Otto's Orange Day by Jay Lynch and Frank Cammuso

What do you remember learning in kindergarten?  The alphabet?  How to count all the way to 100?  I am sure that learning the colors would also be on that list.  As a kindergarten teacher, this is one of the first things my students learn.  Typically, we focus on one color at a time.  We name things that are red or purple or yellow, etc.  We sort colors.  We even learn color songs to help us spell the colors.

The next time I teach my students about the color orange, I will have to read the book, Otto's Orange Day by Jay Lynch and Frank Cammuso.

A level 3, Toon Book, Otto's Orange Day is designed to encourage young readers to enjoy reading. Otto is an orange cat who loves orange.  Its his favorite color.  One day, he received a special package from his aunt.  The box contained a magic lamp.  Otto began to dust the lamp when a genie appeared, offering him one wish.  Instantly, Otto knew that what he'd like most of all is for everything in the world to be orange.

Eventually, Otto learns that when everything is the same, life is boring and dangerous.  Together with his aunt, Otto convinces the genie to return the world to normal.

This text is perfect for first grade readers.  Several pages contains rhymes; writing at times is almost rhythmic. I would highly encourage kindergarten and first grade teachers to get this book into their classrooms.  Pair this text with a nonfiction book on colors such as Orange. And no color unit would be complete without the color songs.

vocabulary: ditty, Genie, magic lamp, grant, the blues, bandit, clutter

Close Reading Questions:
How can we tell that Otto likes orange? p. 10
Did Aunt Sally Lee know what the lamp did? How do we know? p. 12
Why wouldn't orange meat be appetizing? p. 22
How we know Otto changed his mind about wanting everything orange? p. 28
What makes you think Aunt Sally Lee understands how genies work? p. 33

Little Mouse Gets Ready by Jeff Smith

For my second blog entry, I chose another Toon Book, Little Mouse Gets Ready.  This book received a Theodor Seuss Geisel honor award for its efforts in reaching the very young readers.  Its a perfect story for my young kindergarteners!  I hope that you will appreciate it's simplicity as much as I did. 

Little Mouse struggles to get dressed but is clearly proud that he can do it himself-- such a relatable topic for little ones.  Each page describes his efforts to dress for a trip to the barn.  Jeff Smith, author of the award-winning graphic novel series, Bone, includes humor and a surprise ending that kids will enjoy.   Much of the text is decodable for students near the end of kindergarten or first grade.  I am positive preschool children would enjoy hearing this story read aloud. 

There are very few words that typical school-age native English speakers would not know.  However, if your classroom is like mine, there are quite a number of English Language Learners or students with very limited language development.  For that reason, I chose to include words and phrases that I believe ELLs would need explicitly explained.

Vocabulary: barn, "oh boy," sir, tag, oats, tricky, sleeve,

Close Reading Comprehension Questions:
How do we know the Little Mouse has dressed himself before? p. 10
What do you think he will put on next? p. 13 (after first frame)
What could his mama mean? p. 25

Benny and Penny in The Big No-No! by Geoffrey Hayes

I choose to start with Benny and Penny in the Big No-No! because it won the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award in 2010.  The first thing I noticed were the adorable illustrations!  A far cry from the Anime that kind of turns me off. 



How cute are they?!


I found that the story line about Benny and his little sister Penny was perfect for young readers!  A new neighbor moves in next door.  There is a misunderstanding but in the end the readers see Benny and Penny making a new friend.  The dialogue was pretty basic but there was age-appropriate mystery, drama, and humor that would surely capture the attention of pre-schoolers, kindergarteners, first graders, and some second graders.

Vocabulary: pail, mud pies, and various onomatopoeias (splop, yeow, etc.)

Close Reading Comprehension Questions:
Why do you think Benny hopes the new kid is a boy? p. 7
Why does Penny hope its a girl? p. 7
What do you suppose made those footprints? p. 11
How could Benny's pail have gotten into the other yard? p. 14
What do we know about the new girl? p. 22
How do we know the new girl didn't take Benny's pail? p. 23
What would you do if you were Benny? p. 25

I created a readers theatre script from the book.  With the many benefits of readers theatre, fluency, comprehension, and motivation, to name a few, I decided this would be the perfect use of the text. I actually got the idea to transform a graphic novel into a readers theatre script as a means to increase fluency.  Check out Terry Thompson's book Adventures in Graphica for more awesome ideas about using graphic novels.  Anyway, I take no credit for the script material including dialogue.  Geoffrey Hayes wrote it! I just turned it into a script.  I'm really hoping to use this next spring with some of my kindergarteners.  Feel free to try it also!  Let me know if your students enjoy it!

Overall, I found the story engaging.  I know that many kids are being motivated to read through the medium of graphic novels.  So, I'll embrace them!  Though the dialogue may seem simple at times, it is perfect for emergent readers and very young listeners.  I would recommend Benny and Penny in The Big No-No! to both readers and primary teachers.