The Most Magnificent Thing

by Ashley Spires

Published 2014

Awards: Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading Blue Spruce Award Nominee (2015), Shining Willow Award Nominee (2015), Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize Nominee (2015)

The Most Magnificent Thing is a delightful, endearing story that would be an excellent addition to a school’s library of books supporting life skills—especially the life skill of perseverance as well as having a growth mindset!  As a mentor text for life skills, it would be an excellent read for grades k-5.

As a mentor text for writing, The Most Magnificent Thing provides a solid study of character development, especially for older writers in grades 3-5. Other craft moves to cover with students: the intriguing title which captures the audience's curiosity straight away and the strong ending, which concludes, with an amusing twist, the struggles the character has throughout the story.  

Interesting enough, the main character, a girl, and her best friend, her dog, are never named in the story.  Pronouns dominate the story, which would be an interesting grammar lesson, as well.

Book Talk

Readers meet the main character, simply called ‘the girl’ in the story, and her best friend, the dog.  The girl and her dog love to do all kinds of things together-racing, eating, exploring.  She especially likes to make things and the dog especially like to ‘unmake’ whatever she creates.

Then one day, she has an idea to make the most MAGNIFICENT thing!  She can see it in her mind’s eye and she is very motivated to get her ideas down on paper.  When she does, she is convinced that the most magnificent thing will be very easy to make! Readers do not know what the magnificent thing is yet.

She finds a good place to build her most magnificent thing and sets to work. But when she finishes, she has her doubts about it!

Some favorite lines: “When she finished she steps back to admire her work. She walks around one side. Her assistant examines the other side. It doesn’t look right. Her assistant picks it up and gives it a shake. It doesn’t feel right, either. They are shocked to discover that the thing isn’t magnificent. Or good. It isn’t even kind-of-sort-of okay.”

So, she tries again. Again it is wrong. So, she tries again. Again it is wrong. So, she tries again. Again it is wrong. So, she tries again. Again it is wrong.

She tries ten times to get it right! (Throughout all of her attempts, readers still are left guessing as to what the 'most magnificent' thing is!)

Finally, she gets very, VERY mad (and frustrated)!  She decides to take a walk and she does cool down. When she gets back to her house, sees all ten objects that she has made and sees that she could actually use pieces of each one to make her final project!

She does—and in the end she had indeed, made her most magnificent thing—a side car to attach to her scooter for her dog to ride in!

Suggested Uses as a Mentor Text:

Book Genre: Realistic Fiction

Reading Workshop strategies: Connecting, Fluency, Analyzing, Questioning, Inferring, Synthesizing

Writing Workshop genre and strategies: Narrative Writing, Character Development, Strong Lead, Strong Ending,Strong Female, Grammar: pronouns

Life Skills study: Perseverance, Growth Mindset

Ashley Spires website:  http://www.ashleyspires.com/

You Wouldn’t want to Be at 
the Boston Tea Party!     

  By Peter Cook

Illustrated by David Antram

Published 2014

This book is part of the “You Wouldn’t Want to be….” informational book series which has approximately 80 different titles, all connected to different kinds of big interest events throughout history. Whereas many of the titles focus on American history—many, also focus on Greek, Roman, Medieval, Egyptian and the like.

The “You Wouldn’t Want to be….” series is a fun, informational  group of books that cover interesting historical events and facts through a narrative that is lively and intriguing for students. I would recommend this mentor text for upper elementary and middle school students.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be at the Boston Tea Party  is a solid choice for an informational writing mentor text to model many of the text features students need to know about to include in their own informational writing. 

Starting before one even opens the book, the title is intriguing and invites immediate inquiry by students ("What? Why wouldn’t I want to be at the Boston Tea Party?”). In addition, it is an excellent example of a title that would invite- or grab- a reading audience into a book.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be at the Boston Tea Party is written as a narrative non-fiction, which makes it an easy read-aloud and demonstrates to students an effective way to write informational events and non-fiction texts. A fictional character (who is historically correct) is introduced,  ‘travels’ through the chapters and shares the events with readers through his eyes and experiences.

