Merry Christmas

Inevitably when I visit a school and offer demonstration lessons in genre or craft, I have teachers ask me for a list of mentor text that I use regularly. My pat response in past years has been, "Oh, I have books that I enjoy, but you need to find books that speak to you - that are good models for your students." I always share the titles that I have brought with me that day and sometimes will email off a few others. But I'm beginning to realize that as more and more new content and additions to the curriculum are thrown at teachers they don't have a lot of time to peruse bookstores and libraries. And, since many of our large chain bookstores don't even carry a wide selection of picture books - some of the best mentor text IMHO - it's difficult for teachers to even FIND good books to read and evaluate.

So my Christmas present to all readers is twofold this year. First, today I'm posting a list of books that I enjoy as mentor text for genre. Is this a complete list of all books published that could work for these different genres? Of course not. It's a somewhat thorough list of my favorites. I have more, but these are the books I tend to take with me to school after school. When the list is a bit longer I've organized more appropriate titles for primary grades near the top half and titles for intermediate or middle school grades near the second half. Although I have to say that I use most titles freely from grades K through 8. A good book models excellent writing for all ages, even adults.

Today's post is the first of two. By year's end I'll post again with a list of books that I like to use for the craft of writing - focus, word choice, organization, details, elaboration, show, don't tell, voice, etc.

And if you decide to mark this post in your favorites, I will return to both lists from time to time and update with new titles that I add to my collection.

I hope this helps many of you in some small way. Merry Christmas!

Persuasive
I Wanna Iguana - Karen Kaufman Orloff
I Wanna New Room – Karen Kaufman Orloff
The Gruffalo – Julia Donaldson
My Lucky Day – Keiko Kasza
Dear Mrs. LaRue - Mark Teague

Cumulative Story
The Napping House – Audrey and Don Wood
This is the Sunflower – Lola Schaefer
This is the Rain – Lola Schaefer
Pond Circle – Betsy Franco
The House that Jack Built – Jeanette Winter
This is the Feast – Diane Z. Shore

Terse Verse
Puffins Climb, Penguins Rhyme – Bruce McMillan
An Island Grows – Lola Schaefer

Personal Narrative
Selected entries from . . .
Diary of a Worm (Spider, Fly) – Doreen Cronin (for primary)
Selected pages from
When The Relatives Came - Cynthia Rylant
When I Was Young in the Mountains - Cynthia Rylant
Selected Passages from
My Uncle Martin’s Big Heart – Angela Farris Watkins
Selected entries from any of the
My Name is America (A Dear America) Journals (intermediate)

The Journal of William Thomas Emerson
The Journal of James Edmond Pease
The Journal of Joshua Loper
The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung
The Journal of Sean Sullivan
The Journal of Augustus Pelletier

Narrative – Story Structure
Dog and Bear – Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Frog and Toad – Arnold Lobel
Mittens – Lola Schaefer
Oliver Finds His Way – Phyllis Root
The Firekeeper’s Son – Linda Sue Park
Widget – Lyn Rossiter McFarland
Frankie Stein – Lola Schaefer
Wanted the Perfect Pet – Fiona Roberton
The Dunderheads – Paul Fleischman
The Plot Chickens – Mary Jane and Herm Auch

Narrative Nonfiction
First the Egg – Laura Vaccaro Seeger
What is Science – Rebecca Kai Dotlich
Compost Stew – Mary McKenna Siddals
Actual Size – Steve Jenkins
Just One Bite – Lola Schaefer
This is the Rain – Lola Schaefer
Trout Are Made of Trees – April Pulley Sayre
One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab – April Pulley Sayre
Waiting for Wings – Lois Ehlert
Now & Ben – Gene Baretta
Neo Leo – Gene Baretta
Rosa’s Bus – Jo Kittinger
The Shocking Truth about Energy – Loreen Leedy
This Is Your Life Cycle – Heather Lynn Miller
A River of Words – Jen Bryant
Almost Gone – Steve Jenkins
An Island Grows – Lola Schaefer
We Planted a Tree – Diane Muldrow
Pond Circle – Betsy Franco
All the Water in the World – George Ella Lyon
A Butterfly is Patient – Dianna Hutts Aston
How To Clean a Hippopotamus – Steve Jenkins
Living Sunlight – Molly Bang & Penny Chisholm
The Boy Who Invented TV – Kathleen Krull
Down Down Down - Steve Jenkins
Flight – Robert Burleigh
The Secret World of Walter Anderson – Hester Bass
Ubiquitous – Joyce Sidman
Earth: Feeling the Heat – Brenda Z. Guiberson

Poetry
Lots of Spots – Lois Ehlert
All the World – Liz Garton
Give Yourself to the Rain – Margaret Wise Brown
I’m Small – Lilian Moore
Button Up – Alice Schertle
In the Swim – Doug Florian
Lemonade Sun – Rebecca Kai Dotlich
All the Small Poems – Valerie Worth
Joyful Noise – Paul Fleischman
Hailstones and Halibut Bones – Mary O’Neill
Fold Me A Poem – Kristine O’Connell George
You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You – Mary Ann Hoberman
Lives: Poems About Famous Americans – Lee Bennett Hopkins
Earthshake – Lisa Westberg Peters
Amazing Faces – Lee Bennett Hopkins
Old Elm Speaks – Kristine O’Connell George
Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow – Joyce Sidman
Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems – Kristine O’Connell George
A Maze Me – Naomi Shihab Nye
Seeing the Blue Between – Paul B. Janeczko
Love That Dog – Sharon Creech
Hate That Cat – Sharon Creech

Unusual Text Structures
Oral Story Telling – What If – Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Short Plays – Full Moon and Star by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Two-part Story – Interrupting Chicken – David Ezra Stein
Poems to be read up and down – Mirror Mirror - Marilyn Singer
Two part debate – Shark vs. Train – Chris Barton
Riddles about children’s books – Spot the Plot – J. Patrick Lewis