Great nonfiction picture books by Robert Wells and others!

I love Montessori Services as a source for picture books, particularly on science and math topics. I periodically go through their catalogue and check recommended books out from my library. One of my favorite writers featured is Robert Wells. Solana and I loved both the humor and the explanations of concepts in Can You Count to a Google? What's Smaller than a Pygmy Shrew? and others.

Steve Jenkins Author Study

I recently finished an author study of Mo Willems with my ESL student, and was wondering where to go next. I’ve been attending and giving presentations on the common core standards, which emphasize how important nonfiction is. With this in mind and since my student loves books about animals, I thought Steve Jenkins would be a good choice for our next author study, and would make an interesting comparison/contrast with Mo Willems. After we read many of Mo Willems books, we watched a video I found on amazon of the author talking about his work and his process. I just found this video of Steve Jenkins describing his process for the book Move! on teachingbooks.net. There’s also an accompanying slide show that takes you through the steps of the process of writing Move! with his wife, Robin Page. I love how the two videos perfectly illustrate the difference between the manic hilarity of Mo Willems illustrations and Steve Jenkins’ calm deliberate approach.