Picture Book/Mentor Texts Resources
These picture books/mentor texts are suggestions. Teachers may choose to designate
particular titles for specific grade levels. However, whenever the text is used at more
than one grade level, instructors have a different approach and focus. Besides, familiarity
reinforces and reviews the content focus.
Picture Books/Mentor Texts Resources for teaching the Ideas Trait
I Stink - Jim & Kate McMullan (onomatopoeia – Support trait: word choice)
Dogs Don’t Wear Sneakers – Laura Numeroff
Amelia Bedelia - Peggy Parish
Annie and the Old One - Miska Miles
Be Good to Eddie Lee – Virginia Fleming
The Important Book – Margaret Wise Brown
Diary of A Worm – Doreen Cronin
Enemy Pie – Derek Munson
Bubba, The Cowboy PrinceI – Helen Kettlerman
When Sophie Gets Angry…Really Angry Molly Bang
Everybody Needs A Rock – Byrd Baylor
You and Me and Home Sweet Home – George Lyon
Trouble on the T-Ball – Eve Bunting
Goldilocks Returns - Lisa Campbell
Alphabet Under Construction - Denise Fleming
The Relatives Came - Cynthia Rylant
The Squiggle – Carole Lexa Schafer
Where the Wild Things Are – Maurce Sendak (Support Trait: Organization)
Rotten Teeth – Laura Simms
Grandpa’s Teeth – Rod Clement
Fables – Arnold Lobel
Aesop’s Fables - Aesop
The Disappearing Alphabet - Richard Wilbur
Q is for Duck – Michael Folsom
If I Were in Charge of the World - Judith Viorst
The Navy Alphabet Book – Sammie Garnett & Jerry Paltto
Owl Moon - Jane Yolen
Magic School Bus at the Waterworks - Joanna Cole
The Secret Knowledge of Grown Ups - David Wisniewski
Stellaluna- Janell Cannon (Science integration)
Ted – Tony DiTerlizzi
Harry and the Terrible Whatzit – Dick Gackenbach
Picture Book/Mentor Texts Resources for teaching the Organization Trait
Dog Breath - Dav Pilkey
Frogs – Gail Gibbons
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Day – Judith Viorst
Wrap and Bake Egg Rolls and Other Chinese Dishes - Nick Fauchald
The Secret World of Walter Anderson (nonfiction) - Hester Bass
Cool Cars and Truck (nonfiction) – Sean Kennedy
Because A Bug Went KaCoo! - Rosetta Stone
Brave Margaret – An Irish Adventure – San Souci
Daisy Comes Home – Jan Brett
The Mousehole Cat – Antonio Barber
When Sopie Gets Angry - Really, Really Angry... - Molly Bang
Annie and the Wild Animals - Jan Brett
The Mitten - Jan Brett
The Wednesday Surprise - Eve Bunting
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type - Doreen Cronin
(letters back and forth)
From Here to There - Margaret Cuyler
Meanwhile... - Jules Feiffer
I am the Dog / I am the Cat - Donald Hall
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie - Laura Numeroff
Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School - Mark Teague
(dog's point of view, letter format)
Through My Eyes - Ruby Bridges
The Biggest Sandwich Ever – Rita G. Gelman (sequence)
Tuesday – David Wiesner
Nightmare in My Closet – Mercer Mayer (transitions)
Oh, That’s Good! No That’s Bad – Margery Cuyler
Wolf Who Cried Boy – Bob Hartman
Picture Book/Mentor Texts for teaching the Word Choice Trait
Double Trouble in Walla Walla - Andrew Clements
Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods That Make My Day - Jamie Lee Curtis
Feathers and Fools -Mem Fox
The Wolf Who Cried Boy - Bob Hartman
Dog Breath - Dav Pilkey
The Whales - Cynthia Rylant (science integration)
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs - Jon Scieszka
Everything Spring – Jill Esbaum (sensory details)
Halloween Hooks and Howls – Joan Horton (Support trait: Conventions)
I Love You the Purplest – Barbara Joosse (Support trait: Organization
Listen to the Rain– Bill Martin, Jr.
