In Pictures and In Words - Chapter 9: Wholeness of Text

After having a week off of reading the book, it was hard to get back into the reading routine and wrap my brain about writing and books. This chapter was interesting to read and was short for the concept that was studied.

Chapter 9 was about how an author and illustrator has the important job of keeping the reading interested and how they go about to keep that reader interested throughout the whole book instead of just one paragraph or page. Making sure you have detail was mentioned many times and having it throughout the book is important. "A detail mentioned early that shows up later can provide a deeply satisfying resolution to any piece of writing..." I find this to be very true and the students do pick up on all the different details throughout the book and are usually the first ones to pick them out.

 Here are the techniques that were explained:
#23 - Keeping Static Details Consistent
#24 - Making Seemingly Insignificant Details Reappear
 #25 - Building Meaning from One Idea to the Next
#26 - Crafting an Ending That Returns to the Lead
#27 - Crafting Artful Repetition
#28 - Crafting an Ending That Pulls Multiple Text Elements Together
#29 - Repeating Details of Landscape
#30 - Using Details of Light to Show the Passage of Time
#31 - Using Details of Weather to Show the Passage of Time

Coming up with some picture books for this chapter has been a little more difficult because I am drawing a blank on some books that some of these techniques can be shown. I know I have mentioned this before but it's hard not to have my whole classroom library in front of me to help find some good examples. Some of the books that I will be mentioning my not be true to the technique but it's the best I could do.

Technique #25: Building Meaning from One Idea to the Next
Jan Brett's books remind me of this technique. In her illustrations and story, the concept builds and it keeps the reader interested. One of my favorite stories of her's is The Mitten.

Technique #26: Crafting an Ending That Returns to the Lead

After reading the details to this technique and reading the title, my brain automatically went the If You Give A...series of books.  The all time favorite is If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Numeroff

This book and the many others like it have different details and events that lead to one thing and so on.  Then at the end of the story it goes back to the beginning elements and repeats the first line.  The students love them and they are great for sequencing too.

I know once I complete this post, I will come up with some other books, but I think between the heat that we are experiencing, high of 101 today, and a lil lack of motivation, my brain is just not working.  So I apologize for the short book list.  I hope to be back in full mode for next week.

Thank you Growing Kinders for hosting last week and to Primary Graffiti for hosting this week.  Please stop by to see what other book study participates are saying about what they learned and their book selections.  Until next time, stay cool and happy reading.