Billy Twitters and his Blue Whale Problemby Mac Barnett
illustrated by Adam Rex
Hyperion Books, 2009
review copy from my classroom library
I love the sly way this book weaves facts about blue whales into the story of a boy who doesn't clean his room.
"Billy Twitters, clean up your room, or we're buying you a blue whale, " his mother threatens. Billy doesn't take her seriously because he knows "a thing or two about blue whales."
But one day, a whale shows up outside his door and it's his responsibility...
The reader learns plenty of facts about blue whales in the text and the illustrations absolutely communicate the scale of a blue whale in a classroom, on a playground, and next to a school bus.
Billy comes up with a clever solution to both the problem of owning a blue whale AND the problem of cleaning his bedroom!
(Mac Barnett will be at
Cover to Cover Bookstore on March 7 from 10:30-12:00!)
The Blue Whaleby Jenni Desmond
Enchanted Lion Books, 2015
review copy provided by the publisher
This book works the same way. "Once upon a time, a child took a book from a shelf and started to read."
You guessed it. It was a book about blue whales.
The words we read are the words the boy is reading in his book about blue whales. But the pictures tell the story of what the boy imagines, how he conceptualizes sizes and distances and amounts, and sometimes what he does between page turns.
These will be two fun books to share with students to learn about blue whales and to invite conversations that compare and contrast the two books.
A Tale of Two Beastsby Fiona Roberton
Kane Miller, 2015
review copy provided by the publisher
I have a whole collection of books that have
two stories that dovetail in the middle. This one is similar, but instead of dovetailing, it has two parts, each told from a different point of view.
In the first part, a little girl discovers a strange beast stuck in a tree in the forest. She rescues it, takes it home, feeds it, dresses it, walks it, and shares it with her friends. The minute she opens the window, the beast runs away. Later that night, when the little girl is lying awake in her bed trying to figure out where she went wrong, the beast comes back.
In part two, a small furry forest animal (maybe a squirrel?) tells the story of being "ambushed by a terrible beast!" This beast ties him up and carries him away to her lair where he is subjected to any number of indignities. Finally, when she opens the window, he is able to escape. Later that night, when he is hanging upside down from a tree in the forest, he realizes that there might be a reason to go back.
Same story, two different points of view. Is there one beast in this story, or are there two? Depends how you look at it!
A fun book for children of any age who are working to understand point of view.
Enzo Races in the Rain/Enzo Picture Book #1by Garth Stein
illustrated by R.W. Alley
HarperCollins, 2014
review copy provided by the publisher
I love that look of surprise when you hand the right book to the right reader at just the right time. A review copy of Enzo Races in the Rain had just come, and I had a reader who was more than half of the way through
Racing in the Rain: My Life as a Dog, the kids' adaptation of The Art of Racing in the Rain.
When I put this book in her hands, the look on her face was priceless! Like I was a magician, or something!
She read it right away, noting all of the ways it is different from Racing in the Rain. She was surprised that the story in the picture book didn't even get to chapter three in her book. (If I had seen that the full title includes "Enzo Picture Book #1, that would perhaps have explained that...) We noticed the careful marketing -- the cover background and font colors are exactly the same as Racing in the Rain (and the adult version, as well) and the dog looking out at the reader from the picture book matches the dog on her book. Except for the checkerboard collar. But we developed a theory about that.
My reader took the picture book home to read to her 5 year-old brother. After reading it again to him, she noted these similarities and differences:
SAME
•Enzo is in both
•Pile of stuffed animals is in both (although the "evilness" of the zebra is not dealt with in the picture book)
•Enzo is born on a farm
DIFFERENT
•The Farmer in the picture book is The Alpha Man in the chapter book
•Zoe is already born in the picture book, but is born later in the chapter book
•Enzo doesn't run with cars in the book
The biggest difference she noted was that Racing in the Rain is not about a dog running with cars in a rain storm (as portrayed in the picture book). It is about a dog whose owner is a race car driver. The checkerboard collar seems to be the only evidence of auto racing.
My reader's little brother didn't like the book much. But that's likely because he's more into superheroes than dog stories.
