Morris Micklewhite

Morris loves wearing the tangerine dress from his classroom's dress-up center. It is the color of his beloved mother's hair and reminds him of the glow off a tiger's fur. Morris also has an imagination that brings him on adventures to mysterious places like space. This story is about making friends…and even if you have to do most of the work, it is worth it. Morris shares with us the joy of exploring his sense of self, and reveals how his own experience shapes his peers access to knowing what matters in friendships. As picture books are a portal for kids in understanding the world they share with an incredibly diverse population, it is crucial that our choices in books represent all that makes us a society. Here is a book that belongs woven into the book shelf amongst other picture books our students and kids will be exposed to, and encouraged to engage in discourse around.

Hey, Baby, Look!

Hey, Baby, Look!  
Written by Kate Shannon  Illustrated by Morgan Owens
www.bluedreambooks.com 

This book offers ample opportunities for both interactions and transactions, between the reader, text, and illustrations. The repetitive lead organizes and announces each page, Hey, Baby, look!...then delivers, with the fluency of rhyme, sentence structure, and with diversity of conventions. This book offers questions, prompts, conversations, and places to pause and think. Each page give you a new reason to revisit this book. Ample samples of sorting, counting, texture, dimension, patterns, color, and science. I appreciate the content vocabulary words like points, float, fins. And the integration of challenges for the reader to find differences, think about their senses, and articulate understanding by answering questions like, "How many are sweet?" or "Which keep you warm?"

So many reasons to revisit each page

Vibrant color combinations on each page

This illustrations are colorful and clear and the organization and layout of the art and color demonstrates such purpose and respect for those who will be lucky enough to have access to this book. I do not often get to review board books, and this little treasure shows me that a board book can be so much more than a chewable, stain proof, literacy prop for the toddler in your life. Hey, Baby, Look! scaffolds the reader so they can offer a highly engaging, interactive, and literacy rich read aloud.