Text Set: The Power of Studying One Idea Across Multiple Texts

 Texts for this Text Set have been posted daily on Instagram. Follow @TextSets there to get daily updates!

Studying one idea across multiple texts is something we do so often as readers.  We can show our students the power of doing this when building understanding/learning something new. When we read across several texts about a single topic, we build knowledge, examine perspectives, build on first understanding, change thinking as we learn more, and ask more questions. When we think of standards, when we read across texts, we practice synthesizing, we are learning true research and we learn to support our thinking with evidence. This week's text set explores books to use to study the idea of protest marches across several pieces of short text.

Both of these books are fabulous for starting the learning about Marches. They both have basic information. Sometimes People March share many reasons for marching with good information at the end of the book. In We March, we better understand the experience of being part of a march though simple text and illustrations. Both will be good to set the stage for more learning about marches.

Marching for Change takes a close look at 3 different marches. These marches are 3 that students may know about and the book gives detailed information about each one.  There are photographs that will help readers connect to a visual. This book can be included in the research by reading about one march or all three. 

These two books take a close look at two different marches that may not be as well known to students.  Starting with the basics of marches and then getting to the specifics of different marches with these books will help children build understanding. Readers of All the Way to the Top may go on to read more about activist, Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins current work. These books provide two ways to learn more--learning more about a specific march (The Teachers March) and learning more about a single person's role as an activist. Both ways of learning about marches and protestors are important to bigger understandings. 
 

Together We March can provide weeks of mini lesson work. The book explores 25 different protest marches. The introduction is one that will add to the study of marches in this text set. Then readers can read more about marches they may know about and discover less known marches to build initial understandings.  Each short piece provides a great deal of new information that will help readers build on, grow, and change their thinking. 

Children's participation in marches will most likely be of interest to young readers and these two books that look at the children's march of 1963. Let the Children March looks at the whole of the march while The Youngest Marcher focuses on the youngest child who was arrested for protesting. These books focus on two stories about a single historical march and the important role of children. 

This week's books were linked at Cover to Cover Children's Bookstore. If you are looking for a fabulous independent children's bookstore to support, this is an amazing one. We are lucky to have them in Central Ohio!

The 2021 Progressive Poem is Here!

 

This is the first time I've had a line so close to the beginning of the Progressive Poem, and the responsibility for setting the tone and direction of the poem is awe-inspiring. 

Kat Apel got us started the way Donna did last year -- each poet offering two lines from which the next poet can choose, then that poet offering two lines, and so on.

Linda Mitchell chose Kat's line

I’m a case of kindness – come and catch me if you can!

and offered me the choice of these two lines:

Easily contagious sharing smiles is my plan.

or

Don't fret about a fever, loss of smell, or taste

Let's think this through. If I go with the first choice, we've got a nice rhyming couplet out of the gate. Additionally, the seed-of-a-theme of kindness is carried on with the contagious smiles. And there's a plan offered up in that first choice. On the other hand, the second choice links the "case" in Kat's line firmly to COVID. And actually, that's a deal-killer for me. Enough with the COVID already!!

I'm going with 

I’m a case of kindness – come and catch me if you can!

Easily contagious – sharing smiles is my plan.

I checked with Linda, and she gave me permission to add the dash in her line.

Now, on to the choices I'll provide for Donna. If she wants to write another rhyming couplet, hopefully I've given her words she can work with. (Who am I kidding? Donna is the QUEEN of creative rhyming!) 

Maybe she'd like to pick up the voice of the speaker again? (Feel free to add a dash at the end of the line if you want...if you choose this one, Donna!)

I'll spread my joy both far and wide

Or maybe we need to elaborate on the plan to share smiles (and keep going with the middle-of-the-line dash). What are the things that give us joy?

Puppies, babies – what makes you giggle?

Have fun, Donna! Have fun everyone else! Just like every year, I can't wait to see what we create!

