There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly is an example of a predictable book. It starts out
with, obviously, an old lady that swallows a fly. For each newly swallowed animal there is repetition of
the line “I don’t know why she swallowed the fly. Perhaps she’ll die.” Each consecutive animal she
swallows is to catch the previous animal. Thereafter, we can begin to predict that she will continue to
swallow more and more animals in order to get the previous. She kept getting bigger and bigger
paralleling the animals getting bigger themselves. Then, the horse did her in. She swallowed a horse
and died of course.
Connect: I loved this book as a child. I can still remember my mom reading it to me and then getting so
excited that I already knew the story when my teacher went to read it to the class.
Listen to the Silent Night
This is an informational story of the birth of baby Jesus. It is not your average Christmas night
story. The book uses poetic verses to portray the story making it entertaining for children. It starts off
with saying how this was not such a silent night. The author uses onomatopoeia to emphasize how the
night was far from silent. This is a great way to introduce children to the story behind Christmas.
Observe: The author used an ABBBA pattern.
The Ugly Duckling
The Ugly Duckling by Jerry Pinkney is an adaption of Hans Christian Anderson’s original. Before
he even came into the world, he was different. His egg was oddly shaped and bigger than the rest.
Everyone made fun of the duckling because he didn’t look like everyone else. He was attacked by others
and even his own siblings made fun of him. Eventually he had had enough and ran away. He ventured
out into the world and had many hard, long, cold, lonely nights. He finally decided he would rather go
out with these set of ducks than try to survive these nights alone. Yet, at last things were different with
the new ducks. They didn’t look at him oddly or poke fun. He looked into the reflection of the water
and saw a beautiful swan staring back at him.
Link: This is a great story to read in a classroom when trying to teach about discrimination to young
children.
Star Wars The Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight
Star Wars is a futuristic action novel of good versus evil. This book parallels the movie series,
however it is geared towards a different audience. This book is a children’s picture book telling of the
story of Star Wars, but in simpler terms that children can understand. Alongside the story there are
illustrations to visualize the scenes. In this shortened story, there is a battle between good and evil, and
light and darkness. Which of course, takes place in a galaxy far, far away. Luke Skywalker is the leader
of the Jedi Knights and Darth Vader is the face of the Galactic Empire controlled by Emperor Palpatine.
Throughout the story they battle back and forth until finally Luke is told Darth Vader is his father right
before he passes.
Observe: All of the creatures, or non-humans are certainly interesting and odd looking.
The Lion and the Mouse
This story of The Lion and the Mouse is the old version of the fable, yet is portrayed in a
different manner. This is an adaptation of Aesop’s, however Pinkney tells it in this wordless book. We
can clearly see story of The Lion and the Mouse shining through even without the words. This wordless
picture book would be a great way to have children create their own adaptation of this classic. The
illustrations are immaculate and definitely draw the reader in with all of the close attention to detail.
This fable goes to show that there is no act of kindness ever wasted.
Observe: Pinkney leaves zero white spaces on the pages with his illustrations.