Iggy Peck, Architect

Bibliographic Information: Beaty, Andrea. (2007). Iggy Peck, Architect. Illus. David Roberts. New York, NY: Abrams Books for Young Readers.

Brief Annotation: Young Iggy Peck is a born architect, but his second grade teacher dashes his dreams until he helps rescue the class by building a bridge.

Genre: Concept

Grade Level: K - 5

Readers who will like this book: Anyone with a dream that makes them a little different from their peers.

Rating/Response: 4 out of 4. In addition to the wonderful rhyming, the illustrations add to the story and provide some details of the tools that architects use.

One question I would ask before a read aloud: Is there anything that you are good at and like to do that is different? What does an architect do?

10/40: Open-Mind Portraits from 50 Literacy Strategies, by Gail E. Tompkins
In this strategy, students are encouraged to consider story characters' thoughts and feelings, pushing them to make inferences, as these ideas may not be directly related in the text. Students first make a portrait of the character's head and neck (for this book, I would suggest either Iggy, or his teacher). Then they cut out the portrait and secure it to several other sheets of blank paper. These last pages will become the "thinking" pages, where students will draw and write about what the character thinks and feels at critical points in the story. After the open-mind portraits are completed, the students share with the class.