Picture Book Month is an international literacy initiative that celebrates print picture books during the month of
November. I know what you are thinking, picture books are for kids, right? Actually, no they’re not! Why should high school students and teachers read picture books in class? The short answer is…for a lot of reasons.
Picture books can be entertaining, but also educational. Since picture books are shorter than novels, they can help teach vocabulary, context clues, inferencing, and comprehension skills in a much shorter time period. Believe it or not, many students (and adults!) find picture books interesting and intriguing.
The Falcon Library has a great selection of picture books…and many are checked out regularly by teachers and students. One of my all-time favorite author/illustrators is Chris Van Allsburg. If you are not familiar with his work, stop what you are doing right now and run, don’t walk, to your nearest library and check out one of his books! His books are simply amazing!
Here is one of my faves…
The Garden of Abdul Gasazi
Sometimes that very thin line between illusion and reality is not as clearly defined as we would like it to be. It certainly wasn’t the day that Alan Mitz stumbled into the garden of Abdul Gasazi. For in this bizarre and eerie place — where strange topiary trees loomed — the evil visage of Gasazi casts its shadow. And even after Alan escaped, the spell of Gasazi still seemed to penetrate into his everyday world.
Copyright © 2014 Follett School Solutions, Inc.
Want a sneak peek of his work? Check out this photostory!
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Results will be revealed soon!