Out of Sight

I spent about an hour and half last night at the bookstore. My trip to Cover to Cover had been on my mind ever since holiday break started last Thursday. I love to have time to read and think about the books that I plan to buy. After reading through more than 38 books, I left the store with 9. I am very happy with my purchases. Today I want to share a book that reminded me immediately of Cathy's post titled: Oh No! Scissors in Writer's Workshop. This book is called Out of Sight.

Out of Sight is a large hardback (11x16) book that is filled with pop-ups. I know, you are probably thinking that pop-up books are a disaster because kids are prone to ruining them. That thought entered my mind when I first opened this book, but I quickly let it go once I started turning the pages. The book is filled with flaps creatively designed to make you think about the animal and non-fiction information revealed underneath. Just flipping through it had me anticipating the many opportunities for discussion and conversation about how the book is organized and why illustrators made the decisions they did for each flap.

I think this book will be a great mentor text for kids creating their own non-fiction books. Kids who love to use scissors will begin to turn their wheels with how to create flaps. And, couldn't the flaps work well as a bulletin board during a non-fiction study. There are endless possibilities for this book.

After sharing it with some friends, I couldn't help observe one reader jump on her phone to look for an answer that was posed under one flap: Can you name all 8 species of bear? She and another friend started a 5 minute conversation about all they knew and could find out about species of bear. It was fascinating and powerful. I am anxious to see what happens when my students get their hands on it. Don't worry, I am already thinking about reminding them about how to handle pop-up books.