Jennifer's Reviews > Raybot

Animal sounds galore will make this a good book to read aloud.

I am always on the lookout for animal-sound books for my ELL students; comparing the sound of an animal across languages can be a good conversational subject when making friends in a new country, and it is also comforting for a student to know the English terms ahead of time so they are simply able to feel like an expert, knowing the English AND another sound that an animal makes. I also appreciate that the character who doesn't know something (what animal says "bark"?) is a robot rather than a human, distancing his ignorance from a reader's, and the bone gives ELL students the context to guess the animal even if they, too, don't yet know what animal says "bark."

Also love that the robot seems to end the book still confused about what says bark, yet perfectly able to communicate - an important lesson that imperfect English doesn't preclude friendship.