#IMWAYR - Feb. 29

A huge thanks to Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers for hosting us for the kidlit version of #IMWAYR!!

Every Day Birds by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater is a lovely and informational book about birds Amy notices every day. I was fortunate enough to pick this up a week ago at the Dublin Literacy Conference, a few days before its "official" birthday. I am mesmerized by both its colorfulness and its simplicity. Every Day Birds will be a great mentor text for young writers - choosing something you see every day, and expanding thinking around it. The words Amy chooses are lyrical, and though not positioned in a way that the reader can see, if they pay attention to the "sound" of the words, the reader will notice the rhyming pattern. I love how Amy put the words and lines altogether in the back  of the book so that the reader can visualize the rhyming pattern and see the individual pages as belonging together as one poem.

Another purchase on the day of the Dublin Literacy Conference was Egg: Nature's Perfect Package by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. I love everything on which this husband/wife team choose to collaborate. Egg is no exception! Another great mentor text to have in the classroom. It is a wonderful book for students who love life science and animals. It is a great mentor for main idea, key details, informational text features, and informational text structures, just to name a few. I love this book, because just like many others they have written for children, I find that I learn many new things about animals myself!!

I'm glad to be back in the reading community on Mondays. Really looking forward to what others are reading!