So, here are some quick blips about books read in the last month. These first two picture books are ones I used just this week to demonstrate how to address CCSS anchor standards using a best practice: reading aloud (and using picture books, too).
EACH KINDNESS by Jacqueline Woodson with illustrations by E.B. Lewis. Penguin/Nancy Paulsen Books, 2012.
The author and illustrator collaborated on THE OTHER SIDE and the pairing of text and illustrations works wonderfully well here, too. Chloe elects to ignore the new girl, not to make friends. It is easier to stick with her old friends even when they make fun of the new girl's raggedy clothes. Once the new girl is gone, Chloe comes to realizes the lost chance for a small kindness, a little effort that could have made a big change in someone else's life. Woodson shows kids the way they are: careless sometimes about the feelings of the "other." Lewis' lush paintings serve to perhaps soften the tough lesson learned by Chloe: once the opportunity has passed, it does not return. <540>
GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE DINOSAURS by Mo Willems. balzer and Bray, 2012.
Read the opening sentence of this hysterical re-envisioning of the old fairy tale: Once upon a time there were three dinosaurs: Papa Dinosaur, Mama Dinosaur, and some other dinosaur who happened to be visiting from Norway>." In a single sentence, we have characters, setting, and some sense that there will be humor involved. And there is. From the endpapers (with rejected ideas, titles for this variation on Goldilock's story) to the final moral, this is a romp of a book. <541>
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