Jan Kottke

From Egg to Robin follows the progression of eggs hatching, baby robins growing up, becoming independent, and then becoming parents on their own. At the end of the book are some definitions of new words, resources to learn more about birds, and an index of where words are located in the book. These additional features make the book a good example of a reference book, yet while remaining age appropriate.

This book would be a good addition to a unit study on robins. It could be used to introduce the changes with spring. For older children, it could be used as an example for a project where the children make their own reference books.

We repeatedly read the book and matched the photographs to what we saw in the robin’s nest outside, which was a lot of fun. I look forward to getting the other nonfiction books in this series.

Recommended age: 5-6 years

Writing style: Large font sentences on a white background. Key phrases are repeated in the book, such as "keep them warm" and "baby birds". There is repetition in the word choice as well to help reinforce concepts, such as nest, feathers, eggs, and food.

Lexile score: 180L
Decoding difficulty: 3/5
Vocabulary difficulty: 4/5
Sentences difficulty: 2/5
Patterns difficulty: 3/5

Illustration style: Photographs of robins and their babies related to the text on the page.

Reality-based: Yes, this is a nonfiction book about the life of robins.… (more)

A Day with Firefighters is a guided reading book that is about the role of a firefighter. I give this guided reading book a 5/5 because it introduces the concept of text features by bolding important words in the text. All of the bolded words in the text connects to the main concept of the text which is firefighters. As a teacher, one can ask the reader what the bolded word means and what the word is trying to tell us about firefighters. Depending on the answer of the student, the teacher can determine what the student's strengths and weaknesses are. The teacher can then determine what the student needs in order to advance in their reading. Additionally, visuals of the bolded words can be seen in the picture next to the text. For example, one of the bolded words was helmet. In the picture next to the text, a firefighter was putting on a helmet. Having visuals of the bolded words allows the reader to have a better understanding of what the book is about and how the bolded words connect to the concept of the book. Visuals are especially helpful to ELL students when trying to understand the meaning of the book.… (more)

A Day with Firefighters by Jan Kottke is an informational text about what it is like to be a firefighter. There are sections about what firefighters wear, the fire engine’s siren, putting out a fire, and more. Readers will be fascinated by all the real pictures throughout the book of different parts of being a firefighter. A teacher can use this book to engage students in finding characteristic events and descriptive attributes. For example, “I wear a black coat with yellow stripes. I put on a helmet.”… (more)

A Day with Firefighters is an informative book about what a firefighter does. The book is easy to read, and all the text is partnered with a picture that clearly shows what the words are detailing. The book features many words that students will know and some that will be new to them. This would be a good book to help kids connect meaning to words. For example kids know what a helmet looks like but may not be able to spell it. This book would be great for that. This book although ideally for young kids can almost certainly be used for all students regardless of gender or culture since all kids know what a firefighter is or have at least seen them.… (more)