Katie Blows Her Top and Daddy Can't Dance by Fran Manushkin

Today's guest poster is Cheryl Shrake. Cheryl currently works at the Latin School of Chicago, a JK-12 Independent school in Chicago, Illinois. She holds a staff position supporting many areas of the school, including the three school libraries. Cheryl is a recent graduate of Dominican University, receiving an MLIS, and is a member of ALA, ALSC, and the Illinois Library Association.

There are two recent additions to the Katie Woo collection. Let's review to see if they have met the Geisel criteria, encouraging and supporting the beginning reader, thus a candidate for the award.

Cover courtesy of Capstone Publishing

In Katie Blows Her Top, Katie has an exciting school project to make a volcano with classmates JoJo and Pedro. Once they receive their materials to build the volcano from their teacher, Miss Winkle, Katie does not like that Pedro makes their volcano lumpy. Then she spills red dye on her shirt. When JoJo tries to grab the baking soda, she accidentally spills it on Katie's head. This series of events leads up to Katie blowing her top! With her cheeks red, and her angry face, Katie realizes she can be just like a volcano. The trio of friends try again, but this time working together, frustration-free, each doing their share to make the lava flow.

Demonstrating the story being told through the illustrations is one of the Geisel Award criteria, and these pictures are clues that should demonstrate the story being told. The colorful watercolor illustrations help the reader understand Katie's dissatisfaction with the volcano-making process. Her body language and facial expressions are depicted with the paintings on many of the pages, but especially at the height of her annoyance on pages 18 & 19.

The story also has a terrific example of another Geisel criteria in which key words are repeated to aid in retention of knowledge. This repetition of "kaboom" and "boom" throughout the story is reflected, parallel, describing Katie’s emotions and the volcano sounds. These onomatopoeic words also contribute to an exciting story, which causes the reader to want to turn the page.

Katie Blows Her Top contains plain sentences within 3 short chapters that contribute to the flow of the story, yet are stimulating to the beginning reader. The glossary in the back of the book acts as a support to the words introduced in the story. It is this and the evidence above that make this book a standout for consideration for the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award.

Cover courtesy of Capstone Publishing

In another book in the Katie Woo series, Daddy Can't Dance, Katie Woo and her father are invited to a Daddy-Daughter dance. Katie says she's a good dancer, but her dad steps on her mom's toes when her parents dance. Katie tells her dad not to worry because she will teach him how to dance. But the lessons begin, and Katie finds out that dancing with her dad can be tricky. Once at the dance a fast song plays, and Katie's dad can dance to the fast one and is terrific! When the slow dance starts, Katie’s dad seems worried, so Katie suggests they sit down. Her new shoes feel tight, so Katie takes them off. Katie then gets the idea to stand on her dad's feet for the slow dance. Katie's friends do it too, and this makes Katie's dad proud.

Again, the vivid watercolor illustrations compliment the text and demonstrate the story of Katie and her dad on the adventures at their first Daddy-Daughter dance. There are many pictures of Katie and her father on the pages of the 3 chapters in this book. Another appropriate picture exists on page 9 when an instructional diagram is displayed, as a clue to what the words of the story is saying. As the early reader understands the structure of the Katie Woo series of early reader books, not only do the stories and illustrations motivate the reader to go to the next page, but the glossary and craft projects at the end of the book contribute to the book's appeal as well.

Katie Woo is a character with sass and spunk, and her stories are expressed in simple sentences throughout the collection of 40+ books. Some elements of the Geisel criteria do exist in Daddy Can't Dance, however they are not as prevalent in comparison to Katie Blows Her Top, making Daddy Can't Dance not a top contender for the award.