What if? by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

It was a treat to find, What if? by Laura Vaccaro Seeger on sale a couple of weeks ago.  I originally picked it up because the simple text intrigued me for engaging student's with questioning.  There is a repeating question cycle that happens three times.

What if...?

And what if...?

Then what if...?

But then...

Or...

I thought wouldn't it be wonderful to have my students think about the same idea and notice switch the wording, to open further thinking and inquiry.  However, I realized on my second read these questions do not stand alone and this book is filled with lots of thinking.  The pictures tell the story and while the text stays the same, the images tell three different possible scenarios.  I found this completely clever as a reader and had to go back and look at the first cycle of questions to figure out the second one.  I imagine a lot of classroom discussions and multiple reads to to understand and read the different possible scenarios.  Then on my third read, I discovered this is a book about friendship and including everyone.  That message sounds like one we all need to share with students as we think about a new school year.