Friday, April 8, 2011

Introducing...Friday Favorite!

I'm going to try to make Fridays my picture book day, and each week I'll highlight one of my favorites - sometimes a new title, sometimes an older one. (I've only been attempting to post this for the last three Fridays...)

This week, I've chosen Duck On A Bike by David Shannon. I feel like Shannon probably gets the most love for his No, David! books, but this is my favorite.

This is a great book to read aloud. In fact, if I need a book in a hurry, this is one of my go-to books. It's so fun! Duck decides to ride a bike, and he rides around the farm, past all of the other animals. As he rides past each animal and says hi, the animals offer a greeting in return. However, you also learn what they are really thinking. The horse, for example, thinks that Duck will never be as fast as him. And the goat thinks he would like to eat that bike!

The pictures are bright and colorful; I usually read this and point to the animal as Duck rides past, and let the kids say the animal. I'll say, "Duck rode past..." and the kids say, "cow!" I read Duck's greeting and ask the kids what the cow said. And so on. Identifying the goat, and knowing what he says, sometimes gives younger kids pause, but that's usually it.  However, I read this a couple of weeks ago to a group from a daycare, and when we got to the page with the chicken, and I asked what the chicken says, half the kids replied, "chick chick chick." It wasn't an instance of one kid saying it and the others repeating her; they all said it unison. I said, "Oh. Okay. Sometimes they also say cluck cluck."

And the ending? Perfection.

1 comment:

  1. Looks like another one for H to read with me!
    Mom

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