Sunday, September 7, 2014

The Big Fat Cow That Goes Kapow

A couple of years ago, I came across at book for early readers called The Cat on the Mat is Flat by Australian author Andy Griffiths and illustrated by Terry Denton. I have been using it with some of my second graders because there is lots of rhyming and alliteration and the type is large and well-spaced.  The nine stories are only a few pages long,  and both the text and line drawings are funny. Kids seemed to like reading the stories. Rhyming helps kids increase their vocabulary rapidly.

The Cat on the Mat is Flat

Thanks to the Imagination Soup blog, I have discovered another Andy Griffiths, Terry Denton collaboration, The Big Fat Cow That Goes Kapow. The ten stories in this volume are less wordy but still very rhyme-y (and according to the cover, slimy)  and the text and drawings are again,very funny. 

The Big Fat Cow that goes Kapow

One copy of The Big Fat Cow That Goes Kapow and four copies of The Cat on the Mat is Flat are available from the Sonoma County Library. The Yulupa Library has one copy of The Big Fat Cow Goes Kapow and lists its reading level as 1.7.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

A Trip to the Bottom of the World With Mouse

One of the books recommended by Melissa Taylor in the previous post for 5 and 6 year olds is Frank Viva’s A Trip To The Bottom Of the World With Mouse. It has been sitting on my bookshelf for months, so it is about time to get around to it. Mouse and his explorer friend are on a ship headed to Antarctica. The seas are rough and Mouse would like to turn around and go back home, but the trip becomes worth it when they get to see penguins, whales and swim in the warm water of a submerged volcano. The book is based on a trip the author took to Antarctica (he is Mouse). You can read more about it and see some pictures of the trip here.

What makes this a terrific book for beginning readers is large, well-spaced type, few words on a page, repetition and pairing words with pictures. Not to mention, it is a good story.

A Trip To The Bottom of the World

The Sonoma County Library has a few copies.