The Slowest Book Ever
by April Pulley Sayre (Author) and Kelly Murphy (Illustrator)
Booktalk: The BIG Picture
A book about some of the slow things in life. Did you know that there’s a bird that flies so slowly it falls from the sky? (page 40) And that a saguaro cactus takes fifteen years to grow its first inch? (page 66)
#kidlit Writing Lesson: the small details
HOW SLOW CAN YOU GROW SAGUARO?
Saguaro cacti start slowly and grow slowly. It takes about fifteen years before they grow 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) high. It is forty or fifty years before they reach 10 feet (about 3 meters) tall and flower for the first time. At seventy-five to one hundred years old, saguaro cacti grow their distinctive side arms. These plants live to be more than 150 years old.
The big idea is stated first.
Saguaro cacti start slowly and grow slowly.
Specific details follow –in chronological order. Readers see the first inch:
It takes about fifteen years before they grow 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) high.
. . . and the first flower:
It is forty or fifty years before they reach 10 feet (about 3 meters) tall and flower for the first time.
. . . and the side arms:
At seventy-five to one hundred years old, saguaro cacti grow their distinctive side arms.
The final sentence shows the lifespan of this v-e-r-y S-L-O-W plant:
These plants live to be more than 150 years old.
BONUS! Talk about S-L-O-W! The last Square Root Day was 3/3/9. Look at the calendar–today is another Square Root Day! It’s 4/4/16. (There are only 9 Square Root Days in a century. The next one won’t occur until 5/5/25!) Enjoy!
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
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