Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Animal Heroes: Supermoms! - review 3.07.23

 When we think about all the things moms and grown-ups and caregivers do, it's quite the list.  From carting the kids around place to place, keeping up with everything a youngster needs, meal planning and packing, and organizing the household, it's definitely a full time job!  But did you know animal moms have the same job?

SUPERMOMS: ANIMAL HEROES. Text Copyright © 2023 Jamie Harper and Heather Lang. 
Illustrations Copyright © 2023 Jamie Harper. 
Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.


Animal Heroes: Supermoms!
written by Heather Lang and Jamie Harper
illustrated by Jamie Harper
published by Candlewick Press



Heather Lang and Jamie Harper have teamed up to give us an inside look at the supermoms of the animal world.  The life of a mom seems to be similar whether you're mammal or reptile; live in the sea or take to the sky.  Even animal moms have to cart their children around, just maybe, not in a minivan!  As Lang and Harper share, animal supermoms transport their young around on their backs or on their chest or even in their mouths!  Now, that's a different form of transportation!  And just like their human counterparts, animal supermoms will stop at nothing to sacrifice everything to support their young!  From starving themselves, or searching for food for months, they work hard to make sure those young ones are satisfied!

SUPERMOMS: ANIMAL HEROES. Text Copyright © 2023 Jamie Harper and Heather Lang. 
Illustrations Copyright © 2023 Jamie Harper. 
Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.


Let's not forget about making a safe and comfortable home.  Decorating with the latest style (nothing like some mud and poop, like the red-knobbed hornbill) or separating the children into their own rooms (thanks, strawberry poison frog mom), these animal supermoms have it covered!

SUPERMOMS: ANIMAL HEROES. Text Copyright © 2023 Jamie Harper and Heather Lang. 
Illustrations Copyright © 2023 Jamie Harper. 
Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.


I love the format author/illustrator Jamie Harper has taken with this book.  Using a comic book type format with the different frames on the layouts, this supermom book mimics some superhero type reading!

I know young readers will enjoy the facts covered in this story and will have a new appreciation of these amazing animals.  Grade levels that use the NGSS and study animal adaptations and parent/offspring traits will benefit using this book as a read aloud.  This is the first in the "Animal Heroes" series that will be celebrating the animals in the world around us.

ELA tie-in:
Let's talk character traits.  A common standard for readers is to identify character traits.  So often when I ask young readers to describe a character I get overgeneralized traits - happy, sad, mad.  Trying to come up with a myriad of words that don't oversimplify a trait or feeling is complicated for students.  However, this is a perfect book to share when discussing how to come up with lesser used synonyms for these words!  The backmatter of this book has an excellent layout that gives an adjective describing an animal that was discussed in the text.  By collecting these words, young readers will have a wonderful tool for generating a whole new set of traits to use when describing characters.

Join me in wishing this book a happy, happy book birthday today!

For additional resources and activities be sure to visit heatherlangbooks.com/supermoms and jamieharper.com.


Would you like to add a copy of this book to your library?  Thanks to the generosity of Candlewick Press, I have a giveaway copy for one lucky winner (US only).  Winner will be selected on March 14th.



1 comment:

  1. This looks like such a delightful picture book, Michele—the combination of animal facts and entertaining writing seems pretty much irresistible to young readers! And I love hearing about your practical classroom tie-in for the book too. Thanks so much for the wonderful post!

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