Brainstorm Vol 87: Language Arts Lively Lit

Last week there were no classes on Friday at our school but teachers were busy with a staff family fun day. That sadly meant I had no time to do a Brainstorm. This one is a little bit longer to make up for missing last week.

There’s a lot of great books out there to help take the boring out of language arts classes. Instead of the normal activity tie-ins/target readers section today I’m going to categorize these by which area of language arts they’d be most helpful for. (Look for books on story writing, building vocabulary, and elements of story analysis in a future Brainstorm.)

Picture Book Resources


The Importance of Punctuation

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! by Lynne Truss, ill. by Bonnie Timmons
A picture book that points out the importance of commas. Each page spread features the same sentence with or without a comma and illustrations of how the meaning changes with the presence or absence of the punctuation. (And yes, those of you who think this title sounds familiar, it is based on a popular adult book on grammar by the same author.)

A simple little picture book with comic illustrations that help make a big grammar point. In the back of the book are technical explanations for why the meanings change. A good resource for language arts teachers of any level.

The Girl's Like Spaghetti: Why, You Can’t Manage without Apostrophes! by Lynne Truss, ill. by Bonnie Timmons
Why are apostrophes important? This book illustrates their importance. After a brief introduction to the uses of apostrophes, readers get a handful of different page spreads featuring the same sentences with and without apostrophes and illustrations of the meanings of each.

The results of misused apostrophes are sometimes comical, as are the vast differences in meaning that one little apostrophe can make. This book does a great job of pointing out those differences with humorous visuals. In the back of the book are more in-depth explanations of why each apostrophe's appearance changes the meaning. A good book for language arts classes of any age.


Parts of Speech and Rules

Super Grammar by Tony Preciado, ill. by Rhode Montijo
It’s a graphic novel with superheroes AND it’s a grammar handbook. Graphic novel format and superheroes on hand make everything easier to swallow, even learning the rules of English grammar.

Too Many Dogs by Lori Haskins, ill. by Joe Mathieu
There are lots of different dogs at this house.

This is a very simple book with a lot of different descriptors for various dogs. There's the normal big and small, as well as more creative descriptors like sloppy and waggy. Could be used when discussing adjectives or big, bigger, and biggest (small, smaller and smallest also appear). Also a good pick for a beginning reader who loves dogs.

Kites Sail High: a book about verbs by Ruth Heller
Ruth Heller is the Grammar Queen of kids’ lit. She wrote many fabulous books about different parts of speech, several of them in the list below this book. They are all brightly illustrated, and all are written in rhyming text. They definitely help boring ol’ grammar get a spark of life and liveliness.

Many Lucious Lollipops: a book about adjectives by Ruth Heller

A Cache of Jewels: and other collective nouns by Ruth Heller

Fantastic! Wow! And Unreal! : a book about interjections and conjunctions by Ruth Heller

Merry-go-round : a book about nouns by Ruth Heller

Mine, All Mine : a book about pronouns by Ruth Heller

Up, Up and Away :  a book about adverbs by Ruth Heller

There Is a Tribe of Kids by Lane Smith
A boy tries to find his spot in all sorts of groups, from goats to jellyfish to rocks, before he finds one where he belongs.

I loved the illustrations in this. They are so fantastic and fun. You'll see this in a future Brainstorm with Animal Groups by Jill Esbaum, photos by Frans Lanting and some other books that talk about group names for animals. It's appearing here now because it includes fun adjectives and provides some great examples of when to use those tricky words are and is. (And if you want to go ahead and use this and Animal Groups in a fun fiction/nonfiction pair ahead of the appropriate Brainstorm I guess that's ok too.)


Similes/Metaphors

Sleep Like a Tiger by Mary Logue, ill. by Pamela Zagarenski
A little girl is not sleepy, but her parents persuade her to get ready for bed any way. In the process, she asks them if all animals sleep and soon she finds herself imitating many of the animals she discussed with her parents as she curls up for sleep.

The illustration style for this book is definitely eye-catching. It is very abstract and unique, not a style I usually like, but it really worked for this story. I love how tactful the little girl's parents are in getting her ready for bed. They should get some kind of parenting psychology award. Language arts teachers could use this when discussing similes and metaphors, which abound as the girl compares her actions to that of other sleepy animals.

Crazy Like a Fox: a Simile Story by Loreen Leedy
A fun introduction to similes and idioms. The introductory and conclusion pages have helpful text to explain these literary devices to kids. The last page also has prompts for kids to write their own similes. The pictures and similes used are humorous.

Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood, ill. by Don Wood
This is an oldie but a goodie. It's a short and simple book celebrating a child’s abilities. And it has great, easy to identify adverbs and similes.


Turning Spelling into a Critical Thinking Word Puzzle

Take Away the A by Michaël Escoffier, ill. by Kris Di Giacomo
A look at the difference one little letter of the alphabet makes to words. Each letter gets a chance to shine, and what unfolds are some very interesting scenarios. For example, "Without the A, the beast is the best," or "Without the N the moon says moo!"

I really wonder how long it took Escoffier to write this book and decide which words to use. I do like this alphabet book in that it features letters in the middle of words, not at the beginning, and involves a word puzzle type of thinking. You can easily use this to stimulate further mental exercise by having kids think of other scenarios for various letters. The challenge is coming up with one word that will change into another word by taking away just one letter. The illustrations fit the touch of dark humor in this (the P page shows a mouse tail extending from a cat's mouth when the plate is late and the waiters are mice...the M page shows a pig and chicken being offered a ride by a grinning wolf...things like that). Most pages aren't dark at all, though.