In addition, You Wouldn’t Want to Be at the Boston Tea Party is filled with non-fiction text features that will guide your students as they create their own informational texts: timelines, maps, headings, subheadings, captions, labels, table of contents, glossary, index.

The book actually begins right inside the book’s cover with a timeline of events before, during and after the Boston Tea Party giving the reader an overview of the historical significance of the main, historical, book-titled event. 

The story continues with each chapter covering an event introduced in the timeline, helping to cement the sequence of developments surrounding The Boston Tea Party. Each ‘chapter’ is placed over two open,facing pages in the book, so there is an unbroken flow of information on the specific topics making easy reading and understanding of the important topics. This organization and presentation of information also makes a great example /mentor for upper elementary and middle school writers.

Also to grab your students interests: the illustrations throughout the book are humorously done with a caricature style and amusing “Handy Hints” are given in a textbox in each open page section (Handy Hint-Get use to drinking coffee. Tea is going to be in short supply!”).

Other Titles in this series (all written as narrative non-fictions, with similar text features and humorous caricature illustrations) :

You Wouldn’t Want to Be….

American Colonist                American Pioneer      Civil War Soldier          Egyptian Mummy

Roman Gladiator                  on the Titanic            Medieval Knight           Viking Explorer

on the Mayflower                 on  Apollo 13              Wild West Town           Pyramid Builder

…..and many, many more!

Suggested Uses as a Mentor Text:

Book Genre: Informational / Non-Fiction Text

Reading Workshop strategies: Reading Informational Text,   Search for and Use Information, Anaylyzing, Questioning Visualizing

Writing Workshop genre and strategies: Informational Writing, Elaboration, Details, Strong Title/ Strong Lead, Non-fiction text features

Curriculum Connection: Social Studies/ History

Owl Moon           

 by Jane Yolen

Illustrated by John Schoenherr

 Published 1987

Awards: 1988 Caldecott Winner

 Owl Moon is one of Jane Yolen’s many treasures that she has given the world!

Yolen’s masterful use of language-descriptive words so naturally and beautifully woven into the  fabric of this narrative-make Owl Moon an outstanding mentor text in writing workshop. 

Although the story presents itself as a simple picture book to be used with the lower elementary grades, the depth of Yolen’s writer’s craft makes Owl Moon an excellent mentor for older elementary and even middle school students.

The free verse form in which the story is written demonstrates to student writers that the text of the story does not have to be ‘heavy’ or dense to be meaningful and impactful to one’s audience. Owl Moon would also be an excellent mentor for memoir or small moment.

Interviews with Jane Yolen reveal that Owl Moon reflects activities her family did when her children were young. 

Book Talk

A young girl finally gets her chance at a long-time family activity and tradition—going out into the woods on a cold, quiet winter’s night with her father to go owling.

She describes her quiet walk with her father through the night—the sound she hears from the trees, the crunch of the footsteps on the snow, the animals, a far away train.  She also reveals  her excitement of being with her father (like all of her siblings before her) and possibly, possibly seeing an owl.

Some favorite lines:

"Our feet crunched

over the crisp snow

and little gray footprints 

followed us.

Pa made a long shadow,

but mine was short and round.

I had to run after him

every now and then

to keep up,

and my short, round shadow

bumped after me."

Father tries to call to the owl several times, but all that is heard back is silence. They don’t hurry  as they know that owing requires patience and perseverance.

Father and daughter continue to quietly travel through the night-calling, listening and moving along.

Finally—a brief answer to Father’s call. They wait and their patience is rewarded with more calls— and then the sighting of the magnificent owl!  The owl and girl stare at each other—take each other in, admire each other—-and then the owl is off.

More favorite lines:

"All of a sudden

an owl shadow,

part of the big tree shadow,

lifted off

and flew right over us.

We watched silently

with heat in our mouths,

the heat of all those words

we had not spoken.

The shadow hooted again."

Father and daughter quietly walk back home with the experience settling in their hearts and minds—becoming part of who they are.

