All of Me! A Book of Thanks by Molly Bang

Have you read The Day Leo Said I Hate You! (description about this book here at Molly Bang's site) or Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life? (review by Julie at Raising Readers and Writers here) They are two of my favorite books that have been written and/or illustrated by Molly Bang. Maybe you know the Caldecott honor book, When Sopie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry... Maybe you are just being introduced to some of the picture books by Molly Bang in this post. Whichever the case, I think you will enjoy her newest book : All of Me! A Book of Thanks.

This book is perfect for reminding young students to thank goodness for their parts. Thanks to our feet, arms, grand hands and mouth! Molly Bang details what we can do with our parts as she reminds us to be thankful. I was hopeful they would use the text to brainstorm ideas for writing or use the way she organizes the text as a guide for their own writing. But as I read this book to my second graders, they responded most to the last two pages of the book. These two pages are titled: Books are Fun to Make. Here you can read about how she made the book from a paper bag, cloth, crayons, paint and water. Molly Bang goes on to further explain her process for starting the book and explains her thumbnail sketches. She explains that she had been thinking about the book for many years and had the words written first. We had a great discussion about writer's process after reading these two pages.

I know I will come back to this book to talk about ideas, organization and especially process. I am sure reading it again will inspire more noticing and thinking.