This series attempts to achieve a similar goal, but in a blog format. Each month I send a list of three or four contenders to a half dozen of our guest contributors that are caregivers of or regularly work with K-2nd grade students. I do my best to select a variety of levels and topics for readers at different stages of the learning to read process. While each of the titles highlighted in this post will be covered by guest contributors at some point this year, the focus of this series is on the experiences and observations from kid readers and their grown-up contributors.
Contributors can record feedback in any format, however I do provide them with a couple feedback templates (bookmark, kid feedback sheet, grown up feedback sheet). Many thanks to Jamie Chowning, DaNae Leu, Samantha Marino, and Amma Romero, for all their hard work sharing, observing, and collecting feedback from the kids in their lives.This month over 50 kids in K-2nd grade participated nationwide. Most read just one or two titles. Without further ado, let’s see what kids are saying about this month’s titles!
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King & Kayla and the Case of Found Fred
by Dori Hillestad Butler,
illustrated by Nancy Meyers
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This kid-doggy sleuthing duo are back for their fifth adventure. As DaNae Leu wrote in her review earlier this month, “This is the type of format that I see my second-stage readers return to over and over.” 26 kids read this title, and nearly all of them said they would read it again. 100% of them said they’d read a sequel. One child said, “If they made about 23 more, I would read all 23.”
As might be expected, the canine characters were a hit with many kids. Readers liked that Fred is found and reunited with his owner, but the story element beloved by the most kids was the moment when “King jumped in the wuter [sic]”. Several kids found King’s enthusiasm for everything funny, “He always says that everything is his favorite!” One grown-up contributor pointed to King’s inner monologue as hitting just the right doggy tone, “so exactly what I would imagine a dog wanting to say.” In general, the humor of the book stood out to many readers, as well as grown-up contributors, “As my child’s tastes start to run more toward Avengers and gross-out humor, it was lovely to take some time to sit down together with something a little more prosocial, but still funny.”
Most kids reading this book were in 2nd grade and were able to successfully read most words. However, several kids cited “detective” as a challenging word, a point further driven home by the fact that they spelled it, “detectiv”, “ditectivs”, “detis”, and “dtective.” Another tough word was “collar.”
Two King & Kayla titles have garnered Geisel honors (2019, 2018). Will this be the one to take home the top prize?
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We are (Not) Friends by Anna Kang,
illustrated by Christopher Weyant
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The third companion book to the Geisel Award winning You Are (Not) Small (2015), this title about the emotional dynamics of friendship was read by 24 kids with the majority in 2nd grade. In her review of this title, Robbin Friedman writes, “this story of friendship, kindness, and hurt feelings will resonate with most beginning readers, who may also be beginners at cultivating relationships and reacting to other people’s emotions.”
As with King & Kayla, the humor of the story was notable for many kids. When asked what they liked, quite a few kids shared specific moments, such as “Wen thy played spis [sic]” and “When the new friend wanted to build jeep [sic].” Another child encompassed all those moments by saying, “It had a good emajennashen [sic].” Some kids liked that there was a bit of a moral to the story, “I liked that it tot you that you can be frens with evry one [sic].” But other kids mentioned they didn’t like when the friends weren’t getting along. One child simply wrote, “Thar is to mach drama [sic]”.
“Duet” and “Scarier” were called out as difficult words. Some kids needed help sounding out words between 1-5 times. Most kids found the story easy to follow, but there were a couple who found it confusing. Regardless, most kids said they would read it again, along with a sequel.
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The Book Hog by Greg Pizzoli
book cover
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Pizzoli is no stranger to the Geisel (The Watermelon Seed took home the medal in 2014 and Good Night Owl was named an honor book in 2017). The Book Hog follows the literacy development of a book-loving pig. In her post from last month, co-host Misti Tidman pointed to the large font and uncluttered backgrounds as strong supportive elements.
24 kids, mostly 2nd graders, read this title. Several kids mentioned they liked the character’s love of books, “I liked that he liked books, but he cood not read [sic].” Another reader said they liked that the Book Hog “had a sickrit; a big sekrit [sic].” And a third reader gleefully enjoyed the bathroom scene, “the paret were he was in the betheroom [sic].”
A few kids said the book was easy to read, but not interesting, however, for the most part kids said they’d read it again and would love a sequel. Some difficult words for readers included “several” and “could.”
Will The Book Hog be Pizzoli’s third brush with the Geisel? We shall see!
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So that’s what kids have to say this month! What are your kids saying about these books? Let us know in the comments. We also invite you to share kid feedback on any of the titles we blog about via the comments.
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