Suggested Uses as a Mentor Text:

Book Genre: Realistic Fiction

Reading Workshop Strategies: Fluency, Questioning, Connecting, Inferring, Synthesizing, Visualizing

Writing Workshop Strategies: Narrative, Personal Narrative,Q Memoir, Elaboration, Grammar, Inspiring Writers, Writer’s Craft

Jane Yolen’s website: http://janeyolen.com/

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick 

 By Chris Van Allsburg

 Published 2011

If you teach upper elementary and are covering units of study on Fantasy in reading or writing, The Chronicles of Harris Burdick is an outstanding selection for a go-to mentor text!  It should be attached to your hip during a fantasy UoS!

In 1984, Chris Van Allsburg introduced the  world to The Mysteries of Harris Burdick—a book filled with mysterious illustrations that bordered between fantasy and reality.  The illustrations were also accompanied with a title and just one, strange, cryptic sentence—pulling the reader in immediately! (Usually stories are already spinning in a child’s head before they know it!)

Fast forward to 2011—Van Allsburg published an adaptation of Harris Burdick.  This time he reached out to fourteen outstanding authors (including Lois Lowry, Kate DeCamillo,LInda Sue Park, Walter Dean Myers, Jon Scieszka, Stephen King and Van Allsburg-to name a few).

Each author was asked to each take one of the Harris Burdick illustrations and compose an equally mystifying and delightfully perplexing short story to go with it.

And thus…The Chronicles of Harris Burdick was created to the delight of us all!

What makes Van Allsburg’s work (all of his books, actually) magical is that fine line that is walked between reality and fantasy that keeps the readers guessing, thinking, wondering, enjoying the magical and the strange. 

All the contributing authors in The Chronicles of Harris Burdick created their stories with that same intrigue.

According to Fountas and PInnell’s Genre’s Quick Guide Grades K-8+, ‘high fantasy’ requires a readers (and writers)  to:

* Suspend disbelief and understand human and animal characters that could not exist in the real world

* Notice the setting, which is usually an imagined other world.

* Understand characters that have unusual traits or abilities.

* Understand the conflict between good and evil.

* Recognize many elements of fantasy such as the hero, the quest, magical powers, magical objects.

* Recognize and undertand symbolism

* Process complex language that often departs from everyday language.

* Notice universal truths revealed in the story.

Fourteen short stories to choose from to help lift your students' thinking and understanding of fantasy in the ways that Fountas and PInnell describe!!!  And all stories created by exceptional, award-winning authors!

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick will help lead, guide, mentor your students through the challenges of reading and writing the genre of Fantasy.  Pick one story, delve deeply into it—-or select several stories to use as mentors. The choice is yours--and you cannot miss!

One thing is for sure—once you finish with the book for the day—it will be immediately scooped up by a motivated reader or writer!

Suggested Uses as a Mentor Text:

Book Genre: Fantasy-Grades 4 and up

Reading Workshop Strategies: Questioning, Synthesizing, Inferring, Visualizing

Writing Workshop Strategies: Fantasy writing, Strong leads, Strong Endings, Inspiring Writers, Elaboration, 

Chris Van Allsburg website: http://hmhbooks.com/chrisvanallsburg/

We are celebrating today! It's Mentor Text Central's 1st birthday! I have tremendously enjoyed sharing my insights about how to use children's literature as a tool to deepen student's understanding of the reading and writing process and I plan to continue. If you have a moment, I invite you to leave me a comment on your thoughts /impressions /suggestions about Mentor Text Central.  The Relatives Came was my first review on April 20, 2015. Here is revision for MTC's birthday entry! Thank you so much for visiting my blog! Patty

The Relatives Came 
Story by Cynthia Rylant
Illustrated by Stephen Gammell

Awards: Caldecott Honor Award, Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Book

This is one of my favorite Cynthia Rylant's books! I love the visual imagery that she creates for readers by her use of easy-flowing language. 

Because of Rylant's brilliant use of language, The Relatives Came would be an outstanding writing workshop mentor text for older student working on word choice, elaboration, and writer's voice. Most students at all grade levels will be able to relate to family get-togethers and family traditions.  The Relatives Came would also be a strong mentor text for personal narrative or memoir. (It will be interesting to point out information about Cynthia Rylant's younger years. The Relatives Came is often thought of as one of her memoir pieces.)