Here's where to find the poem throughout the month:

1 Kat Apel at katswhiskers

2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise

3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading

4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write

5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem

6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio

7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities

8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care

9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche

10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone

11 Buffy Silverman

12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche

13 Jone Rush MacCulloch

14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living

15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning

16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe

17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect

18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance

19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link

20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge

21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life

22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town

23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse

24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference

25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul

26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com

27 Rebecca Newman

28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core

29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering

30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.3

 

razor blade north wind

winter is not quite over

wear wool once more

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.2

 

dark, darker, darkest

those moments just before dawn

wren sings from the fence

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

The Poetry Friday Roundup is HERE!

 

Welcome to the first Friday of National Poetry Month! Susan has the Poetry Month Project Roundup for lots of Poetry Friday bloggers' projects. Today we'll get to see your work in progress!

The 2021 Progressive Poem is off to a great start! Follow its progress through the blogs at this post from Margaret.

And as for me? This year, all I can manage is a haiku a day. I briefly thought about skipping a year, but that didn't last. How could I NOT write a poem a day in April?!?!

Here are my poems from April 1 and April 2.

Now, on to the roundup!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

National Poetry Month 2021: #haikudiary

 

maple trees blushing

forsythia in full joy

forecast calls for snow

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

Text Set: Keeping Track of Characters

 Texts for this Text Set have been posted daily on Instagram. 

Follow @TextSets there to get daily updates!

Knowing and keeping track of characters is important for readers at all levels.  There are many ways to think about character, but one challenge readers sometimes have is keeping track of characters across a book. Keeping track of characters requires readers to know characters and to slow down and think about them. This week's text set will focus on books to support conversations on ways to keep track of characters across a text. 

When we talk about keeping track of characters across a text, I love to begin with books that have two characters who have a strong relationship. Often in books with 2 main characters, the two characters have similarities and differences and those differences often become important to the story. Using books such as Ginger and Chrysanthemum and Ling and Ting start great conversations about stopping to think about each character individually as we read. Sticky notes on the cover with things we learn about each character as we read is one way to make this thinking visible.

Making sure to include nonfiction in conversations around characters is important. This fabulous nonfiction picture book--Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams-- would invite conversations that build on the work in fiction. Keeping track of people in a story requires that you pay attention to the details about each character.  Connecting the strategies readers use for fiction to nonfiction is important. 

I like Salma the Syrian Chef as part of this study on keeping track of characters because Salma is clearly the main character but she has several people who support her.  These characters are typically flat characters who help the main character solve her problem in different ways. As readers move into more complex texts, flat characters and those in supporting roles become more and more important. These characters are often hard to keep track of because readers don't get to know them well.  Charting these new characters as they come up is a good way to keep track of characters when there are several. 

One of my favorite graphic novels, The Cardboard Kingdom, is one that is filled with interesting characters. Not only are there many characters to keep track of but they also have fictional characters they portray in their play throughout the book. So, to understand each character, you need to know both of the characters identities.  This is a more complex book and probably best for grades 3-6. 

Operation Frog Effect is perfect for middle grade readers to think about characters and keeping track of different characters by knowing them well. This story is told from several perspectives--students in a class- and each is a different writing style, a different font, etc. Hearing from characters in their own voices makes this perfect for this conversation and learning. 

This week's books were linked at Cover to Cover Children's Bookstore. If you are looking for a fabulous children's bookstore to support, this is an amazing one. We are lucky to have them in Central Ohio!

 

Poetry Friday -- Writing From a Mentor Text

photo via Unsplash

Here is the version we know and love. At the same time I was using this as a mentor text, my students and I were delving into "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost. I think I understand WCW's poem better for reading it alongside Frost, and I think the two poems can be a text set.

This Is Just To Say
by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten

the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Here's my version:

This Is Just To Say -- I'm Retiring
by Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

I have taught
many decades
mostly in
this district

and now
you are probably
planning
for next year

Remember
this work is important
so energizing
and so necessary

Yup. I'm done. I have eaten the plums and they were delicious. Spring break begins tomorrow, and after next week, forty more days of being a teacher. It still seems a bit unreal.

I'm looking forward to hosting the First Friday of Poetry Month here next week. I'm really sorry about the hassles of this blog's endless loading. I've tried everything I can to fix it. Thanks in advance for your patience.

