Happy Friday friends and fellow book lovers! If you read my last post, then you already know my family has been in town this past week. My mom flew in to San Antonio from Seattle, and we have been all over town. We did some sight seeing, drank one or two margaritas, and did some a bit A LOT of shopping. It's been a great week, but I didn't reach my goal of finishing starting any new books. Unless of course you count this completely wonderful book I discovered while browsing my local Barnes and Noble.
You know what? I'm counting it. Let Fiction Friday begin!
This week I read...
if you want to see a whale
written by Julie Fogliano
illustrated by Erin E. Stead
In this beautifully illustrated book, the narrator gives you advice for how to see a whale.
Here are a few sample pages. Aren't the illustrations perfect?
They match the simplicity and beauty of the story so well.
"if you want to see a while
keep both eyes on the see"
"if you are looking for a whale
there's no time to watch the pelican
who may or may not be smiling
while sitting, staring, and looking out
because pelicans who sit and stare can never be a whale"
"if you want to see a whale
you shouldn't watch the clouds
some floating by, some hanging down
in the sky that's spread out, side to side
or the certain sun that's shinning
because if you start to look straight up
you might just miss a whale"
The book goes on to describe other distractions you should avoid while looking for a whale, all the while beautifully describing the world around the young boy. It is an absolutely lovely book.
I immediately started thinking about how I could use this as a mentor writing text. The structure of this book would be perfect for students to mimic. I'm imagining my students writing their own, "If you want to see a ________________" stories. This would be a great book to add to any descriptive writing unit.
As a lover of books, I loved that no punctuation was used throughout the book. It just fit. It was more poetic that way. However, as a 4th grade teacher, I'm not a very big fan. We will have to discuss why this writer got away without capitalizing anything or using a single period anywhere.
Oh... LIGHT BULB!! The kids could go back and put the capitalization and periods in as an editing activity. Oh... yes... that would work wonderfully. Whew!
This was a great find while strolling through the book store. I'm not sure how I missed it before, but I'm sure glad I stumbled upon it this week. It is definitely going to be added to my collection.
Keep on linking up to Fiction Friday with reviews of your recent reads or previous favorites. Isn't children's literature the best? Love it!
Happy Reading!
Love this series! :) My Amazon cart is growing by leaps and bounds!
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