Raising Readers and Writers

  What a great night…it’s storming outside, the aroma of homemade chocolate chip cookies fills the house, and I get to check out a new book.  Dinosaur Woods  is  about a group of seven animals who band together to save their forest home from The Plas – tic Trees Factory.  They come up with a grand plan that actually falls apart (literally); however, they are still successful in halting the destruction of their home.  It turns out that each of the animals is either endangered or extinct. 

I like this book for several reasons.  First, it will spark conversations about saving animal habitats, as well as endangered and extinct animals.  There is also a lot going on with the author’s craft…there are side conversations going on apart from the main text of the story, the author uses different sizes of print and a variety of punctuation, blueprints and directions on how to make your own dinosaur monster are included, and the author uses labels to identify the animals.  The cartoon-like collages used for the illustrations will also give students ideas for their own illustrations.  Maybe the best thing about the book is the author’s message…if you all work together, you can solve big problems, even if you are one of the “little people.”