All journeys have a starting place.
This is a weekly place to find books and tools
that you may use with readers
at the start of their independent reading journey.
Join in the conversation at #road2reading.
As many of you know, I run a Mock Geisel at my school for the kindergarten and first grade students. I love exposing these students to some amazing literature, but it sure is hard to guess what books the Geisel committee is actually going to bless with an award! I often only have one correct book - in fact it is a celebration if I get any correct! Today I'm sharing the books the Geisel committee handed out awards and honors to this year that I had not read. I also have some books that I found as a result of the actual award winning books. And a new one for this year from a Geisel award winning author/illustrator.
See Pip Flap
by David Milgrim
I was surprised to see another book featuring Otto the robot be awarded since we just had one win the Honor, but here he is again! Although this time it's his friend Pip that gets top billing.
Pip just wants to fly by flapping his... well, arms. Otto tries to help by building a drone-like contraption and while Pip enjoys it, it's not quite the same as flying. Otto ends up putting Pip on the drone and flying him around which suits him better.
Otto did put a helmet on Pip, but no seat belt. I was a bit concerned with that :)
Cute story, but I think there were some others that stood out even more. However, if the Geisel committee is truly looking at books for those early readers, the sight words and decodable words in a book like this are just right!
Fox the Tiger
by Corey R. Tabor
Yet another Geisel winner I had never heard of. I made sure to order the book right away and after reading it, I can see why it had been a Geisel contender.
- full of sight words and decodable text
- words are supported by the illustrations (the only one that really wasn't was the word "prowl")
- engaging story that for a sight word reader, really had a lot of heart!
- great message within the story
After reading about the mighty tiger, Fox decides that's the animal he wants to be. So grabbing some black paint and adding stripes, Fox becomes Tiger! He sets off a trend because Turtle becomes Race Car and Rabbit becomes Robot (I wonder if Cece Bell knows about this???). It takes Squirrel reminding Fox all of the reasons that foxes are so great before he realizes that he's not so bad after all.
Fox is Late
by Corey R. Tabor
And since I was picking up the Geisel winning book I figured I might as well get another book in the series!
This one is good too but doesn't have the same heart as Fox the Tiger.
Fox is skateboarding past all of the animals and maybe whizzing past them too quickly. They all start chasing Fox as he continues his mad chase to get his lunch. A sweet surprise for everyone at the end.
See Zip Zap
by David Milgrim
Written by the author of the Otto series, I saw this book on a few Mock Geisel lists and figured I would check it out too. This one is written for readers who learning sight words and word chunks, it follows a pattern of using a lot of words that have -ap and -ip. Great for independent practice, but it often leaves much to be desired for the storyline. This one is cute, but I was getting confused with the two character names since they are silly (Zip, Chip and Bip....).
Good Boy
by Sergio Ruzzier
Here's an early contender for the 2020 award and author Ruzzier is no stranger to the Geisel Award having picked up an Honor for this year's Fox and Chick: The Party and Other Stories.
What kind of adventures can a boy and his dog have in a day? The book starts out with typical dog tricks, but then moves on to some fancier activities like sailing, building, and then flying into space! Told with just one word per page, the picture clues will assist readers independently read this fun dog and boy adventure!
I'm thrilled with the quality of books we have to offer our readers who are starting their independent reading journey. Which ones are you adding to your library?
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