is appropriate for any age and the illustrations are fine art.

This book is read aloud online for the young child by gnidraham, The older student may enjoy a documentary about domestic cats by Pets & Vets.

 My Picture Book Talk lesson for this story is here.