Cat Secrets by Jef Czekaj

"Read it again!" -my 5 year old every time we finished...

Cat Secrets
by Jef Czekaj






What it's About (in one sentence):
Cats have a book of secrets from which they read aloud when only cats are present, and you don't look like a cat.



What I love:
Kids will laugh. 
They will meow and stretch and interact with this book. 
And then they will want you to read it again.
 
The three cats in this book are about to start reading from the book of cat secrets when they see you, the reader. You don't look like a cat, but they give you the benefit of the doubt and decide to test your catworthiness through meowing, stretching, purring and napping.

The cat dialogue in this book is pure fun and begs for
voices and expression from the reader.


My Favorite Part:
The entire time the three cats are concerned about you and whether or not you really are a cat, a mouse in the background is doing everything it can think of to steal the book of cat secrets. 
I love this added story layer. Kids will love watching for what the mouse is doing next.
The cats are totally oblivious, and when the final test of napping comes around, the mouse finally gets it's paws on the book of Cat Secrets.

Other Connections:
This picture book is written entirely in dialogue bubbles. Cat Secrets is a good early example to use for explaining what order to read dialogue bubbles in a frame. Certain pages are not read strictly left to right - the reader must also be sure to start with the bubble closest to the top of the page - even if it not the farthest left.

Turtle's Penguin Day by Valeri Gorbachev

Turtle's Penguin Day
by Valeri Gorbachev

What it's about:
Little Turtle's dad reads him a story about penguins at bedtime - the next day he pretends to be a penguin and convinces his friends at school to play along.

What I love:
This book totally nails that developmental phase for so many kids of pretend-playing whatever you learn about, read or watch. Perhaps I connect so much with this book because every day at my house I hear from my 5 year old "let's play (insert topic of interest or title of book/show here). I'll be ________ and you be __________!" My favorite has been "let's play superhero, robot dogs" - a combination of multiple favorite interests.
When Turtle and his friends at school play "penguin", their fun gets incorporated into music class, recess, and even rest time.
Student's love the ending when the following night Turtle's dad reads a bedtime story about monkeys. The last page (the copyright page at the end) shows an image of Turtle ready for school dressed as a monkey. They enjoy predicting all the things that might happen as Turtle and his friends at school pretend to be monkeys, and what Turtle's dad might read the night after that.

My favorite part:
Whenever Turtle has "penguin dreams", he is pictured with his head on a penguin's body. In the part of the story where he and his classmates are all having penguin dreams at rest time, each different animal is pictured with their head on a penguin's body. Every group I have read to loves this page and wants to connect each sleeping animal with their dreamy penguin counterpart.


Other connections:
Animal Fantasy is the way I start to introduce the genre of fantasy in Kindergarten. Talking about what makes a story fantasy or an "impossible story" gets a little complicated when the discussion turns to questions of "what about the tooth fairy?", or "but Santa is real, right?"
In Kindergarten we can dig into the difference between realistic animal stories vs. those that have animals walking, talking and dressing up like people without challenging beliefs about magic or family traditions.

One Dog Canoe by Mary Casanova

One-Dog Canoe

by Mary Casanova

I just shared this with Kindergartners. I have read this book countless times - and every time it makes me smile, and every time kids clamor to check it out... so I had to add it here.

What it's about:

A young girl goes out for a canoe ride with her dog, larger and larger animals keep asking to come along (ending with a little frog), until they capsize and end up having a "good swim".

What I love:

One Dog-Canoe just feels good to read out loud - it's like a meal of good words - the writing flows with lyrical rhyming and onomatopoeia.  

I love good repeating lines and predictable patterns that students can join in on. Each new animal arrives on the scene asking "can I come too?" And the girl's response becomes a pattern of all the animals met along the way.

My favorite line:

"and with a push-a-swoosh --glide-- ..." - because not only is it a perfect description of pushing off with the canoe, it's just darn fun to say.

Other connections:

The Kindergartners at my school "research" Minnesota in the spring, this book is great to share during that time because its MN connections. Since the students learn about native animals, we end up talking about the bear - which is brown and not black in the book (brown or grizzly bears are no longer native to MN).

I like to pair One Dog-Canoe with Jan Brett's The Umbrella, set in a Cloud Forest. The pattern of the story is similar, but the setting makes a nice contrast for a discussion of "what's the same?" and "what's different?"

Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown

Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown (2010)

What it's about:

Lucy Bear is out in the woods, she finds a little boy and convinces her mother to let her keep him as a pet.

What I love:

Kids love the humorous twist that a bear wants a kid as a pet. That twist plays out in the story perfectly. Being of a certain age, it reminds me of Daffy Duck and the Abominable Snowman: "I will name him George, and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him." The younger readers don't understand that reference, but it adds a little something for me. 

Peter Brown so clearly convey emotions on the bears faces, providing opportunities to ask younger kids how they think the character feels at that point in the story using "picture clues". 

Students may or may not personalize the idea that not everything you "find" is something for you to own and control, or see that there is some sort of double standard for dogs (Squeaker, the little boy, has a dog for a pet), but they love the fact that after Lucy Bear decides to let the little boy stay with his family, she sees and elephant and clearly hasn't learned a thing. This last picture is perfect for a "what do you think happens next?" discussion. 

My Favorite part:

I love that Mama bear calls Lucy bear by her full name when she first brings Squeaker home. That was always a sign of something serious when I was growing up. I also like the clear voice (for all you fans of 6+1 traits) that comes through with Mama bear and Lucy at that point. 

Other Connections:

This is a good read to connect to learning about genres. There are many ways a story can be fantasy ("an impossible made up story"). Stories where animals act like humans are a common sub-genre in children's picture books, and an easy one for students to learn to recognize and remember as fantasy.

Read Aloud Today!