Blog: #kidlit Book of the Day - Page 1352 of 1360

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.

The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus
by Jen Bryant (Author) and Melissa Sweet (Illustrator)

Booktalk: For shy young Peter Mark Roget, books were the best companions — and it wasn’t long before Peter began writing his own book. But he didn’t write stories; he wrote lists. Peter took his love for words and turned it to organizing ideas and finding exactly the right word to express just what he thought. His lists grew and grew, eventually turning into one of the most important reference books of all time.

Snippet:
Peter’s family moved often, so making friends was difficult.

But books, Peter discovered, were also good friends. There were always plenty around, and he never had to leave them behind.

When he was eight, he started to write his own book. On the cover, he wrote Peter, Mark, Roget. His Book.

But instead of writing stories, he wrote lists.

See the book trailer.

Six Traits Mini Lesson

Trait: Ideas Writing a picture book biography can be tricky. How can you talk about an entire life with so few pages? You have to leave room for the art, too.

After you do your research and are ready to write, begin with the most important idea. Why was the person famous? Focusing on this idea as you write your draft will help you decide what to include in the story–and what to leave out.

Roget was famous because of his book.

When he was eight, he started to write his own book. On the cover, he wrote Peter, Mark, Roget. His Book.

And what kind of book was it?

But instead of writing stories, he wrote lists.

It’s Nonfiction Monday!