Susan has this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Soul Blossom Living.

Text Set: Word Study and Vocabulary

 Texts for this Text Set have been posted daily on Instagram. Follow @TextSets there to get daily updates!

We want to have joy and inquiry at the heart of our word study and vocabulary work. This week, I'll share a set of books that will celebrate words in various ways. Word study cannot happen without understanding the power and impact of words. 

The Great Big Animal Search Book is a fun book, and at first glance I had no idea all that was in here connected to words and vocabulary. This is a giant search book with really fun illustrations and so many facts about animals. It is a book readers can spend hours and hours with. AND it ALSO introduces readers to a variety of collective nouns (a WADDLE of penguins, a HERD of cows). Such a great way to discover the fun in collective nouns and to explore new vocabulary in the process. 

The Invisible Alphabet gives readers a unique way to think about words. This book is full of words that are invisible--things you don't see (such as AIR).  Reading through this book and then playing with other types of alphabet lists you could create based on a unique category like invisible would be great fun!

I love Ambitious Girl and they way that it takes a single word--ambitious-- and defines and expands on the definition through the whole of the book. Thinking deeply about the perfect word and all that it can be in descriptions and actions is worthy of conversation. 

This book could be used throughout the year for so many things. Just as the previous book explored one word, Dictionary for a Better World explores and deeply digs into several words using poems, quotes, and more. And each word fits under the topic umbrella of a better world. I want young readers to go beyond a dictionary definition of a word and to really think beyond a one-phrase definition. This book invites readers to think about powerful words in a variety of ways to build understanding. Discussing each word as well as its inclusion in the book's theme will add to any word study conversation.  

Of course you'd have to spend weeks with Have I Ever Told You Black Lives Matter before you brought it into word study. The book is powerful and says so much. The fact that there are only words and no illustrations is powerful. The way the words are set on the page is powerful.  So many Black voices are shared in this book.  A perfect book for talking about the power of words, the word we remember, the power of quotes, whose words have power, whose words do we study and remember, etc. could all be important conversations using this book as an anchor. 

This week's books were linked at Cover to Cover Children's Bookstore. If you are looking for a fabulous children's bookstore to support, this is an amazing one. We are lucky to have them in Central Ohio!

You can find a downloadable pdf of this list at frankisibberson.com. 

Poetry Friday -- A Poetry Challenge

My students love Poetry Friday. They've never experienced it the way we did it in the past -- browsing for a book on the tall white shelf full of poetry, sitting with a partner or two, heads bent over the book, looking for just the right poem, practicing until it could be said just right, then standing in front of classmates to read with loud enough and expressive voices...and getting the feedback of laughter for the funny poems, or sighs for the beautiful ones, and always the finger snaps of appreciation.

Poetry Friday these days is flying through the interweb to a breakout room, pulling up Irene Latham's or Amy LV's rich online resources, choosing a poem, practicing, then flying back to perform from separate squares in the Google Classroom.

Last Friday, several groups chose the same poem on Irene's site. Hearing the poem over and over again gave us a chance to think about the meaning of the title in relationship to the poem. Maybe you saw it? The poem is called WHY RIVER SMILES IN WINTER, but the poem is mostly about the snow. We wondered why the river was smiling, and figured it was kind of sneaky, greedy smile, since it is gulping the fair snow. A casual "We would love to know why you chose that title" resulted in an explanation and an invitation to join Irene for her last winter poem which uses Sleigh Ride by Winslow Homer for inspiration. (Thank you SO MUCH for your generosity, Irene!) One student took the challenge with me. Here are our poems:

picture via wikimedia commons

Sleigh Ride
By: J.L.
For: Irene Latham

Here we go, very fast
Off to make the good times last.
Our sleigh is zooming,
Our fun is blooming,
Out on our wondrous Sleigh Ride.

No need to hide,
No need to cry,
As we ride our worries away.
Here we go,
Happy today.
Out on our wondrous Sleigh Ride.