In reading workshop, The Relatives Came, could be used for the different strategies of connecting, inferring, visualizing. Because of Rylant's smooth writing style by writing long flowy sentences, The Relatives Came would be a good choice to also work on fluency.

No wonder it was a Caldecott Honor for Stephen Gammell: the soft, water-color illustrations are beautiful, funny and animated.

Book Talk: The relatives live in Virginia and they travel to the storyteller's home.  As they travel, they think about the home they are leaving, as well as the visiting that will happen all summer.

Some favorite lines:  "They drove all day and into the night and while they traveled along they looked at the strange houses and different mountains and they thought about their almost purple grapes back home. They thought about Virginia--but they thought about us, too."

When the relatives arrive, there are endless rounds of hugs at the car....in the yard to the house.....and through the house.

More favorite lines: " Then it was hugging time. Talk about hugging! Those relatives just passed us all around their car, puling us against their wrinkled Virgina clothes, crying sometimes. Then it was into the house and so much laughing, shining faces and hugging in the doorway! You have to go through at least four different hugs to get from the kitchen to the front room. Those relatives!"

The storyteller describes the meals together ("A big supper-two or three times around the table") and the after-meal 'glow'.  

The description of the crowded sleeping arrangements is humorous, yet sweet.
Even more favorite lines: 
 "The relatives weren't particular about beds, which was good since there weren't any extras. So a few squeezed in with us and the rest slept on the floor. It was different going to sleep with all that new breathing going on."

The summer continues, the relatives stay for weeks and weeks--eating, fixing things, playing music, sleeping and of course, hugging!

The story ends with the relatives going back home to Virginia in their rainbowed colored car--with promises of returning next summer.

Stephen Gammell won a Caldecott Honor Award for his explicit, yet humorous, colorful illustrations.

Suggested uses as a Mentor Text:
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Reading Workshop Strategies: Making Connections, Inferring, Visualizing, Maintaining Fluency
Writing Workshop Genre and Strategies:  Narrative, Memoir, Writer's Voice, Elaboration, Inspiring Writers
Grammar: adjectives, sentence fluency
Curricular themes: family, extended family, traditions

Cynthia Rylant's webpage: http://www.cynthiarylant.com/

The Bad Birthday Idea  

By Madeline Valentine

Published 2013

Recognition:  A Junior Library Guild Selection.

The Bad Birthday Idea is a delightful story full of action that your students will easily be able to relate to:  sibling rivalry, sharing possessions, birthday parties and playing together to name a few.  

Because of this, The Bad Birthday Idea is a solid choice as a mentor text in writing workshop as an example of a ‘small moment’ or as a personal narrative. For older students new to writing workshop, The Bad Birthday Idea could even be introduced as a memoir.  

In reading workshop, The Bad Birthday Idea could easily be used with younger students as a mentor text to start a conversation about understanding characters actions as well as inferring feelings, connecting and predicting.

Book Talk

Ben has as younger sister, Alice, who greatly admires him and is ALWAYS wanting to play with him.  But Ben will have none of that, for many reasons.  The main reason is that Alice plays with dolls and Ben is basically obsessed with robots. No matter how hard she tries to play with Ben, he always tells Alice: “No dolls allowed. This is a robot game.”

Then along comes Alice’s birthday. Alice tells her parents the she want the new Roboy 2000 for her big birthday present from the family.

Ben was shocked because HE really wants the Roboy 2000 toy!!!  But his parents get it for Alice instead.

Some favorite lines:

“On the day of Alice’s birthday party, Ben has to put the wrapped Roboy 2000 on the presents table. It was so unfair. That’s when Ben had an idea.  He very quietly opened the wrapping paper. Then he very carefully opened the cardboard box and untwisted the little wires.”

And Ben looses himself in playing with Alice’s birthday present (before she opens it!!). He plays with it so vigorously that it hits the birthday piñata, spins out of control, falls on the floor and breaks!

Of course, that is when the doorbell rings and the birthday guests start to arrive!  Ben quickly hides the broken toy, wrapping paper and cardboard box.  

