Reading These Books With Kids is So Much Fun! #booklove #IMWAYR

I receive an email from a teacher:

I’m looking for some books that rhyme and are written by #ownvoice authors. Do you know of any?

I search through my stacks and find

and

I then search online and order

I have read the first two many times and shared them with teachers over the years, but I have never had the privilege of reading them with kids.

Since I am partnering with this teacher’s district, I offered to “Zoom In” and read them with her Kindergarten class. BEST. DECISION. EVER.

They laughed. They boogied in their rooms. They grooved in their seats. They begged to read it again and again.

These books have rhythm, rhyme, plot, play on words, characters you will meet in other books, and text features at the end with facts, definitions, and even a historical timeline. Once you have read and reread these books, students may turn to them as mentor texts. There are so MANY craft moves young writers will want to try out in their own writing:

Thought shots, speech bubbles, and strong feelings in the pictures and the words.

Ellipses and font size/color variation.

Repetition, action, and comparative language.

I have since read these books with lots of K-2 students virtually. No amount of distance can make these books feel remote when read aloud to a community of young readers and writers. I was so glad I was using my standing desk so I could swing and sway along with them.

Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band is available for free digitally on Epic. I added it to the Read Aloud shelf in the Free Virtual Bookroom I created. The other titles are available in paperback. I hope Kwame Alexander plans on adding more books to this series.

Happy Reading!