Insectlopedia – Douglas Florian (Support trait: Ideas)
Too Many Toys – David Shannon
Tulip Sees America - Cynthia Rylant (Support trait: Ideas)
Rattletrap Car – Phyllis Root (Support trait: Ideas)
If Not for the Cat – Jack Prelusky (Support trait: Ideas)
Clara Caterpillar- Duncan Edwards (Support trait: Ideas)
Didn’t Didn’t Do It – Anastasia Suen
Picture Books/Mentor Texts Resources for the Conventions Trait
Chica-Chicka Boom – John Archambault
Counting Wildflowers – Bruce McMillan (math integration)
My Many Colored Days – Dr. Seuss
Oh, The Places You Will Go - Dr. Seuss
Fox in Socks - Dr. Seuss
The Lorax - Dr. Seuss (science/social studies integration [natural resources/recycling]
Cat in the Hat - Dr. Seuss
Yo! Yes? - Chris Rasch
Punctuation Takes a Vacation – Robin Pulver
Insectlopedia -Douglas Florian
Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman -Kathleen
Krul
Picture Books/Mentor Text Resources for the Voice Trait
Dandelions - Eve Bunting
Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods That Make My Day - Jamie Curtis
Diary of a Worm - Doreen Cronin
The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting
Chrysanthemum - Kevin Henkes
Dogzilla - Dav Pilkey
The Big Orange Splot - Daniel Manus Pinkwater
When I Was Young and in the Mountains -Cynthia Rylant
The Frog Prince, Continued -Jon Scieszka
Math Curse -Jon Scieszka
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs - Jon Scieszka
David Goes to School - David Shannon
No David - David Shannon
Alice the Fairy - David Shannon
Too Many Toys - David Shannon
The Twits - Roald Dahl
The Velveteen Rabbit - Margary Williams
The Story of Ruby Bridges - Robert Coles
Quick as a Cricket- Audrey & Don Wood
Many Luscious Lollipops – Ruth Heller (adjectives)
Young Adult Chapter Books/ Mentor Texts
The books listed below can be used to enhance your writing instruction. Read them in their entirety or
utilize just the section that meets your instructional needs.
Conventions
Crash by Jerry Spinelli
Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Most Beautiful Roof in the World: Exploring the Rainforest Canopy by Kathryn
Lasky
Thank You Ma’am(short story) by Langston Hughes
Ideas
The Acorn People by Ron Jones
Artemis Fowl by Eion Colfer
Beyond the Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered-Chapters 9 & 10 by Gary Paulsen
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
Indian School: Teaching the White Man’s Way by Michael L. Cooper
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Organization
5 Minute Mysteries by Kenneth J. Weber
Geraldo No Last Name (chapter), House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Holes by Louis Sachar
My Life in Dog Years by Gary Paulsen
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
Thank You Ma’am (short story) by Langston Hughes
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Sentence Fluency
Brian’s Winter by Gary Paulsen
Eleven(chapter), House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
Joey Pigza Loses Control by Jack Gantos
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman
Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
My Name is Jorge on Both Sides of the River: Poems by Jane Medina
Slam! by Walter Dean Myers
The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems and Paintings from the Middle East by Naomi
Shihab Nye, ed.
Voice
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Hoops by Walter Dean Myers
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher
Word Choice
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
I Have a Dream(speech) by Martin Luther King, Jr
Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman
A Long Way from Chicago: A Novel in Stories by Richard Peck
A Series of Unfortunate Events (Books 1-9) by Lemony Snicket (A-Books 1, 2, &3)
Silent to the Bone by E. L. Konigsburg
A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck
Compiled by Kelly Dwenger, Ph.D & Joyce Walker, MAT, NBCT, Elementary Writing Specialists 201 0