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This book was a perfect lead into our classroom
discussion about our school and helped stimulate
my students’ minds to provide reasons why they
like school. I also like this book because it teaches
students character development by teaching kids
how to do school. The moral of this story is for
students to try new things, such as school and to
keep a good attitude because it will all eventually
work out in the end. I think this is a great lesson for
children and adults alike.
Spit and Sticks: A Chimney Full of Swifts by Marilyn
Grohoske Evans; Illustrated by Nicole Gsel
A Review by Elizabeth Boxell
Read aloud level: K-2
Independent Reading Level: 2-3
Genre: Fiction, science trade book
Rating: 5 stars
The children’s book Spit and Sticks follows a
family of chimney swift birds as they migrate to a
home, hatch their babies, and eventually fly south
again. While the text focuses on the birds, the
illustrations include a parallel story of the family of
the house as they welcome a new baby and have
their lives progress as the birds’ do. This story
would be a wonderful addition to any elementary
classroom library. The illustrations are beautiful
watercolors, the text is lively and engaging, and
children are led to relate to the birds through the
addition of the family. As a science trade book, this
story is a great introduction to any animal unit, as it
effortlessly leads children through the life cycle of
the chimney swift, including details of basic needs
such as swooping down to drink from a pond,
eating “soggy fat flies and beetles,” and migrating
south for the winter.
The last page of the text is purely information. It
includes comprehensive information about the
chimney swift bird species, as well as a “what you
can do” section that encourages children to
learnmore about chimney swifts, be aware of their
habitats, and a website where they can learn more
about the birds.
Although the reading level is geared toward lower
elementary, this text would work well in an upper
elementary classroom library. It can be used as a
launching pad for a research project into animal life
cycles, animal habitats, food chains, and even
conservation. This book could also be when
teaching several of the Next Generation Science
Standards ranging from grades 2-8, as well as
several of the current Missouri Learning Standards
ranging in grades from K-6. As a lower elementary
text, it works well to integrate science and
literature and is a must for any school that has
integrated their science curriculum into their
reading instruction.
years. I’m sure her colleague appreciated the
information. That kind of interchange is repeated
on this site daily. The site has over 20,000
followers. Kudus to Brett Whitmarsh, Elizabeth
Silvis and Cathy Brophy at Heinemann who
developed and support this site. Teachers can come
to it for help in using the ideas in Serravallo’s
books to grow their ability to effectively carry out
workshop and guided reading in their classroom.
The site is one additional resource that helps to
make Serravallo’s books even more useful.
In light of all this I think you understand why I
enthusiastically label this book as the “must have”
professional book for 2017. You’ll have to excuse
me now, I’m off to do a lesson on gathering in the
writing process, and I think I know just the place to
get some great ideas for my lesson.
For additional information, click here for
Serravallo’s complete Podcast about the book:
http://www.heinemann.com/blog/the-heinemann-podcast-the-writing-strategies-book/.
Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, by Eric
Litwin, illustrated by James Dean
A Review by Frances R. Shipman
STEAM Academy Impact Teacher
Imperial Beach, CA
Grade level appropriate for K-3
Independent Reading level is Second Grade
5 out of 5 Stars
Fiction (Character Development)
CCSS: W.1.1., L.1.1., L.1.2., SL.1.1.
Story Elements:
• Main theme: School
• Plot: Pete is unsure about his first day of school
Writer’s style: Casual, funny, and upbeat
Value of illustrations: James Deans’ cartoon
character drawing of Pete the Cat lends to this
character’s charm and casual style of teaching kids
how to do school
Opinion: I love Pete the Cat because he teaches
children what school and life is all about and the
most important theme of this book and the rest of
the Pete the Cat series is to teach kids not to worry
because it’s all good.
It’s Pete the Cat’s first day of school and he is
unsure of all the new things he is about to
encounter. But Pete the Cat is wearing his famous
school shoes which give him the courage to
discover new places in the school house.
Pete the Cat is very popular in our first grade
classroom and students loved this read aloud of
Pete the Cat, Rocking in My School Shoes. I used this
book to teach a lesson on opinion writing, where
students wrote about their opinion of our school.