Blog: #kidlit Book of the Day - Page 1290 of 1298

Uh-Oh Octopus!
by Elle van Lieshout (Author), Erik van Os (Author), and Mies van Hout (Illustrator)

Booktalk: A small octopus lives in a snug apartment until one day an intruder barricades the entrance. Octopus asks for advice on how to escape but the more suggestions he gets, the less he is able to figure out what to do.

Snippet: Hermit Crab listened and sighed. “Well, well, an intruder. Who cares? Just move to another place. The sea is filled with opportunities.”

Octopus shook his head. This didn’t help at all.

Six Traits Mini Lesson

Trait: Voice This picture book story is written in the third person voice. This voice allows readers to “see” what the main character is thinking.

Octopus shook his head. This didn’t help at all.

In a third person story, the only way we know that the other characters are thinking is by listening to what they say.

Hermit Crab listened and sighed. “Well, well, an intruder. Who cares? Just move to another place. The sea is filled with opportunities.”

Detective Gordon: The First Case
by Ulf Nilsson (Author), Gitte Spee (Illustrator), and Julia Marshall (Translator)

Booktalk: Someone’s stealing nuts from the forest, and it’s up to Detective Gordon to catch the thief! Unfortunately, solving this crime means standing in the snow and waiting for a long time… If only he had an assistant–someone small, fast, and clever–to help solve this terrible case.

Snippet:
The detective took out a big old-fashioned stamp, placed it on the paper, moved it a little to the right and then a little to the left. Then he pressed. Kla-dunk, it went.

At that the squirrel grew calm and seemed satisfied.

That was a very good stamp, Detective Gordon thought.

The squirrel twisted the handkerchief in his hands.

“Will I get my nuts back?” he asked.

“I’ll investigate the case.”

They went out together into the snow.

Six Traits Mini Lesson

Trait: Conventions How do readers know if a character is thinking or speaking? Quotation marks are the clue.

That was a very good stamp, Detective Gordon thought.

The last word of this line is “thought” but we know this is a thought before we read this word because there are no quotation marks here.

The squirrel twisted the handkerchief in his hands.

“Will I get my nuts back?” he asked.

The quotation marks here tell us that the squirrel is speaking.

“I’ll investigate the case.”

This sentence is on a new line, so that tells us that the other character is answering the squirrel’s question. The reply is spoken aloud, so it is enclosed with quotation marks. We already know that there are only two characters in this scene, so the reply does not have a dialogue tag.