Month: November 2023

Similes

Sophie Rosen

What are you like?

Grade seven students describe themselves using similes…

“I am like the ocean. People only know a little bit about me.”

“I am like a map. At first, I’ll be confusing. Figure me out and you will understand completely.”

“I am like the wind. I cannot keep going for a long time in the same direction. I need to try different things in different ways. I have to keep moving forwards or I don’t feel right.”

 

Aren’t those wonderful descriptions?

Don’t they make you curious to learn more about the writers?

Find more similes and metaphors in these picture books…

 

Then, read these picture books to discover other powerful literary techniques.

 

 

Some People

Sophie Rosen

Some People

Isn’t it strange some people make

You feel so tired inside,

Your thoughts begin to shrivel up

Like leaves all brown and dried!

 

But when you’re with some other ones,

It’s stranger still to find

Your thoughts as thick as fireflies

All shiny in your mind! 

– Rachel Field

From A Child’s Anthology of Poetry edited by E. H. Sword (Scholastic, 1995).

More poems to read aloud

Cornbread and Poppy

Sophie Rosen , , , ,

Cordell, Matthew. Cornbread and Poppy. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2022.
Best friends – at least in stories – are often unalike. Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel. George and Martha by James Marshall. Snake and Lizard by Joy Cowley. Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake. Cornbread and Poppy are another two friends who are completely unalike. Cornbread has prepared for winter: food is harvested, preserved, and put away for the coming months. Poppy hasn’t. She has spent her time playing. But now the cold weather has arrived and she is not prepared. What should Cornbread do? Well, help her, of course. So the two little mice set off for Holler Mountain to forage for food for Poppy. And what an adventure! This 80-page little chapter book is perfect for readers ready for longer stories and for teachers ready to introduce literary elements to their students. Happily recommended!

More stories about friends

More adventure stories

More stories for winter

Finding Papa

Sophie Rosen , ,

Krans, Angela Pham. Finding Papa. New York: Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2023.
After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, thousands of people tried to escape their devastated country. Setting out on boats into the unknown, they hoped for a better life in a new place. Some survived. This picture book – illustrated by a Caldecott Honor winner – is the story of one such family, a mother and daughter trying to reach America. Based on the author’s own childhood experience, this powerful picture book – well-suited to reading aloud – is recommended for children 6 to 11 years old.

Another story about the Vietnamese “boat people”

A true story about Vietnam

More stories of refugees