3 Picture Books

    What Do You Do With An Idea? by Kobi Yam and illustrated by Mae Besom is a story about how our ideas can be strange and different, and we should not be afraid to hide them. The illustrations show the character's idea following him around and how the idea grows and fades when he gives it attention or ignores it. The illustrations are mainly black and white, but the idea is in color. The color takes over the page or fades out depending on how the main character feels about the idea. This text does not qualify as a picture storybook because the images are more advanced, and the focus of the images reflects our own inner thoughts on our ideas. 

    Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard and illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal is about a Native American family baking fry bread. We see the various steps taken to bake the fry bread and what the fry bread represents through the book. The book also explains some background history of Native Americans and how they were forced to create this bread with the leftover ingredients they were left with. This text does not qualify as a picture storybook because the images represent a different part of what the bread means in the Native American culture.

        There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly! Lucille Colandro is a book based on a nursery rhyme. I was introduced to this text this year, and it follows an old lady who swallowed a variety of animals. This text does qualify as a picture storybook because the images are easy to decipher. The students are reciting the text back to you without you even reading. This book was in my rainy day box of read-alouds, and when I pulled it out, my students fell in love with it, and it
has become a fan favorite in our classroom.