SLEIGH RIDE

shhh
say the runners
sliding through the snow

smack
say the reigns
asking horse to go

ching ching
say the bells
on the harness and the sleigh

flap flap
say the wings
of the crows that show the way

peekaboo
say moon and clouds
thanks for coming out to play


© Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

Linda B. has a TIMEly post at TeacherDance for our Poetry Friday Roundup, and be sure to check in with Susan at Soul Blossom Living to share your NPM project and logo. She'll be doing the NPM project roundup this year because of some tech issues Jama's having. 

Text Set: Metaphors

 Texts for this Text Set have been posted daily on Instagram. Follow @TextSets there to get daily updates!

When we think about teaching metaphor, it has to be about more than naming a metaphor and far more than knowing the difference between a metaphor and a simile. Metaphors help us think about bigger meanings in text. They help us understand at a deeper level.  This week, I'll share a set of texts that starts this bigger conversation about metaphors.

I have been using Marla Frazee's book Walk On: A Guide for Babies of all Ages for years.  This is the perfect introduction into metaphor because it is scaffolded so well. I read the book first and discuss with kids what it is "about". Then we go back and visit the author's note at the beginning of the book--"To my son Graham, off to college" and think about what the author was REALLY saying. What is "walk on" a metaphor for? Because the text is so simple, readers can go back into each line to discuss the intended meaning of each line within the bigger metaphor.  

If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson is another great book based on the metaphor of planting a seed.  This is a very accessible metaphor for young readers so going page by page and discussing intended meaning will help readers see how to gain deeper understanding of an author's message through metaphor.  

Lift has a graphic novel feel and is an immediately engaging story. Once children understand the possibility of metaphor in text, this is an easy transition to discussing the two (or more) possible meanings of the title word "lift" in this story. With some examination, children should see the idea of lifting people in ways beyond the literal one. 

This powerful new picture book, Standing on Her Shoulders celebrates women who have made a difference in our world.  The title is explored throughout the book as we are introduced to various women who have paved the way for so many.  Each page helps us understand what it means to stand on someone's shoulders.  (At the end of the book, you learn more about each woman introduced throughout.) A fabulous book for so many reasons.  

Short films are such a powerful way to explore metaphor with students. A new favorite for me is Pixar's Float by Bobby Rubio. The metaphor of float can mean different things to different people and the author has his own reasons for using it which you can find in several online articles and interviews. 

This week's books were linked at Cover to Cover Children's Bookstore. If you are looking for a fabulous children's bookstore to support, this is an amazing one. We are lucky to have them in Central Ohio!

You can find a downloadable pdf of this list at frankisibberson.com. 

Poetry Friday -- Momentum

photo via Unsplash

Momentum

When you take your foot off the gas pedal

and roll to a stop in front of your house.

When you stop pumping your legs on the swing

and enjoy the ever-shortening trips back and forth.

When you stand still on your skates and just roll

feeling every pebble and sidewalk crack under your wheels.

When you sit at your desk and stare at the ceiling

and let go of the task at hand.

When you know there is a mountain of work to be done

and you deliberately choose not to do it.

Since when did loss of momentum

become equated with some kind of failure?

Today I will reclaim loss of momentum

as a form of pleasure.

I will savor the slow down and the pull back

the drifting and the regathering of strength so I can begin again

later.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021 (draft)

(totally a Lamipofri...but I like how it flowed out!)

Heidi has the Birthday Edition of the Poetry Friday roundup this week over at my (her) juicy little universe.

Text Set: Middle Grade Graphic Novels

frankisibberson.com. Texts for this Text Set have been posted daily on Instagram. Follow @TextSets there to get daily updates!

This week's Text Set is a set of Middle Grade graphic novels. I try to keep up with my middle grade graphic novel reading because so often I am working with a reader who loves graphic novels.  And graphic novels are often so important to a reader's growth--these are the books that help many readers fall in love with reading.  The books I'll share are perfect for independent reading and they'd also each make for a  fabulous middle grade read aloud if projected on the screen. Each graphic novel in this Text Set features strong characters. Enjoy! 

Twins by Varian Johnson will have wide appeal for readers. It is realistic fiction and a great story of sisters.  The two twins in this book are figuring out how to have their own identities as they grow up.  I love that this book can also introduce readers to middle grade author, Varian Johnson. Or it can support readers of Varian Johnson who want to try a graphic novel!  

