Blog: #kidlit Book of the Day - Page 1341 of 1360

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.

Lilliput
by Sam Gayton (Author) and Alice Ratterree (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Have you heard of the tale that’s short and tall? There’s an island in the world where everything is small! She is a girl three inches tall with eyes like drops of dew. Her clothes are cut from handkerchiefs and stitched with spider silk. For half her life, she has been trapped in a birdcage while her giant kidnapper sits beside her, writing in a leather-bound book the size of a house. Her name is Lily, and tonight she is escaping. She is going home. To Lilliput.

Inspired by Gulliver’s Travels, Lilliput is an exhilarating adventure filled with cunning escape plans, evil clock makers, and talkative parrots. Join Lily as she travels through 18th century London over rooftops, down chimneys, and into chocolate shops on a journey to find the one place in the world where she belongs…home.

Snippet: Lily tucked the atlas into one of the saddle pockets and hurried forward, past a teetering stack of old clocks. Somewhere at the other end of the counter, Swift called out for help.

“Skee! Skee! Skee!”

“Hold on!” she called out, trying to calm him. “I’m almost there! Just a little longer . . .”

Six Traits Mini Lesson

Traits: Sentence Fluency In this escape story, the sentences are detailed and action-packed. The main character is on the move and the sentences reflect that.

In the first sentence, the main character does two very different things.

Lily tucked the atlas into one of the saddle pockets

That’s the first action, but the writer adds more:

and hurried forward, past a teetering stack of old clocks.

The forward motion in this escape story continues in the next sentence:

Somewhere at the other end of the counter, Swift called out for help.

Now Lily has yet another reason to keep running.

“Hold on!” she called out, trying to calm him. “I’m almost there!

And we keep running too. We turn the page to find out what happens next!