The party begins and everyone is having a great time dancing, playing games and eating.  Then it is time to open the gifts.  Alice is delighted with all the presents, but when Mom and Dad ask Ben where the family present is, he feels sick. 

He admits to what he has done and tries to make amends with Alice by giving her his very favorite robot. Alice forgives him and asks him to play with her, which, of course, is all she really wanted all along.

**Illustrations by the author are delightful and help carry the story, especially when things go awry for Ben when the robot crashes.  Have students search that illustration for where pieces of the robot fall in the room and how kids at the party end up with those pieces.

Suggested Uses as a Mentor Text:

Book Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Reading Workshop Strategies: Connecting, Inferring, Predicting, Understanding Character Actions, Boy Hook

Writing Workshop Strategies: Small Moment, Personal Narrative, Narrative, Memoir

Madeline Valentine’s website: http://www.madelinevalentine.com/

Ish

 by Peter H. Reynolds

Published 2004

Thank you Peter Reynolds for continuing  to influence and encourage creativity and individuality through your wonderfully poignant books!

Ish, by way of it’s simple but compelling message, inspires readers and writers, children and adults alike to be themselves, explore and find their creativity and be proud of what they can share with the world.  

As a mentor text in writing workshop, Ish is an excellent text to use with older students to focus on character development. Even though the book is not complicated—it is powerful and the emotions that the main character go through are worth noticing, discussing, and emulating into one’s writing. For younger students, Ish would be a good example of taking a ‘small moment’ and developing a story from that.

For reading strategies-the strategy of “Making a Connection” will be strong with some children in your class as they—or you—read Ish. 

Book Talk

Ramon loves to draw and draw he does! He draws anything, any time and anywhere…..until his brother, Leon, comes in and laughs, mocks and criticizes Ramon’s latest creation.

Ramon is horrified and humiliated. Leon’s criticism rings in his ears. As he continues to draw, he attempts to change his artistic style to make it ‘perfect’.  But Ramon never does live up to what he thinks Leon would approve of, so Ramon-while crumbling and throwing his latest picture—declares that he is ‘done” with drawing. 

Then along comes his sister, Marisol.

Marisol runs to retrieve Ramon’s latest crumbled up picture, then runs to her room with Ramon chasing her. When Ramon enter’s her room, he gets the surprise of his life!  Her walls were lined with his pictures that he had crumbled up over the past few months.

Some favorite lines:

“This is one of my favorites,” Marisol said, pointing.

“That was supposed to be a vase of flowers,” Ramon said. “but it doesn’t look like one.”

“Well, it looks vase-ISH!” she exclaimed.

“Vase-ISH?”

Ramon looked closer. 

Then he studied all the drawings on Marisol’s wall and began to see them in a new way.

“They do look…..ish,” he said.

Marisol helped Ramon to see his drawings in a new way—the ‘ish’ way—opening the door for more creativity and a much lighter heart for Ramon.  He begins to joyfully continue to let his artistic style develop…which even reaches over into ‘ish’ poetry!  

In the end, Ramon happily accepts himself, his drawings, his poetry and joyfully lives in his ‘ish’ world.

Suggested Uses As a Mentor Text:
Book Genre: Realistic Fiction

Reading Workshop Strategies: Making a Connection, Inferring, Synthesizing, Summarizing, Realistic Fiction

Writing Workshop Strategies: Character Development, Inspiring Writers, Narrative Writing, Small Moment, Strong/Clever Endings

Curricular Themes:  Self-confidence,Respecting individuals

Peter H. Reynolds' website: http://www.peterhreynolds.com/

Naked Mole Rat 

Gets Dressed

By Mo Willems

Published 2009

Awards/Recognition: Gold Medal-Parents’ Choice Award Spring 2009 Picture Books; Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Picture Book (2009); Black-Eyed Susan Book Awards - Picture Books 2011

So-when I was shelving Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed in the library the other day—I stopped and thought:

"What a GREAT mentor text to use in a writing workshop minilesson to model ‘writing a strong/ catchy title to grab the interest of your audience!!!”  

