During the last two weeks we have run an activity with our Year 9 and 10 English classes where the students get together in pairs to read each of the books in either the Early Childhood and Picture Book of the Year categories.
Here are some of their responses to the books:
The book I liked best was Kissed By The Moon. I liked it because it had very interesting illustrations and the reflected the words on the page to a good standard. A nice read all ’round. A peaceful story with a happy ending. I like happy endings.
The book I liked best was King Pig. I liked it because it was about greediness and that will always be a huge problem.
The book I liked best was Granny Grommet and Me. I liked it because it had great illustrations and a fun storyline with descriptive words.
The book I liked best was The Swap. I liked it because it made sense and it wasn’t repetitive. The crocodiles were funny.
The book I liked best was Rules of Summer. I liked it because it had very nice and detailed illustrations to impart the story, and with enough text to explain the entire story.
The book I liked best was Banjo and Ruby Red. I liked it because it led me through a series of emotions and left me feeling warm and fuzzy inside.
The book I liked best was The Treasure Box. I liked it because it showed that no matter what you do or don’t have you can be happy with it, and love it and what it means to you.
The book I liked best was Silver Buttons. I liked it because the whole book is set within a time space of one minute, however you don’t realise this until the end, making the child’s first step seem insignificant.
The book I liked best was Parachute. I liked it because it demonstrated the change in grown yup. When he was young everything was exaggerated, until he grew older and then he towered over the elephant.
The book I liked best was Baby Bedtime. I liked it because it was really cute and it had good colours and storyline, The words were interesting and it had a lot of meaning in it.
The book I liked best was I’m a Dirty Dinosaur. I liked it because it flowed really well, it was fun to read and the illustrations were really unique.
The book I liked best was The Windy Farm. I liked it because it is about hardships and forgiveness, and the book’s ending is enjoyable.
The students had three minutes to read each book, discuss it and then score it out of 10. Then, once six books had been read, the students had to pick their favourite title and write down why. We used an idea from the Ipswich Teacher-Librarian network Book Week activity book, and the booklets were designed by our Junior Teacher-Librarian, Mrs Ross.
The winner of the Early Childhood Category was Banjo and Ruby Red, with The Snap and Granny Grommet and Me as Honour books
The winner of the Picture Book Category was Rules of Summer, with The Windy Farm, King Pig, and The Treasure Box as Honour books.
This activity was heaps of fun for the students and teachers, and we recommend it to teachers to use with all age groups.
The DAB is an after-school program that meets at the State Library Victoria once a week to discuss all things Inside a Dog, from design to content to programming, and to talk about books and writing. Weekly board meetings will involve everything from brainstorming sessions to writing workshops to author visits, and will be supervised by staff from the Centre for Youth Literature. The program will take place over terms 2 & 3, and is entirely free.
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