Sam & Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett (Booktalk)

[When starting this booktalk, don't show the cover, and don't reveal the title. Just have the book open to page 11, pictured below. You will have the students examine the picture without talking for at least 45 seconds.]

I want you to take a close look at this picture. I will give you plenty of time. I want you to think of at least five facts you can deduce from this picture. They can be facts about the plot - what is happening, or facts about what the book means.

Page 11

[Allow quiet time to examine picture. When they're done, let them discuss their deductions: the boys are digging a hole; they missed the first jewel; the dog knows about the jewel; one boy seems to be consoling the other boy; etc.]

You did a good job of picking apart this cool illustration. Did you know that this book [show cover now] has puzzled a lot of people - including adults? Even your teachers might disagree with each other about what this picture book, seemingly simple, means! I've read this picture book several times and I'm still thinking about it!

You must read Sam & Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett and decide for yourself what this story is really about.

Sam & Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen. Unpaged. Candlewick, 2014. Booktalk to 1st - 5th. Also great for classroom read-alouds. Caldecott Honor. E. B. White Read Aloud Award. Irma Black Award.

Booktalk: Immi's Gift by Karin Littlewood (Virginia Readers' Choice)

 

Immi lives up in the frozen north, a land of ice and snow. It is cold and icy – a white world as flat as the eye can see. Immi goes ice fishing for her supper in this lonely place, and instead of a fish, she catches a little wooden bird. How strange!

You can’t eat a little wooden bird, can you? [Show pages 5-6]. But it’s beautiful, and she wears it on her necklace, next to her little white wooden bear. Those two make an odd pair: don’t they, the colorful bird and the white bird. They’re very different, as if they’ve never met one another.

[Turn the page.] Color starts to seep into her world. She fishes a red flower! [Turn page.] Then an orange starfish … a green leaf ….a purple feather. Where is all this color coming from?

Look at her igloo! It’s the brightest thing in the land. Her world doesn’t seem as cold and lonely anymore. Where on earth did that little colorful wooden bird come from? What does all of this mean for Immi?

Immi’s Gift by Karin Littlewood. 2010: Peachtree. Unpaged. Booktalk to K-2. Virginia Readers’ Choice, 2012-2013 (Primary).

Immi’s Gift