We don't see many books about the impact allergies have on children. This brand new graphic novel Allergic by Megan Wagner Lloyd does a great job of showing that and of telling the story of a child severely allergic to dogs and the grief that this causes. Many kids will see themselves in this book. 

Snapdragon by Kat Leyh is a story with a bit of witchcraft and creepiness! A fun story for readers of fantasy but also for readers who love a good character. Snapdragon and her friend Lu are characters with depth and the various storylines offer some complexity.  Some characters are queer and trans, and that is not the focus of the story. It is just a part of who they are within a story about bravery, friendship and more.  I especially appreciated the adult characters in this story and their relationships with the children.

Witches of Brooklyn by Sophie Escabasse is another fun fantasy featuring witches.  (This is the first in a series.) After being forced to move in with an aunt she's never met, Effie grows to love her aunt and her partner.  She also discovers that they are not actually herbalists (as they claim) but they are witches.  This graphic novel has just the right amount of magic and fun mixed in with themes of family and growing up.  In an interview, the author talked about the aunts and this is what she says, "I also wanted to show old people that are really fun to hang out with. Old people that anyone would love to have as friends and/or family. Tired of the “youth or nothing” philosophy. I like the age gap between my characters. It was important for me to show different generations sharing and living things together. " I loved this book even more when I read this! You can read the full interview here.

Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte is the story of Cici who has just moved to the United States from Taiwan.  Although she is settling in, she misses her grandmother terribly and tries to figure out how to have her grandmother visit for her upcoming birthday. She thinks she can afford the trip if she wins the cooking contest! However it isn't as easy as it seems. Cici learns so much in the process!

This week's books were linked at Cover to Cover Children's Bookstore. If you are looking for a fabulous children's bookstore to support, this is an amazing one. We are lucky to have them in Central Ohio!

You can find a downloadable pdf of this list at frankisibberson.com. 

Poetry Friday -- Perspective

 

photo via Unsplash

Perspective

All my life you've been a dipper.

Just this morning, though,

as I wondered whether you were telling me

to pour out

or scoop up

you changed into a giraffe

your long curved neck

reaching across galaxies

so you could nibble on the juicy gibbous moon.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

Obviously, that photo was not taken in Ohio, but it was the one I could find with the correct orientation of The Great Giraffe, as this constellation is now known (to me). 

The big ideas here are

    1. Look up

    2. Notice

    3. Wonder

    4. Be willing to think differently about everything you've been taught

Kat, at Kathryn Apel, has the Poetry Friday Roundup for this week.

    

Text Set: Thinking about Main Idea Across Genres

 Texts for this Text Set have been posted daily on Instagram. Follow @TextSets there to get daily updates!

This week, I'll share some books that support beginning conversations around main idea as readers. The concept of main idea is often tricky for young readers and they latch on to one idea instead of reading across an entire text. Hopefully this set of books will help. 

I think the book Me and the World is a great one to introduce the idea of main idea to readers. This is a book filled with incredible infographics about the world. It is one of those books that readers will spend hours with. One challenge for readers is sometimes that main idea is a big idea that spans the ENTIRE text and is an idea that weaves through lots of a book. So, to start with a book with a more obvious main idea will make the idea accessible. Readers can discuss the title as well as detailed patterns they notice in the ways the information works together under a big idea.

Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice is a poetry anthology and is another great book for exploring main idea. The book begins with a message from Jason Reynolds and then an introduction by author Mahogany Browne. Discussing these, and the idea of woke is a great way to start this conversation.  Then exploring the ways each poem fits the bigger idea--how does each fit under the main ideas shared in the introduction--will help build understanding that every single piece in an anthology fits the bigger idea of the entire text.

Following Woke, Cast Away by Naomi Shihab Nye is a book that will expand the conversation. In this book the author begins by asking us "How much have you thrown away in your lifetime already? Do you ever think about it? " Each poem fits under the big idea of things we "cast away" and the author looks at this literally and sometimes metaphorically which will add to the conversation and understanding of main idea a bit more.

