Thursday, October 2, 2014

Picture Book Partiality - Chalk and Cheese

Picture Book Partiality Post will highlight picture books I am using and/or discovering.  I am still very fond of picture books and consider them a favorite format to use in the classroom.  

Chalk and Cheese by Tim Warnes was recommended to me by one of my students.  It was a gift from his grandmother and we both agree his grandmother can pick great books.  Chalk and Cheese are best friends who are very different from each other.  Cheese, a mouse from the country is visiting Chalk a dog who lives in New York City.  Cheese is excited about many things and also nervous about some of the different sites he visits.  Throughout the story, comparisons are given between the two friends.  Often followed with, "Chalk and Cheese are quite different.  But they are friends just the same."  I think it's important as children create friendships and we build communities to share the message that friends like and do different things.  Their day together in the city is filled with exciting adventures, some icky, some pure fun, and one getting lost which was a big scary.

When looking at the layout of this book I knew immediately why my student recommended this book.  He loves humor.  The book is filled with speech bubbles, large font and punctuation to help communicate each character's voice.    The layout can be a fill page spread or a combination of sections or boxes.  It has a bit of a graphic novel feel and a bit of Piggie and Elephant.

Chalk and Cheese have their own website with Tim Warnes with a comic strip series.  The series is currently on hold for other projects but the previous posts would be something worth looking at with students for mentor text and pieces to read.

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