Blog: #kidlit Book of the Day - Page 1289 of 1304

Eva and Sadie and the Best Classroom EVER!
by Jeff Cohen (Author) and Elanna Allen (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Sadie is ready to start second grade, but her younger sister, Eva, hasn’t even been to kindergarten yet! Sadie knows it’s her duty as big sister to prepare Eva for school. But all this preparation makes Eva nervous—too much homework and no naptime, and how will she ever be able to buy her own lunch at school?

Snippet: Of course, I already know how to do all those things. But Eva doesn’t. And I don’t want her to feel nervous on her first day. That would be sad.

This means one thing. I’ve got a lot of work to do.

Six Traits Mini Lesson

Trait: Voice The pronoun I is in three of the six sentences on this page. Every other sentence has it.

Of course, I already know how to do all those things. But Eva doesn’t.

The first person voice is the one most people use when they talk. The person speaking uses the word I.

And I don’t want her to feel nervous on her first day. That would be sad.

So how can you tell which voice the STORY has? Look for quotation marks.

This means one thing. I’ve got a lot of work to do.

Every other sentence on this page has the word I, but there are NO quotation marks. This means that there is only one person talking on this page and that person is the narrator. There are no quotation marks on this page because this is a monologue, not a dialogue. It’s not a conversation, it’s narration. We are inside the main character’s head, hearing her thoughts. This is a first person story.

Birdie’s First Day of School
by Sujean Rim (Author/Illustrator)

Booktalk: Tomorrow is Birdie’s first day of school and she is just SO nervous. What will her teacher be like? What should she bring? What should she WEAR? When Birdie walks into her brand-new classroom . . . oh my! A whole new world opens up as she discovers all the fun and adventure that school has to offer.

Snippet:
Birdie couldn’t sleep.

Tomorrow would be her very first day of school and she was so nervous.

Six Traits Mini Lesson

Trait: Organization This picture book story about a rite of passage clearly shows how the beginning of a story sets up how that story will end. On the first page of this story, we meet the character and find out what her story problem is.

Art Note: The art illustrating the snippet on this first spread (two facing book pages) shows three views of little Birdie trying to sleep. We know that time is passing because of the clock on the wall. From left to right the time is 10:03, 3:00, and 6:57.

What happens next, of course, is more worrying, followed by the first day of school. In the middle of the story, we see how she works to solve her story problem. And solve it she does, so on the last page of the book, we see the story come full circle.

Snippet:
It was time for bed . . .
but Birdie couldn’t sleep.

Tomorrow would be her very second day of school . . .
and she just couldn’t wait.