From: Janet Wanamaker <jwanamaker>
Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:15:43 -0500

Jerry Pallotta's works in the alphabet genre are dear to me. He has a voice that will hook young readers on the science of bugs, mammals, ocean animals, extinct animals, vegetables, flowers, airplanes, frogs, butterflies, ... and so on. (Illustrations by Ralph Masiello are fantastic).

Here's the entry for letter "P" in The Frog Alphabet: "P" is for Poison-arrow Frog. Yikes! Poison-arrow Frogs! These are the most colorful of all amphibians. The bright colors are a warning for other animals to stay away. Hurry up, turn the page.

Another young author/illustrator, Kristin Joy Pratt Serafini published A Walk in the Rainforest as a high school student. She went on to create A Swim in the Sea, and most recently a journal/scrapbook about the pond habitat.

Teachers are reading the best of the "science with a voice" and students are emulating the style in their own works. I was recently at a workshop where the presenter (Katie Wood Ray) showed a book about rabbits written by a 6 year old. The six year old called her book "literary non-fiction" on her author's page.

On a recent visit to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago I noticed the "voice" in all of the print/signs. For example: It Eats! It Lives! The Coral Reef.

Text books are even being published in this voice. The standard now is "Your body is made up of bones"... vs. "The body is made of up bones."

Eric Carle, Denise Fleming, Gail Gibbons. David Schwartz's "Q is for Quark" is another favorite of mine. I could go on and on, but I'll close now.

Happy reading this weekend!

Janet Wanamaker
Received on Fri 15 Jul 2005 02:15:43 PM CDT