Nonfiction Navigators discussion
Emergent Reader Nonfiction (August)
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Sarah
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Aug 16, 2011 05:28PM
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I'm a new librarian too... I've been in a classroom for the last 24 years... I'm SO excited to be in the library this year.I haven't read the Kakabu book, but I have read two other books in that series-Hive Detectives and one about invasive species. I thought they were both terrific... I loved the connections that the books made to the scientific process and scientists and photographs were amazing.
I'm looking for books about space... I had to weed out most of my space collection because they were all out of date. I had some money from scholastic but I'm not loving them...
I want to make sure I am on the same page as others with what I would label as "emergent reader" Are we talking things like this: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50...
really meant for early independent reading?
Or could it be anything I might use with early readers?
I recently read Who will plant a tree by by Jerry Pallotta
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/78...
I would recommend this for Kindergarten or 1st grade to connect to a science units on seeds and plants. Each page shows how an animal might spread seeds that result in new trees. There is only about one sentence per page.
I liked that the examples included a variety of biomes - not just temperate forest & coniferous forest.
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I'm hoping to read some of the ones I picked out tonight.
Thank you for sharing Who Will Plant a Tree.
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I liked the quality of the photgraphs in this book. Each page has 2-3 short sentences as well as a one page caption. It is well laid out. Don't expect any dwarf planets in this one (It is still a bit odd for me to read about Mercury as the smallest planet).
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...
I also read some Blastoff! Readers tonight. One of them was called Bulldozers http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34...
Blastoff readers are a series of leveled readers on many different nonfiction subjects. My library only has a few of them. The Level 1 readers have great photographs and text that has young readers well in mind in terms of decoding. The information conveyed is simple, but it is at a level that they can have some independent reading success with.
I also read some nonfiction National Geographic readers tonight. While it is at a harder reading level than I was looking for, the Storms book has some great ties to storms in space and included Sandstorms (and a few attempts at jokes). Part of the draw to the National Geographic readers is the photography.
Hi Laura, I think we must have been seperated at birth, first Turtle in Paradise, now Jerry Pallotta. Jerry is a local author and I have had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times and have all his alphabet books in my library. I was stunned by this new book because it is so different but I loved it and do a tree unit in the library and it is on order.
One other thing I want to mention is last spring I got a call from a local lady who is on the Geisel award committee and is graciously visiting our library with the books that they are picking through. So I have been able to see some of the newest emergent readers. She will be coming in soon and I will be sure to share the ones that they will be using when picking the award.
I got a hold of a copy of Kakapo and I think I'd like to revise my opinion. Last year, I taught a first, second, and third grade class where all my third graders were special education students. The highest readers were pretty close to third grade level but the lowest ones were reading below my first graders. Even if they had gotten past the front cover, they never would have continued reading because there was a lot of text on the page. I know that kids eventually need to be able to read extended passages of text, but especially for the emergent readers, I think we have to find (or write) books that have big ideas with not so big words or at least a lot of pictures.Our district now has a subscription through Capstone Libraries for a series called Max Axiom which is a graphical novel about science. It looks like a comic book, it's available online, and online, it will even read to you. Love it!
I'm looking forward to see Jerry Pallotta's new book! I'm also a huge fan. And if you liked Turtle in Paradise (that was one of my favorites this year too), you HAVE to read Countdown by Deborah Wiles. Fabulous historical fiction!
Okay, I am a little confused about what I am suppose to be talking about in this thread. I think that we are talking about emergent reader nonfiction text.?A favorite that I just reread is Chuckling Ducklings and Baby Animal Friends by Zenz. It is a beautifully illustrated book about what we call baby animal names. For example, did you know that a baby enchidna and platypus are called puggles? Pretty cool.
Here is a sample of the text (picture coolly drawn horses):
He's a colt and she's a filly-although both are also foals. The baby animal names are written in bold print throughout.
Did I do this right?
Debbie, I agree with Countdown, loved it because I remember getting under the desks. My sister teaches 5th grade and they are going to use it for a book club this year on my recommendation, looking forward to the next book in the series.
Kim wrote: "One other thing I want to mention is last spring I got a call from a local lady who is on the Geisel award committee and is graciously visiting our library with the books that they are picking thro..."This sounds so fun!
Last year I was able to meet with two Caldecott comm. members from MN at our state conference for LMSs. It was so interesting to hear about the process and see all the books they were looking at.
I would love to hear more about behind the scenes for Geisel.
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I found some awesome biographies yesterday at my public library! One is about Thomas Edison, it's called A Wizard from the Start by Don Brown. It has a very conversational style and loose, almost cartoony pictures. I think the kids would be very interested to read.The second was called Mother to Tigers by George Ella Lyon. It's about Helen Martini, the first woman zookeeper. There is short text and very vivid pictures on every page. I'd never heard of this lady but found I was very moved by her persistence to raise animal babies at the zoo. At that time (1944), the zookeepers weren't having much luck at keeping exotic animal babies alive. The third one I found is called Nurse, Soldier, Spy by Marissa Moss and John Hendrix. It's the story of Sarah Edmonds who served in the Civil War. The pictures are so filled with action that they totally carry the text, which is equally engaging. I can't wait to get these for my media center!
Sounds great Debbie. I just put a hold on the Thomas Edison book and the the Tiger book at my library.
