First-Grade Boogie

Sometimes you just want to read a book that's fun. That was the case with two of my first-grade reading buddies this morning. After practicing words with long a's and short a's in a phonics book, Daniel and Lucie wanted something that would make them laugh. 

Daniel knew just the thing; he ran to his desk to retrieve The Animal Boogie, by Debbie Harter. Daniel said the book was too hard for him to read himself, but Lucie was game to try. With a little bit of help from me (with the big words) and from Daniel (with the page-turning), she rocked it.

The Animal Boogie is a repetitious (in a good way) guessing-game book that opens,

Down in the jungle, come if you dare!
What can you see shaking here and there?
With a shaky shake here and a shaky shake there,
What's that creature shaking here and there?

Daniel knew what the creature on the page was, of course, since the book is his. Smiling, he asked excitedly, "Do you know? Do you know? " He turned the page for Lucie, who read,

IT'S A BEAR!
She goes shake, shake, boogie, woogie, oogie!
Shake, shake, boogie, woogie, oogie!
Shake, shake, boogie, woogie, oogie!
That's the way she's shaking here and there.

By the end the three of us were chanting along, and Daniel, too, was reading difficult words like "creature." I appreciated the fact that the illustrations included children of different races and a little girl in a wheelchair, and my two friends, born long after the disco years, thought the phrase "boogie, woogie, oogie" was hilarious. The Animal Boogie originally came with a musical CD, but that was long gone from Daniel's copy. No matter. Just reading was plenty of fun.

Comments

[adrienne]

That does sound fun!

[Jules]

I'm gonna have to try this one out on my girls.

[Susan (Chicken Spaghetti)]

Adrienne, I get such a kick out of my first-grade friends. In addition to reading the books, they also tried on my reading glasses, and one offered to do my hair for me. I declined, but was very tickled. We also talked about cupcakes.

Jules, it's a very jaunty book. I was so happy to see that the boy who owned it had taken advantage of books given away at his school library. One church (and maybe others) donates lots of used books to the school.

[Maggi]

We love this book at my house. The CD is really not to be missed. Also check out the companion book/CD set of Walking Through the Jungle by the same author.

[Susan (Chicken Spaghetti)]

Hi, Maggi. Thanks for stopping by! I will have to look for Walking Through the Jungle.