picture book Archives - Page 668 of 713

April 12, 2016April 11, 2016

A Big Surprise for Little Card

A Big Surprise for Little Card
by Charise Mericle Harper (Author) and Anna Raff (Illustrator)

In the world of cards, each one has a special job to do. Big Card keeps important papers in order. Tiny Card can be exchanged for a prize in an arcade. Round Card hangs out in a glamorous boutique. But is any card as lucky as Little Card? He’s going to school to become a birthday card — in other words, to sing, play games, eat cake, and be happy all day long. But wait! On the day he’s supposed to take his talents into the world, Long Card tells him there’s been a mix-up and they need to trade jobs. How can Little Card bring his exuberance into a library, a quiet place of books and rules and hushing?

#kidlit Writing Lesson: the small details

Here is the scene where the mix-up is discovered:

One day when Little Card came home from school, Long Card was waiting for him.

“Our letters got mixed up,” said Long Card. “Look. You’re not a birthday card. I am a birthday card.”

Uh-oh! What will happen next? Readers see Little Card’s reaction in the next line:

Does this mean I have to go to a different school?” asked Little Card.

The answer is in the next line:

No time for that,” said Long Card. “Today is delivery day. It’s time to go.”

In the middle of the book, the main character’s world suddenly changes in a very big way.

See the book trailer.

Happy National Library Week!

April 8, 2016

This is the Earth

This is the Earth
by Diane Z. Shore (Author), Jessica Alexander (Author) and Wendell Minor (Illustrator)

Booktalk: The BIG Picture

Explore hundreds of years of changing landscapes and the positive and negative impacts humans have had on the environment. Just in time for Earth Day, this book shows young readers that even the smallest actions can help save the world.

#kidlit Writing Lesson: the small details

After showing the many negative environmental changes made by humans over hundreds of years, the book reaches a crisis moment for our Earth:

This is the Earth, polluted by greed,
as we take what we want, which is more than we need,
where bulldozing trucks clear the rainforest floor
and sands wash away from the vanishing shore,

The first two lines of this stanza state the problem in a couplet (two lines that rhyme):

This is the Earth, polluted by greed,
as we take what we want, which is more than we need,

The next couplet in the stanza shows new ways that humans are changing the environment:

where bulldozing trucks clear the rainforest floor
and sands wash away from the vanishing shore,

Thankfully, two pages later the solution to this problem shows specific actions that even a small child can do. Here is the first one:

These are the bins
where the bottles and cans
and the papers await
the recycling vans.

Happy Earth Day!

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)