Modern Fantasy Book Blog #1

Book Title: "How to Teach a Slug to Read"
Author: Susan Pearson
Illustrator: David Slonim
Publisher: Two Lions, Copyright 2011
Number of pages: 32
Genre: Modern Fantasy

"How to Teach a Slug to Read" is about a young boy who decides he wants to teach a slug how to read. If he can talk, why shouldn't he be able to read? The young boy takes us step by step through the important parts of learning how to read. He tells Mama Slug that in order for Little Slug to learn to read, she should do each of these things: read out loud to him, point out words that repeat, sound words out, make vocabulary lists, and be patient!

Slonim's illustrations are done with acrylics and charcoal, which make for a hilarious representation of Little Slug's journey to reading. They include a lot of color and a great visual representation of each step you should take to learn to read. This can tremendously help your younger readers learn ways to help them to become great readers.

Grade Level: K
Subject Area: ELA (Integration of Knowledge and Ideas)
Standard: 7) With prompting and support, describe the relationship between the illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts.) [R.L.7] 

I absolutely love this book for this Kindergarten standard. You could do a read aloud whole group, hold a grand discussion after, and then break your students into reading groups. In their reading groups, you could assign one "expert" per group. The expert will be the leader of the group and lead the discussions. You could have them talk with their group about how the pictures in the book help tell the story. You could explain to them that illustrations in a story are meant to tell the story along with the words, and that there is a relationship between the words in a story and the illustrations. It's like they help each other!