The Missouri Reader Vol. 40, Issue 3 | Page 43

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This book was a perfect lead into our classroom

discussion about our school and helped stimulate

my students’ minds to provide reasons why they

like school. I also like this book because it teaches

students character development by teaching kids

how to do school. The moral of this story is for

students to try new things, such as school and to

keep a good attitude because it will all eventually

work out in the end. I think this is a great lesson for

children and adults alike.

Spit and Sticks: A Chimney Full of Swifts by Marilyn

Grohoske Evans; Illustrated by Nicole Gsel

A Review by Elizabeth Boxell

Read aloud level: K-2

Independent Reading Level: 2-3

Genre: Fiction, science trade book

Rating: 5 stars

The children’s book Spit and Sticks follows a

family of chimney swift birds as they migrate to a

home, hatch their babies, and eventually fly south

again. While the text focuses on the birds, the

illustrations include a parallel story of the family of

the house as they welcome a new baby and have

their lives progress as the birds’ do. This story

would be a wonderful addition to any elementary

classroom library. The illustrations are beautiful

watercolors, the text is lively and engaging, and

children are led to relate to the birds through the

addition of the family. As a science trade book, this

story is a great introduction to any animal unit, as it

effortlessly leads children through the life cycle of

the chimney swift, including details of basic needs

such as swooping down to drink from a pond,

eating “soggy fat flies and beetles,” and migrating

south for the winter.

The last page of the text is purely information. It

includes comprehensive information about the

chimney swift bird species, as well as a “what you

can do” section that encourages children to

learnmore about chimney swifts, be aware of their

habitats, and a website where they can learn more

about the birds.

Although the reading level is geared toward lower

elementary, this text would work well in an upper

elementary classroom library. It can be used as a

launching pad for a research project into animal life

cycles, animal habitats, food chains, and even

conservation. This book could also be when

teaching several of the Next Generation Science

Standards ranging from grades 2-8, as well as

several of the current Missouri Learning Standards

ranging in grades from K-6. As a lower elementary

text, it works well to integrate science and

literature and is a must for any school that has

integrated their science curriculum into their

reading instruction.

years. I’m sure her colleague appreciated the

information. That kind of interchange is repeated

on this site daily. The site has over 20,000

followers. Kudus to Brett Whitmarsh, Elizabeth

Silvis and Cathy Brophy at Heinemann who

developed and support this site. Teachers can come

to it for help in using the ideas in Serravallo’s

books to grow their ability to effectively carry out

workshop and guided reading in their classroom.

The site is one additional resource that helps to

make Serravallo’s books even more useful.

In light of all this I think you understand why I

enthusiastically label this book as the “must have”

professional book for 2017. You’ll have to excuse

me now, I’m off to do a lesson on gathering in the

writing process, and I think I know just the place to

get some great ideas for my lesson.

For additional information, click here for

Serravallo’s complete Podcast about the book:

http://www.heinemann.com/blog/the-heinemann-podcast-the-writing-strategies-book/.

Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, by Eric

Litwin, illustrated by James Dean

A Review by Frances R. Shipman

STEAM Academy Impact Teacher

Imperial Beach, CA

Grade level appropriate for K-3

Independent Reading level is Second Grade

5 out of 5 Stars

Fiction (Character Development)

CCSS: W.1.1., L.1.1., L.1.2., SL.1.1.

Story Elements:

• Main theme: School

• Plot: Pete is unsure about his first day of school

Writer’s style: Casual, funny, and upbeat

Value of illustrations: James Deans’ cartoon

character drawing of Pete the Cat lends to this

character’s charm and casual style of teaching kids

how to do school

Opinion: I love Pete the Cat because he teaches

children what school and life is all about and the

most important theme of this book and the rest of

the Pete the Cat series is to teach kids not to worry

because it’s all good.

It’s Pete the Cat’s first day of school and he is

unsure of all the new things he is about to

encounter. But Pete the Cat is wearing his famous

school shoes which give him the courage to

discover new places in the school house.

Pete the Cat is very popular in our first grade

classroom and students loved this read aloud of

Pete the Cat, Rocking in My School Shoes. I used this

book to teach a lesson on opinion writing, where

students wrote about their opinion of our school.