Goodnight Already!
by Jory John (Author) and Benji Davies (Illustrator)
Notice the shiny E.B. WHITE READ-ALOUD HONOR AWARD sticker on the cover!
Booktalk: Meet Bear. He’s exhausted. All he wants is to go to sleep. Meet Duck, Bear’s persistent next-door neighbor. All he wants is to hang out . . . with Bear.
Snippet:
“I’ve never been so tired. I could sleep for weeks. Months, even!”
Six Traits Mini Lesson
Trait: Organization In this fiction picture book, the dialogue at the beginning of a story sets up the ending perfectly. As the story begins, we hear from Bear:
“I’ve never been so tired. I could sleep for weeks. Months, even!”
What Bear wants is clear, but this is the very first page of the story, so we know that Bear won’t get what he wants. Fiction stories have problems to solve, so once we know what the main character wants, it’s the writer’s job to keep that from happening for as long as possible. That’s why readers turn the page–to see what happens next!
Who or what will that problem be? In this story it is Bear’s neighbor, Duck. Duck is wide awake and he wants company. Throughout the book, Duck wakes up Bear again and again.
Ideally, the end of a story is the opposite of the beginning. So what does Bear say on the last page of the book?
“I’ve never been so awake.”
On the previous page, Duck complains that Bear’s grumpiness has worn him out. Duck finally goes home and falls asleep. The ending for both story characters is the opposite of the beginning. The book begins and ends with Bear because he is the main character.
TIP: Allow your main story character to have the last word.
Watch the book trailer.
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.