For my book talk this week, I have choosen the book "Are You My Mother?" by P. D. Eastman. It's a really cute book about two birds, a mother and her chick, that get seperated and the journey back to eachother. In the beginning, the mother leaves her unhatched egg, expecting that it will be hungry when it hatches, to go find food. While she's gone, the egg hatches and the baby bird is confused as to where his mother is. His decision to go find her brings him on a wild journey leaving him longing for home. He asks different animals and inanimate things if they are his mother (a kitten, a hen, a dog, a cow, an old car, a boat, an airplane, and a power shovel). When he comes to the power shovel, it makes a loud snort that causes him to think that it's name is "snort!" When it begins to move, he becomes frightened and wishes to go home. Little does he know, the power shovel picks him up and drops him back into his nest just before his real mother comes home with his first meal.
I would recommend "Are You My Mother? " for a kindergarten to first grade class. This book has a few aspects that caught my attention. The first is the repetition in book. There are plenty of words that are repeated and reinforced. "The egg jumped. It jumped and jumped and jumped." "But where? Where is she? Where could she be?" Another is the passage way to discuss onomatopeia when he names the power shovel a "snort!"Additionally this could go with a science lesson about animals and their babies.
I found the video below on Youtube that has someone reading the book aloud while the pictures are shown. I had an idea that I would want to try in my class. First I want to read the book aloud without showing the pictures of the book. After, I would ask my students to draw a picture of how they think the different characters in the book looks. After they finished, I would play this video and we can discuss if they think these are good illustrations of the book. Why or why not? Do their pictures match these? etc.
I remember reading this book all the time when I was little. My mom actually has it in her kindergarten calss with her collection of Dr. Suess books, so it is definately a primary level read. I think the plot is very adorable however something about this book just does not bring Dr. Suess to mind, possible because it is not by Dr. Suess himself. I think the repetition is great though especially ofr younger children because it helps them a lot with vocabulary. When a word repeats itself, the children are mosre likely to know and understand what that word means. So great classroom applications.
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