We Are Kind weaves together two ideas--ways to be kind and how we feel when we are kind.  Discussing the main idea and what the author is telling us about kindness will be a great entry way into the specifics of main idea-- a main idea that goes beyond the single word of kindness. This simple text gives readers so much to explore and discuss.

Our Favorite Day of the Year is a perfect book to use to discuss main idea (after enjoying it and discussing the book on its own of course!).  Often, young readers choose one idea to focus on and decide that is what the book is about. So, this book is a great one to discuss that. In this story, a classroom full of children spend the year celebrating various holidays. Discussing each snippet against the title will help young readers see that each of the holidays fit under a bigger main idea --that the individual holidays were details that helped the author share the main message.

You can get a downloadable pdf of this list at frankisibberson.com.

Poetry Friday -- Remote Teaching

photo via Unsplash

Each day

I thread the needle of my heart

and stitch together

my quilt-square students

into a tapestry

of joy

and learning.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

The WORK of teaching online does not relent. It's brutal. But I never could have imagined how deeply connected I would be to my students (and they to each other) without ever being together in person. There is joy every day. The joy of a student who has finally mastered the steps for long division, the joy of their creativity in creating websites, the joy of our little inside jokes (for example, the "Loading Loading Loading" song we sing). 

I'm joining the Poetry Sisters' metaphor challenge today, and I look forward to tomorrow, when I'll read through the Poetry Friday roundup at Karen Edmisten* before I go and get my second COVID shot.  

Text Set: Studying Intentional Layout in Informational Text

 Texts for this Text Set have been posted daily on Instagram. Follow @TextSets there to get daily updates!

One more week of Informational Text Mentors--This week we'll look at the intentional ways authors and designers set up a page in order to support reader's understanding. With more and more visuals in our world, looking at layout as a reader and learning to make intentional decisions about layout as a writer is key. 

We'll start this week's Text Set with a non-book example to study.  If you don't know Nicholas St. Fleur (https://www.nicholasstfleur.com), you'll want to check him out! (Thanks to author Melissa Stewart for introducing me to his work!)  Nicholas St. Fleur has created several increidble infographics for The NY Times for Kids print publication. He ha a few samples on his website. These are perfect for exploring the idea of intentional design and layout.  Thinking about decisions the creators made, what is most important, how the images and words work together and how size and font changes are all important ideas to bring up to begin this study. And while you are at it, explore the rest of this author's site. His dinosaur book is another worth exploring! 

When How We Got to the Moon arrived in the mail, I screamed, "Every page in this book is a mini lesson!"  And it's true. The visuals in this book are incredible and every single page can be studied for layout decisions. Many of the pages are stand-alone and make sense without reading the rest of the book. And each page is PACKED with so much information. Choosing a few pages to explore together, comparing the different decisions John Rocco makes on different pages based on the purpose/big idea of what he wants readers to understand is key.  

Who Got Game? Baseball Amazing But True Stories by Derrick Barnes (author of I Am Every Good Thing and Crown!) is filled with  short information pieces about baseball. There is more text to this than in the other examples so it will give readers and writers something different to explore.  There are a variety of text sizes, text boxes and visuals set up in ways that the text and visuals work together to share information.  The fonts are something else to take a look at --change of font and color is done with purpose. 

I like Whooo Knew? The Truth About Owls because the pages have similar layouts with some differences based on needs of the reader. The left side of the page poses a question about owls. Then there is a main paragraph answering the questions. Several visuals connect to the answer and the layout of these is different depending on what is being communicated by the visuals. A smaller detail is often included in a talking bubble near the edges of the page.  (And if you do get this book, make sure to take off the book jacket and look at the reverse side of the cover for a fun surprise!).

Firefighters' Handbook and Astronaut Handbook (both by Meghan McCarthy) are engaging for readers as they give so much information in different ways. There are detailed diagrams, how-to pages with important vocabulary. Q and A and more. This book is designed to flow together even though there are so many different layouts.  There are similarities and differences in the two books too that are worth exploring.

You can find a downloadable pdf of this list at frankisibberson,com.