A Sick Day for Amos McGee

Bibliographic Information: Stead, P.C. (2010). A Sick Day for Amos McGee. Illus. Erin E. Stead. New York, NY: Roaring Book Press.

Brief Annotation: Amos McGee is a wonderful zookeeper, who has many close friends at the zoo. When he gets sick and can't make it to work, his friends hop on a bus and visit him.

Genre: Animal Fantasy, Picturebook

Grade Level: PreK - 2

Readers who will like this book: Anyone who has ever had to stay home sick, and missed their friends.

Rating/Response: 4 out of 4. This is a wonderful little story about friendship. I love the illustrations.

One question I would ask before a read aloud: What does it feel like when you have to stay home sick?

10/40: Story Boards from 50 Literacy Strategies, by Gail E. Tompkins

This is a wonderful strategy for Kindergarten through second grade. In this strategy, I would create storyboards by cutting out the illustrations from two copies of the book, attaching these to tagboard, and laminating them. I would ask the students to use the storyboards to sequence the story after a read aloud. This strategy helps students to grasp the concept of story sequence. As there are several pages of pure illustration in this book, I believe it would be an ideal story for story boarding.

A Ball for Daisy

Bibliographic Information (APA): Raschka, C. (2011). A Ball For Daisy. New York, NY: Schwartz & Wade Books.

Brief Annotation: This is a wordless picture book about a little dog named daisy and the fun she has with her ball.

Genre: Wordless PictureBook

Grade Level: Preschool-1st

Readers who will like this: Most children will enjoy this book with the beautiful illustrations. The children are able to make up their own stories to the illustrations.

Response/Rating (1-4): 3; This was a super cute book about a little dog named daisy. Children will love being able to make their own stories up. The pictures are pretty self explanatory. It's amazing but you don't really miss the words when reading this book.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: How much can you really tell from a picture?

A Sick Day for Amos McGee

Bibliographic Information: Stead, P. (2010) A Sick Day for Amos McGee. Illus. Erin Stead. New York, NY: Roaring Brook.

Annotation: This is the story of Amos McGee, who works at the zoo, and the day he got sick. Amos spends all his time at the zoo visiting the animals and making sure they get the attention they need. One day Amos gets sick and the animals decided to visit him. They make it a wonderful sick day for Mr. McGee.

Genre: Picturebook

Grade Level: K-2

Readers who will like this book: I think most children will like this book. Children who like animals, like the zoo, or have ever been sick.

Response/Rating: Retruning acts of kindness is becoming my favorite type of book. This book makes me feel good. It is a cute book that most children should enjoy. 4

Classroom questions: Have you ever been sick? Did you havfe to stay home? Did you get to do anything when staying home?

2011 Caldecott Winner