22
Sep.2014
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STEAM TRAIN, DREAM TRAIN
by
Sherri Dusky Rinker
“Through the darkness, clickety-clack. . .
coming closer, down the track. . .
hold your breath so you can hear
huffing, chuffing drawing near.”
The comforting rhyme and rhythm of the book’s first page draws you into this soothing bedtime read-aloud. Ms. Rinker combines poetic form, a humorous narrative, and informational text about different train cars to give you a story that satisfies your listener on many levels. Adults will not tire of repeated requests for this engaging story at the end of a long day.
During the Second Reading, the oral reading will be great fun as you use Sherri Rinker’s rhyme, rhythm, and punctuation marks to guide you. Ms. Rinker uses great vocabulary (freight, hopper, cargo) to tell her story. Many children know quite a bit about trains from the popular Thomas the Train series of books and videos. However, even young train enthusiasts might learn a new term to add to their train vocabulary. The subtle humor in Mr. Lichtenheld’s warm oil pastels will delight both your listener and you. As you study the illustrations, note the clever connections between the animals and the type of car or the freight the animals are loading.
Steam Train, Dream Train has been selected as an Amazon Best Book of the Month in April, 2013. It is a School Library Journal “Best Book of the Year, 2013”. This book was selected by the Chicago Public Library as a “Best Picture Books of 2013”. Banks Street College of Education names it a “Best Book” on its 2014 list.
The Reading Comprehension Best Practice that works very well with this text is MAKING PREDICTIONS. As you read the rhyming text, you’ll pause before the last word, and your listener will be asked to supply the word that matches both the story line and the rhyme. Enjoy!
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Edgar’s Second Word
by
Audrey Vernick
“The books Hazel planned to read to her someday-brother waited on a special shelf.
Every night, she imagined the warm-love weight of him on her lap, and how they’d study each page together.”
So begins Audrey Vernick’s new book, published in June of this year. Hazel is a loving older sister anxiously visualizing how her new baby brother and she will share what really matters to her……books! Hazel patiently waits for Edgar to speak his first word so that she will know if he is understanding the stories she is reading to him. She wants so badly to study her special books with her brother. Hazel is wrapped up in visualizing how Edgar will fit into her world. However, it doesn’t work the way that Hazel imagined.
The Reading Comprehension Best Practice focus for this story is Visualizing. During the ThirdReading, you’ll discuss how Hazel visualizes her brother in different situations. Her visualizations fail to materialize, and Hazel is very disappointed. However, we want to discuss the importance of visualizing with our young readers. Just as we visualize in real life, good readers visualize about what is happening or what might happen in a story. Forming mental pictures enhances recall of a story, also. There will be Discussion Options that encourage your child to visualize personal reading experiences based on the memories that you share.
It’s not only the story line that you will enjoy discussing. Ms. Vernick makes great vocabulary choices, such as: warm-love weight, growly, and tired-baby gravity. She uses figurative language, such as “spit like an extremely annoyed llama.” Check out her website: www.audreyvernick.com to see the many awards she has won for her previous books. Priscilla Burns has a delightful website for young illustrators and writers: www.priscillaburns.com. I’ll refer you to her website for one of the Activity Options after the ThirdReading.
How lucky for Edgar that Hazel is giving him such strong literacy experiences! How lucky for your children that you are building such strong literacy experiences for them!
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Bear Has a Story to Tell
by
Philip C. Stead and Erin E. Stead
As you look at Practickle’s past reading selections, it is obvious that we love the friendly stories of Philip Stead and the warm illustrations of his wife, Erin. In this story, Mr. Stead uses his characters to model the meanings of loyal friendship, loving generosity, and caring patience. As you read the story, the reading guide suggests discussing Bear’s personality traits that make him such a good friend. It’s obvious that Mr. Stead feels that creating characters who illustrate the meaning of friendship is important for young children.
Bear Has a Story to Tell is a good book to read at the end of October. You will see from the illustrations that the setting is fall. This leads to discussions about the informational parts of the story. How does each animal prepare for winter? Each animal has a unique way to spend the cold months.
The Reading Comprehension Best Practice that matches this lovely story is to Have a Purpose for Reading. After studying the illustrations, think of questions you hope the text will answer. The first question that occurred to my granddaughter was, “What is the story Bear wants to tell?” Forming questions before reading and then answering the questions through direct details from the text or by forming inferences improves comprehension of the text at a higher thinking level than just recall.
Bear Has a Story to Tell won the Kirkus Review’s Best Children’s Book of 2012.
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One of Practickle’s goals is to feature quality nonfiction (informational) books. An Egg Is Quiet is a highly acclaimed award winner, receiving praise for both its informational content and its beauty. If you enjoyed last month’s informational book selection, Swirl by Swirl, you will enjoy this book. Both books use magnificent illustrations to highlight the diversity in nature’s plants and animals. When An Egg Is Quiet was published in 2006, it won awards for meeting the national Common Core Literacy Standards and primary grade science standards.
Each page in this book is full of information. As you read Ms. Aston’s text you will discover that you can read parts of it for the young listeners or all of it for the older listeners. Ms. Long is quite skillful at including labels in her lush illustrations. Parents and children will learn for this amazing resource. You will be glad to have this book on your shelf to read or page through.
Before you begin your first reading, enjoy a lovely preview on http://pbskids.org/lions/stories/nature.html. Between the Lions is a program dedicated to introducing children to wonderful literature.
Educators can go to http://sciencenetlinks.com/lessons/an-egg-is-quiet to read how highly acclaimed this book is for academic reasons. There are also some wonderful follow-up activities suggested on this site.
The Reading Comprehension Best Practice that will be highlighted with this book is Asking Questions Before Reading. As you study the illustrations during the First Reading, keep track of the questions that your young reader asks. I’m sure the information in the text will answer most of them!
After the repeated readings, your young scientist can duplicate the styles of Ms. Aston and Ms. Long and conduct an original study. Maybe the organism studied will be a leaf or a flower. Your young scientist can write a book with illustrations accompanied by information.
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