Two big boxes of non-fiction books purchased with the Raise-a-Reader grant funds from the Times Colonist arrived this month. The students were so excited to see the new books on the shelves - and I had a great time doing book talks!
One of the highlights was a large set of
Steve Jenkins books. Jenkins builds on the curiosity of children to create books like
"What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?",
"Never Smile at a Monkey" and collections of the "est" of everything -
"Biggest, Strongest, Fastest" and
"Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest". The books sold themselves at multi-age book talks. In fact, one class sat with me so long asking for the next and then the next page in
"Actual Size" that they almost missed their book exchange time. The bright, bold colours, layers and textures of Jenkins' incredible collages bring the images to life and pull your eye from one side of the page to the other. The texts are based on questions asked by his children over the years as well as Jenkins' own wonderings and capture the reader's interest immediately. The questions the books pose, and answer, are perfect examples of inquiry in action. This
slide show from Jenkins' website gives and overview of his book making process. Jenkins narrates his illlustrating process on this
video - fascinating! His site includes a gallery of artwork created by students inspired by his books - hmmmm, art project in the future? Check out our whole Steve Jenkins collection on the
school library catalog (just type in 'jenkins, steve' and press enter).
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