Cassie's Word Quilt

Cassie's Word Quilt by Faith Ringgold is new to me and  I'm delighted to have found it.  It was the perfect read aloud to introduce labels, in a reading study I'm calling Reading Words with Confidence.  The story is about Cassie and we learn on the first page she lives in Tar Beach.  The reader continues to find out about her home, her bedroom, the park near her house, her school, and how she travels from Tar Beach to New York City.  There's a four page pattern to help readers and the story to be told.  The first page on the left is the text for the story and it continues with a sentence on the right page.  This sentence tells the reader what the three by three grid of pictures is about.  Each picture has a one word label underneath.  When the reader turns the page they find a two page spread with the individual pictures from the page before placed within the big illustration.  Labels accompany the pictures with in the two page illustration.  I feel the staggering of seeing the pictures and labels within a grid first helps the readers apply reading the labels with more independence  within a bigger illustration.  My students and I reviewed the school page and then worked in partners to create a label for an object in our classroom.  I think this book will make a great choice for our buddy reading box too.