Who's Reading?

When I visit the Maple Street School as a volunteer reading buddy, I usually tote along a couple of books to share in addition to the levelled readers that the teachers send along with the kids. (I read with two or three children at a time in the hallway. Actually, I mostly listen.) The short books provide practice with the sounds and words that the students need to master before the end of first grade.

Recently two students, Alicia and Jeffrey, read a good one about mysterious happening at a campsite. In only 12 pages, a boy investigates and discovers that a bear has been by. Good picture clues help out with figuring out the words. The book ended with a safety lesson, which I wasn't crazy about, but in all was a lot more truthful than the levelled reader about the guy visiting the dentist where the shot (of novacaine) doesn't hurt a bit.

This week I took to the school Who's Hiding?, a picture book with bold graphics of various animals. Huge hit! Each two-page spread has only one line of text, so there's no word-sounding-out burnout halfway through. Alicia and Jeffrey laughed as they figured out who was crying, hiding, and angry. They counted. They figured out who had horns. They discussed colors. They named all the animals, and learned the word "rhino." Who's Hiding?, an easier book for them to read than the camping one, gave them more time to have fun.

I have to get my hands on the May/June issue of The Horn Book, because it evidently agreed with Alicia and Jeffrey's assessment and gave Who's Hiding?, which was written by Satoru Onishi, a starred review. (No online link available.)

Comments

[Kelly]

I love "Who's Hiding"! I'm glad the class did too :)

[Susan]

Kelly, I think I got this one after reading your review! The children want their own copies. Isn't that great!