This series attempts to achieve a similar goal. Each month I send a list of four contenders to a half dozen of our guest contributors that are caregivers of or regularly work with K-2nd grade students in a school setting. Why four titles? That allows me to choose a variety of levels and topics for readers at different stages of the learning to read process. Disclaimer: This month you’ll see only three titles covered in this post. I didn’t realize until after the fact that one of the titles wasn’t eligible because the illustrator was born and currently resides in Europe.
Contributors can record feedback in any format, however I do provide them with a grown-up contributor feedback sheet, as well as a kid version adapted by school librarian Stacey Rattner for kids to fill out themselves (Thanks, Stacey!). Thanks to Jamie Holcomb, Sarah Lee, Benji Martin, and Stacey Rattner for sharing and observing with the kids in your lives. Thanks you to this month twenty kids across the United States participated. Some read all the titles, others just one or two.
Guest contributors will be reviewing each of these titles later this year, so this series focuses on the experiences and observations from kid readers and their grown-up contributors.
Without further ado, let’s jump into our first title!
I’m a big fan of Holiday House’s I Like to Read titles, especially for the very newest reader. But I wondered how the artwork and text of this very simple and well-worn story about a duo of friends expanding to a trio would work for readers.
Several adults have mentioned to me that they struggle with Florian’s artwork in this book. The images seem blurry at times and pages, filled to bursting with crayon marks, can be overwhelming at first glance. One grown-up contributor wrote, “the dog didn’t look like a dog.”
Kid readers, on the other hand, had no such qualms. Most kids liked or loved the book and found it easy to follow. One grown-up contributor mentioned that her kids liked the artwork with one child saying to other that they could draw pictures like the art in the book. Several kid readers found the kites especially wonderful with the octopus and bumblebee kites getting specific shout outs.
This is definitely a book for the very newest of readers and those were the kids who enjoyed it most. For one child, this was one of the first books they read completely by themselves and they read it every night before bed. More advanced readers found the story a little boring and said they probably wouldn’t read it again.
Oddly enough, the most difficult word for 50% of the readers was “pals.” The only other word that required help for one child was “read.”
In this companion book to last year’s We Need More Nuts, two squirrels try to give all their acorns to the reader because they just can’t stand to eat them anymore. I chose this title because I wanted to see how kid readers responded to the layout of panels and speech bubbles, as well as the slapstick humor in the illustrations and rhyming text.
Notably, only two kids choose to read this book, which makes me wonder about the cover appeal. Neither child said they would read it again, although both read it with a minimum of difficulty. Both struggled with the word “adored.” Other tough words were “hoard” and “supper.”
One kid lamented the lack of plot saying “And all it was about was two squirrels and some nuts.” The child’s grown-up agreed, “there is not enough substance to keep kids coming back.” However, the second kid reader said, “It was kind of weird, but I liked it.” From a layout perspective one grown-up contributor found the change in speech bubble color, rather than staying consistent to each character, was “unnecessarily confusing.” I'd love to have more kids read this title and see how they respond. Was it just not a good fit for the two kids who read it? Would it be more engaging to kids who have read the first title?
I’ll be honest, as a grown-up I found this graphic novel featuring three friendship stories about a well-meaning fox and a slyly clever bird hilarious. But I wondered, would kid readers grasp the humor or would it sail over their heads leaving them confused?
I needn’t have worried, all the kids who read this book said they loved it, would read it again, and would happily read a sequel. Many of them wrote about their favorite funny moment. “Weh thay said can I you’s your bathroom [sic]” wrote one six-year old. One grown-up contributor appreciated that the humor was a good match for the reading level. They pointed out that the bathroom joke was a particular hit, but not gross. All readers found the layout of panels, speech bubbles, and other design elements easy to follow.
Based on kid feedback, this title seemed to be attractive and successful for more confident readers (around 1st and 2nd grade). Most kids were able to read most words without needing help, however the following words were cited as difficult for one kid or another (but no two kids got stumped on the same words): wonder, grasshoppers, guys, sometimes, supposed, moles, parsley. Upon rereading this book I noticed that nearly all of those words are introduced and repeated several times. There wasn’t enough information from the feedback forms to know if readers were able to learn and retain these words once introduced.
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That’s what kids have to say this month! What are your kids saying about these books? Let us know in the comments. Also, you can use the comments to let us know if there are any titles you’d like us to cover in future installments of What Kids Say.
I love this new feature!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alys! Please let us know if there are any titles you'd like us to cover in feature installments :)
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