The Brainstorm 69: The Are You My Mother-ish Quartet

A set of four animal picture books that could be used separately or in any combination together. The three fiction books feature an animal looking for another animal and receiving varied responses from other critters along the way, as in the classic Are You My Mother?

Picture Book Resources

Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
Mother bird goes and looks for something to eat for her baby who is about to hatch. But the baby comes out of his shell before mother bird gets back, and he goes around asking everyone and everything he meets, "Are you my mother?"

Activity Tie-ins:

• Matching: Find pictures of the animals that are mentioned in this book as well as their young and have young children match the little ones with their mothers.
• Predicting: Because of the repetitive nature of the text, this is a good book for young kids to practice predicting what will come next.
• Early Read: The repetitive nature of this text is good for beginning readers. See if they can start to match the words on the page with the words you say over and over, “Are you my mother?” by pointing to them as you read and then asking them to point to them later in the book.
• Living/Non-living: Baby bird asks a machine if it is his mother, which many readers will find silly. But how can we distinguish between living and nonliving? What are characteristics that distinguish the two groups?

Max the Brave (Max, #1) by Ed Vere
Max is a kitten. A kitten who prefers the title of brave rather than cute. To prove his bravery he will chase a mouse...if he can find out what a mouse is. Max goes around asking the various animals if they've seen Mouse, they point him along the way and eventually he thinks he's found a Mouse. But is the Mouse really a mouse?

Activity Tie-ins:

• Compare/Contrast: Compare/contrast this with Are You My Mother? Max asking a series of creatures if they've seen Mouse and getting continually pointed onward definitely has similarities. Of course, I guess this one is more like, "Are you my arch nemesis?" But in an adorably cute way. 
• Plot Diagraming: This would be a good book to practice plot diagrams on as the plot is simple and the crisis moment is obvious.
• Predicting: Like Are You My Mother? this one has a pattern that makes it easy to predict, but the twist at the end may stump several readers. (The real mouse is trying to mislead Max by calling a different thing a mouse.)
• Predetor/Prey Relationship: A cute way to introduce the science topic of predator and prey.
• Trickster Tales: The Mouse is quite the trickster character and fits well in the pattern of trickster folk tales. If you’re looking for a simple trickster tale, pick this one. You can also have kids compare Mouse with other tricksters and what makes them similar.
• Fun Read: Max is absolutely adorable, and the twist at the end of the story is delightfully fun.

Baby Bear by Kadir Nelson
Baby Bear is lost and trying to find home. He gets advice from many creatures of the forest, some more helpful than others, but eventually makes it home.

Activity Tie-ins:

• Art: This was on a lot of lists for a potential Caldecott a few years ago. The illustrations in this are gorgeous! Nelson did an amazing job with the moonlight on the animals' eyes and fur. 
• Psychology & Color: The color scheme of this book has a definite affect on the mood it conveys. It's a great pick for psych students evaluation how color can affect people.
• Evaluating Advice: Some of the "advice" Baby Bear gets is a little suspect, so it is probably a good activity to ask young readers which critter gave the best advice and why. (Much is good for their kind, but not for a bear.) Have older readers apply this to their own lives. Why do they need to evaluate advice, and how do they respond to well-meant advice that doesn’t apply to them politely.
• Good Samaritan/Kindness Towards “Enemies”: I really liked that the one to take Baby Bear on the final part of his journey was a critter who should have not cared about a bear, but helped him anyway. Compare this with the Good Samaritan story. And/or talk about showing kindness to those others tell you should be your enemy.
• Compare/Contrast: Read this one with either of the books already mentioned. All of them have elements that are similar (looking for someone and getting advice from a string of critters), but each have unique elements too.
• Relaxing Read: The art and tone of this book make it a good story to read when you need to settle the class down.

Animal Groups by Jill Esbaum, photos by Frans Lanting
Find out the group names of 10 exotic animals, and a few more too. Facts about the animals highlighted are also included.

Ok, maybe it is a stretch to put this book in with this grouping of reads, but it is such a fantastic nonfiction animal book I needed an excuse to share it.

Activity Tie-ins:

• Nonfiction/Fiction Pair: This book could be used as a nonfiction pair with any of the books above thanks to the animals that feature prominently in each. Have students research various names for groups of robins, house cats, bears or any of the other animals that come up.
• Informative/Curious Read: I learned several things from this book, even though I taught Biology and this book is aimed at little kids. I'd never heard some of these group names, like a celebration of polar bears. Also, I never knew there aren't official scientific names for the groups of various animals. It seems like there's always a group somewhere trying to establish what's official, but not in this case. It's all up to what someone feels like calling them and if that name catches on. There's a great list of a broad range of creatures after the first 10 are featured, showing the various names by which a group of that animals can be called. For example, the book highlights zebras as one of the main 10, calling the group a zeal but shares later that groups of zebras can also be called a dazzle, herd or harem. A fascinating book for animal lovers with great pictures. 
• Language Arts: Because there are no “official” group names and because English is a living language, students could be challenged to see if they can come up with a new group name for a specific animal. Who knows, maybe it will catch on!
• Flexible Read Time: This book can be read as fast or slow as you want. You can just read the main group names for a quick read, or also include the further info on each animal and the text boxes to extend the reading time. There's also a few activities in the back that can further extend the time this book takes.
• Animal Lovers: This is a no-brainer pick for animal lovers. Lots and lots of fun animal facts and loads of fantastic photographs abound.