Check out the book trailer for Amy's book Duck! Rabbit!  Then check out her website. http://www.whoisamy.com.  She has so many other fantastic (and hilarious) books.

Download a list of Second Person POV Picture Books here.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Teaching-Point-of-View-886190


For more information about the authors and books previewed in this video, please check out their websites or books below.

Secret PIzza Party by Adam Rubin

The Book That Eats People by John Perry 
http://www.bookthateatspeople.com/

How To Babysit a Grandpa by Jean Reagan
(Don't miss her new book: How To Babysit a Grandma)
http://www.jeanreagan.com/

Warning: Do Not Open This Book by Adam Lehrhaupt
www.adamlehrhaupt.com

Also check out Marcie's post about this hilarious book over at the Blogettes. 

The Beginner's Guide to Running Away From Home by Jennifer Huget

http://www.jenniferlaruehuget.com/3.html

Don't Push That Button by Bill Cotter
(Coming out Nov. 1st, 2013!)

How To Raise a Dinosaur by Natasha Wing
http://natashawing.wordpress.com/books/how-to-raise-a-dinosaur/

(Check out the video clip first and then read below.)

Most of Tammi Sauer's books follow a great plot structure. Therefore her books are fantastic to use with students for retelling and also for using as an example for writing their own fictional stories. 

Plot Structure of a Picture Book

Setup- Tells who the characters are, where they are (setting) and what they do.

Inciting Incident- An incident that happens that causes a problem for the main character. This problem forces them to want to try to solve it.

Events-where they “Try” to solve it and fail each time. (Picture books typically will have three.)

Try. Fail.

Try. Fail.

Try. Fail.

Climax-Dramatic moment of overcoming or solving problem.  (But then…something big happens…and the character makes a choice.)

Result- Building down, wrapping up loose ends, and showing positive consequences of climax. 

Resolution- Happy or hopeful ending

Let's take a look at Tammi's book trailer for Nugget and Fang and see how many elements we can identify. (All won't be revealed because it's a book trailer.)

Let's take a closer look at Nugget and Fang.

(Warning: The ending is revealed in this analysis of the plot.  So first, go get the book, read it, laugh out loud, read it again, share it with a friend, laugh some more, and then come back to read the following.)

Setup: Shark and a minnow- two best friends that did everything together.
 
Inciting Incident: Life was perfect until Nugget started school and realized he couldn't be friends with a shark.  Fang was sad. He had to “prove” he wasn’t scary.

Events:
Try 1.  (Fang is a surprise visitor at school.)
Fail

Try 2.  (Fang sends a letter inviting Nugget over for dinner.)
Fail 

Try 3.  (Tried several other things like getting a tattoo of Nugget and sending a singing band of seahorses, but finally he was out of ideas.)   
Fail (and he was still really sad without his friend.)

Climax: But then something really bad happens and  He was so sad that ….he didn’t notice a net. The minnows all got trapped. They were going to be captured.  

So Fang makes the decision to help them by chomping through the net.

Results: He saves them.

Resolution: And they all became friends.

The main thing I noticed that I did wrong as a teacher with retelling, was I would always have students identify:
Character, Setting, Problem, Solution.

Later, I started adding in: Character, Setting, Problem, Events, Solution. However, this still didn't make sense. Kids could identify (most of the time) the pieces in isolation. But the connection was never made that those "Events" consisted of the character "Trying" to solve the problem and "Failing" along the way.

So instead, I use a retelling format that fits the picture book structure.  And now, it makes it easier when attempting to "write" our own fictional stories.  

*Again- not all books are plot driven books.  And even if they are, not all plot driven stories will fit this exactly. Some may not have an "inciting incident" that causes the problem. Some picture books will just jump right into the problem. Often the climax, results, and resolution are very short and can often be squished together at the end.  And because picture books are so short, sometimes the results and resolution are the same.

Check out Tammi's other books. See if you you can use the template to analyze the plots.
(Then use it to write your own fictional plot driven story.)

For more information check out Tammi's website at www.tammisauer.com.

I have a secret. 

I am a book-a-holic reading teacher.
I abuse Amazon’s “one click” and “add to cart” buttons.
I spent my entire first year teaching salary on children’s books.

Okay, those aren’t secrets. (Except maybe the salary fact.) 

The real secret: I hated reading: as a child, as a teenager, and as a young adult.

As a child, I whined and complained that I wanted to be outside instead of reading. As a teenager, I cheated my way through book reports and English assignments.  As a young adult, I spent more time trying to avoid reading than I would have spent actually reading the book.  (Such things included cliff's notes, the movie version of the book, and if I was really desperate, the audio book.)

Thankfully, when I entered the education program in college, I met a brilliant professor. She began and ended every class with a fantastic picture book.  It was then, that I finally discovered the joy of reading.

However, even today, I still check the length of chapters in any book I’m about to read.   I would prefer to read a longer book that has very short chapters versus a really long short story.

I think it’s visually deceiving or it gives me a sense of accomplishment to complete one short chapter.
All I have to do is get through this two page chapter and I will feel successful.

It's sort of the same feeling as checking things off a list.

1. Get up. Check.

2. Drink Coffee. Check.

3. Take dog for walk. Check.

However, when I read it in under two hours, I was shocked.  Its format wasn’t intimidating. I wasn’t intending to read for two hours that day, but I flew through it. And the exact same thing happens with the kids I teach.

Why Kids Love'em
*Short format
*Some contain illustrations
*Emotionally driven stories 
*Short format

Why Teachers Love'em
*Kids read and enjoy them
*Exposure to poetry forms
*Added supplement to history lesson (for Historical Novels in Verse)
*Great for practicing reading strategies such as visualizing and inferencing.
*Can be used to practice fluency by performing the poems.
*Kids read and enjoy them

What are your favorite novels in verse?  How do your kids or students respond to them?

Check back in a day or so for a compiled list of Novels in Verse you can download. 
But for now, here is a visual list: Novels in Verse.