Before I rave about Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? by Susan A. Shea and Tom Slaughter, first I must rave about the public librarians in Washington. I just spent a day talking about great books and ideas with some of the most dedicated, hardworking, professional librarians I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. These librarians do it all in their eastern Washington libraries, and I am inspired by them to do more when I get back to my library in Michigan.
But if I’m spreading the love this morning, I have to send some love to Susan A. Shea and Tom Slaughter for this book.
“If a snakelet becomes a snake, can a cupcake grow and become a (lift-the-flap) cake?”
How do I love thee, Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? Let me count the ways.
1.I didn’t know they were called snakelets, so yay for learning vocabulary in context.
2. Nothing like lifting a flap to grab a young audience.
3. The flaps are actually sturdy enough to withstand multiple readings.
4. Love the rhyming practice we get to guess the right answer.
5. Half way through the book, we stop to get the answer (yes to these, no to those) and then we go to round two, which ends with a baby grows to become – you!
6. Tom Slaughter’s art is yummy.
This works wonderfully for the early science units on living and non-living things. An easy extension idea for non-crafty folks like myself is to give students a large piece of construction paper folded in half. At the top of the page, write “Do you know which ones will grow?” One one half of the page, write “Yes” and write on the other half “No”. Kids can choose die-cut shapes, or shapes cut from magazines, to glue on the appropriate side. Cute for a class book or a bulletin board, too. You know all your students will grow to love this book.
For more information, visit tomslaughter.com
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