I mean—isn’t it??? 

Yes—students usually give a big chuckle with the word ‘naked’ (or ‘underwear’)……AND you might run the risk of students coming up with some titles of their own that may need to be dialed back a bit, but Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed  is a strong mentor to clearly demonstrate this important writing strategy to students.

Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed  also has a good amount of dialogue written in a simple, visual way that makes it also a good mentor when introducing dialogue and the correct use/placement of quotation marks.

In reality, the naked mole rat is an intriguing animal from East Africa with some fascinating adaptations to research, if students’ interest go in that direction after reading this book. 

Book Talk

Wilbur is a naked mole rat who loved to get dressed! The other naked mole rats were shocked when they see Wilbur, but Wilbur tried to politely explain how much he enjoys dressing up and pretending different personas.

Some favorite lines:

“I like clothes,” replied Wilbur. “When I get dressed I can be….fancy, or funny, or cool, or I can just be an astronaut.” (Mo Willems’  illustrations are perfect!)

When the others heard that, they said:

“Eeeeewww!”

“Yuck!” 

“If you like clothes so much, they why don’t you open a store or something?!”

Wilbur thought that was a wonderful idea and indeed opened a clothing store—but alas, he did not see much business!

When the others in the naked mole rat colony approached Wilbur again and told him bluntly that naked mole rats do NOT wear clothes—Wilbur simply responded by saying, “Why not?”

The other naked mole rats then went to Grand-pah for advise on what to do about Wilbur. Grand-pay was the oldest, wisest and most naked naked mole rat that ever- so the perfect naked mole rat to give advise!

The colony told Grand-pah all of their concerns about Wilbur.  Grand-pah left to think very deeply about the problem.

When Grand-pah returned, he shocked the colony by being completely dressed! He makes this proclamation:

“Fellow naked mole rats! I have never worn clothes until I heard Wilbur’s simple questions: Why not?

“Why not, indeed? Do clothes hurt anyone? No.”

Wilbur ran to get dressed up and so did some of the other naked mole rats! And from there on out—Wilbur’s clothes store flourished!

Suggested Uses as a Mentor Text:

Book Genre: Animal Fantasy

Reading Workshop Strategies: Fluency, Connecting, Inferring, Summarizing

Writing Workshop Strategies: Strong leads/ titles, Grammar-dialogue, Fantasy Writing

Mo Willems' website: http://www.mowillems.com/

The Black Rabbit 

By Philippa Leathers

Published 2013

Recognitions: 2014-2015 Florida Reading Association Children’s Book Award-Honorable Mention

The Black Rabbit is author’s Philippa Leathers first book--and she has published several others since The Black Rabbit. It is a simple, yet amusing and cleverly written story that can work well as a mentor text for narrative writing, especially in 1st -3rd grades.  The sentences are uncomplicated, but, along with the illustrations, carry the story with humor and keep interest high-which is always worth talking about with writers.  The Black Rabbit  has a fun twist at the end of the story that students will enjoy. This twist makes it a great mentor text for ‘strong endings’, especially for older students who may be new to Writing Workshop.

Book Talk

Rabbit wakes up one beautiful morning and steps outside ready for the day! Almost immediately, he noticed that he is not alone. Behind him on a rock was a very, very large black rabbit! (Students will notice right away that the ‘black rabbit’ is the rabbit’s shadow.)  Rabbit was scared and yelled at the big Black Rabbit to go away! 

The big Black Rabbit did not go away, but instead, followed Rabbit absolutely everywhere!  Rabbit tried to hide in all kinds of place, but still big Black Rabbit was always with him.

Some Favorite Lines:

But when Rabbit stepped out from behind the tree…there was the Black Rabbit right in front of him!

Maybe he is not a good swimmer like me, thought Rabbit, and he jumped into the river and swam to the other side.

But when he pulled himself up onto the bank…the Black Rabbit climbed out of the water, too!

Scared and nearly in a panic, the Rabbit ran as fast as he ever had before—straight into the deep, dark wood!  After he was deep in the wood, Rabbit stopped and rested.  While he was resting, he saw two big, scary eyes gleaming at him from the dark trees!  He thought it was Black Rabbit again, but no—it was a Wolf!

