Spotlight Friday - Willy's Stories 1.15.16

Time to get ready for the weekend!

Kick up your feet and find a good place to read.

Sharing #booklove for your classroom or library.

Spotlighting a book or two because these books deserve the spotlight!

Willy's Stories

by Anthony Browne

published by Candlewick Press

Inferring is always a difficult concept to find and interpret.  This book is a perfect introduction and I love the possibilities it has for students to try a little bit on their own.  

I think it is so important to start lessons with generalizable language.  This book is great to start a conversation with students about how authors often give us just clues to what they are talking about.  It's up to us to fill in what is not being said.

In the book Willy's Stories, Anthony Browne right away only gives us clues as to where his main character is.  We see our main character, Willy, who is a primate animal (monkey?), dressed in school clothing, walking into a brick building with a backpack.  We're told he goes through the doors and "something incredible happens.  I go on amazing adventures." 

• Where is he?  School? He has on school clothing and a backpack.
• What adventures is he talking about?
• How does he get to these adventures?

The rest of the book shows Willy on adventure after adventure.  We get little snippets of what happens on these adventures, with Anthony Browne's signature illustrations accompanying them.  As we read these adventures, they start to sound a bit familiar....  Some will certainly be more familiar with students than others, in fact, some will probably be completely unfamiliar.  Each adventure ends at an important part of the story with a question asking the reading if they can guess what happens next.  Familiar details in stories will stand out to students - characters such as Friar Tuck, Captain Hook, Mr. Toad.  Actions such as falling down a rabbit hole, climbing a silken rope to the top of a tower, being swallowed by a whale.  Or seeing familiar sights such as a yellow, brick road.

• How did you know what book it was giving you clues about?  
• What made those clues stand out to you?
• Why did the author choose these clues?

 At the end of the book, our inferences are proven right or wrong as we see Willy carrying books with spines showing titles such as:  Peter Pan, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Rapunzel.  

Once having that information, it would be fun to go back and reread the story.  Did students pick up new clues on the reread?

Happy Reading!