Stacey Loscalzo

Apr 12

Not Disappointed

by Stacey

I’ve written before about the joy I feel when books that are hyped are actually worth all the excitement that surrounds them.

I had heard and read so much about two books lately that when I saw them in my favorite book store this week, I wondered. Would they be any good at all?

No need for worry…

Green, by the amazingly talented Laura Vaccaro Seeger, is a work of art. Caroline summed it up perfectly when she said, “Those paintings are incredible!” Each page truly is a painting, not a book page or even an illustration but a painting. Seeger takes the concept of green and shows it’s many variations. There are two words per page making the book, after many read alouds (which would not be hard to accomplish), a potential Read Together Book.

And then there is Kelly Bingham and Paul O. Zelinsky‘s Z is for Moose. The reading specialist in me makes me a tough critic of alphabet books. In fact, there are few that I truly love. I find that people try too hard with them and as a result, they are often useless for teaching the alphabet. While Z is for Moose isn’t quite a straight forward alphabet book, it is so clever and so funny that I love it. In fact, I laughed out loud standing in the store while I read it.

So there are two more books to add to your shelf… Enjoy!

One Comment

  1. Jen Strange says:

    you know, I JUST made a note to myself a few days ago to write a post about WHY I don’t approve of most alphabet books from a literacy education perspective LOL. I like the playfulness and discovery aspect of ABC books, but when you’re using random words that don’t represent the sounds each letter typically represents in a way that beginners can understand, you’re just confusing people . . . for instance, “elephant” as an E word – kids usually think it starts with the letter L! Of course, I am ALL ABOUT mastery of basic code FIRST and then moving on from there. And I know other people have different opinions about that. šŸ™‚

    I’ll have to look for these books next time I’m in the bookstore. I did get a kick out of the new ABC book, LMNO Peas.

    jen

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