Some More Favorite Lines:

But it was NOT the Black Rabbit!

Rabbit ran as fast as he could out of the deep, dark forest, with Wolf close behind him.

Then Rabbit tripped!

Rabbit scrambled to his feet, but it was too late. He shut his eyes tight and waited for Wolf to attack…

But nothing happened, because Rabbit was out in the sunshine at this point….and there was the big Black Rabbit, yet again, this time to save the day!  Wolf took one look at the Black Rabbit and ran as fast and as deep in the wood that he could!  

And Rabbit and Black Rabbit became fast friends!

Suggest Uses as a Mentor Text:

Book Genre: Fiction / Animal Fantasy

Reading Workshop Strategies: Making Connections, Character Development, Fluency, Predicting, Inferring

Writing Workshop Stratregies: Narrative writing, Fantasy writing, Strong Endings

Philippa Leathers website: http://philippaleathers.com/

I Wanna Iguana 

by Karen Kaufman Orloff

Illustrated by David Catrow

Published 2004

Awards/ Recognition:  2005 IRA (International Reading Association) Notable Book,  2005-6 Read-Aloud Books Too Good To Miss AIME, Children's Book-of-the-Month Club selection, Junior Library Guild selection. I Wanna Iguana also received nominations in many state wide book awards including the 2006-07 California Young Reader Medal.

I totally agree with the “Read-Aloud Books Too Good To Miss” recognition that I Wanna Iguana  received!  What a fun book to use as a read-aloud in your class!  Many students will be able to relate to Alex, the main character, who desperately wants a pet—specifically an iguana—and tries everything under the sun to persuade his mother to get him one.

I Wanna Iguanna would be great mentor text for writing workshop for students writing an opinion or persuasive piece!  The format of humorous letters written back and forth between Alex and his mother would be an easy format for young writers (perhaps grades 1-3) to emulate to try to persuade someone of their strong opinion on a particular topic. The author does an excellent job of presenting a claim and supporting statements in each letter and in a format that would be easy to understand and apply for young writers.

David Catrow’s colorful and comical illustrations add to the humor and enjoyment of this book.

Book Talk

I Wanna Iguanna  starts with Alex writing a letter to his mother asking to take a friend’s iguana as a permanent friend. (The friend is moving away.)  Alex uses charm, reasoning, claims, supporting statements, evidence—everything you can think of to convince Mom to allow him to have the iguana. Mom’s letters back to Alex are full of humor—and don’t necessarily tell Alex an outright ‘no’—but rather raises questions.  Which, of course, in turn—motivates Alex to use more charm, reasoning, claims, supporting statements to persuade Mom!

Some Favorite Lines:

It was hard to pick my favorite letters, but here is an example of the fun, humor…and opinion writing, of course!

Dear Mom,

I know you don’t think I should have Mikey Gulligan’s baby iguana when he moves, but here’s why I should. If I don’t take it, he goes to Stinky and Stinky’s dog, Lurch will eat it. You don’t want that to happen, do you?

Signed, Your sensitive son, Alex

Dear Alex,

I’m glad you’re so compassionate, but I doubt that Stinky’s mother will let Lurch get into the iguana’s cage. Nice try, though.

Love, Mom

Later in the book….

Dear Mom,

Forget the girl. I need a new friend now! The iguana can be the brother I’ve always wanted.

Love, Your lonely child, Alex

Dear Alex,

You have a brother.

Love, Mom

The story continues in the back-and-forth amusing style of letters between mother and son, until Alex does the trick! Mom and Dad are finally convinced by Alex to give him a ‘trial-run’ with the iguana!

Suggested Uses as a Mentor Text:

Book Genre: Realistic Fiction

Reading Workshop Strategies: Connecting, Inferring, Fluency

Writing Workshop Genre and Strategies: Opinion Writing, Strong Lead, Strong Ending, Character Development, Writing with humor

Karen Kaufman Orloff’s website: http://www.karenkaufmanorloff.com/home.html

David Catrow’s website:http://www.catrow.com/