My Two Cents: I like Valentine's Day, but it falls too darn close to Christmas. I still have all that candy from my stocking and the last thing my umpteenth New Year's resolution needs is more chocolate. But, I love hearts and I love love and the idea that love is so universal and inhabits the space where we can all begin to connect and understand one another. I wish Valentine's Day was more about love and less about chocolates.
At first glance, it seems like author Stacy McAnulty has bought into all the Valentine's Day hype with her new picture book, Love.
She tells us that love "needs designer greeting cards" and "must have the finest chocolate." But it is her illustrator who shows us the real meaning of love with multicultural, multiracial and multigenerational friends and family in the real, small, free actions of love. This juxtaposition of words vs. visual representations makes for a great tool for extended discussions o the real and varied meanings of love.A Few Ideas:
- Great for character trait discussions
- Strong for making visual inferences
- Would be a good choice to aide ESOL students
- Works well with Common Core Literacy Standard(s) for grade K-2:CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.7 With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts). AND, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events., AND CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
- Especially good as an introductory/anticipatory text to introduce the 3rd grade standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.7 Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting)
- Check out the love cards/templates on the publisher's website: HERE
Some of the beautiful pages from the book:
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Genre: Picture BookPages: 32
Themes: What is love?, Commercialism, Small acts of kindness
Buy Love HERE
Thank You to publisher Running Press Kids for my eBook copy (@RP_Kids )
You can read more about author Stacey McAnulty HERE
You can read more about illustrator Joanne Lew-Vriethoff HERE
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