Spotlight Friday: Twenty Yawns 4.01.16

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!

Happy Book Birthday to Twenty Yawns!  If you haven't already preordered a copy, I hope by the end of this post you're running out to get a copy or two!  It's simply gorgeous and I can't wait to have more people reading this book to all the young readers out there.

Twenty Yawns

written by Jane Smiley

illustrated by Lauren Castillo

published by Two Lions

Twenty Yawns is the story of Lucy.  She has had an amazing day at the beach, playing with her parents - in the sand, in the water, in the dunes - in fact, it's been the longest she's ever stayed at the beach!  But now it's time to return to home, and that's when the *yawns* begin.  Lucy gets ready for bed with pre bedtime routines that many readers will recognize - night time story, and the ever present need to have all of your stuffed animals in bed with you.  As Lucy goes through all of her routines, more yawns ensue until finally, everyone is asleep.

I adore this story, but it's Lauren Castillo's illustrations that absolutely amazed me.  First of all, I love that she traveled to California for inspiration for these drawings.  You see in the little details how this added to the scenery of the story - palm trees, the beach and the mountains.  Another fun detail about the illustrations is they were done digitally!  As I pour over each page, I am fascinated with HOW Lauren did each picture.  There is one page I can't wait for you to read - as I turned to it I literally gasped out loud!  As I read it to students, there were so many different comments that I never even had to prompt them to make!

I'm happy to say that Twenty Yawns will absolutely go over well with your readers!  I've already shared it with my students and they adored it.  Here are some kid comments as proof that this is a book you will want to share:

• They loved going back through the book and counting all 20 of those yawns.  And you know what that means?  They went back to the book, and back to the book, and back...  Yup, this book is one of those that kids want to keep returning to over and over again!
• Students loved seeing things that they've done - one of their favorite illustrations was the daddy swinging Lucy around in a circle.  That illustration really resonated with them - even if they hadn't been to a beach, they've had someone swing them around and play with them.  
• There is an illustration of the family walking down the beach together and we see them in 3 places.  Kids picked up on the time-lapse illustration.  I thought this was interesting, because typically we see time pass by turning the page, but this one particular page has the time-lapse all on the same page.  The kids really liked that!
• When you read this, pay special attention to how the child-drawn pictures on Lucy's wall change.  There were gasps when they noticed this - so cute!

This book has so much to return to and talk more about.  

Share this book with your students.  Share this book with your own children!

Twenty Yawns is currently out on a book journey!  What is that?  Lauren Castillo has donated a copy of the book that is being sent all over the United States so teachers and students can read and listen to this gorgeous book then add their own comments on the end pages.  When the journey ends, we'll return the book to Lauren so she can read the students' thoughts.  Would you like to be part of the book journey?  Let me know how to contact you in the comments below, or send me a message on Twitter!  Please remember we are trying to get Twenty Yawns to as many schools as we can so be quick and pass it along to the next person.  Let's keep the journey going!

I will leave you with this too cute book trailer!  Enjoy and *yawn*!