The Birthday Room

Henkes, K. (2000). The Birthday Room. Illus. Kevin Henkes. New York, New York: Random House, Inc.

Annotation: This is a book about a young man named Ben. His parents give him a new room in the attic of their house for his birthday, but he also receives a letter from an uncle he hardly knows that wants him to come visit. He doesn't understand why his mother does not talk to this uncle and ends up visiting his uncle in Oregon.

Genre: Audio book

Grade Level: 2nd grade

Readers who would like this: I think this would be a good book for a second grader to read on their leisure. It is a book that a child and grown-up could read together. I think this is more suitable outside of the classroom.

Response/Rating: I give this book a 4 for content and a 2 for the fact that it is an audio book. I personally like to read at my own pace and depict the emotion of a book myself. That was the hard part. Otherwise, the story itself is very heartfelt and well written.

Question: What is one thing you've always wanted for your birthday?

Reading Strategy:

a) Tompkins #36 (reading logs).
b) This is where students write their reactions and opinions about a book they are reading or listening to. They can write after reading a chapter or two. This is a good strategy to use given the background of the book. It allows the students to reflect on what they would do in this situation and how they would handle it.
c) This is a good match for this book, because there is a lot of reflecting and thought processes that happen in relation to this book. I found myself asking what would I do in this situation and re-evaluated what family meant to me.