Baloney (Henry P.), by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Lane Smith, is the story of one little alien who was late to class one too many times. His teacher has had it and is threatening life long detention unless he can come up with a good excuse. As his name would suggest, the one he comes up with is full of baloney, but it is a good tale. It all begins with the misplacement of his zimulis.... that's right zimulis. You can gather by the context clues that his zimulis is his pencil. His chase of his pencil leads him past his szkola, and onto a razzo, and leads to him becoming kuningas of a whole planet. A tall tale indeed.
The first reading of this book is great for helping students and teachers remember how hard it can be to learn to read. It puts them in the same situation of a struggling reader or an ELL student. All the words that I discussed above are words from other languages. Scieszka completes the book with a glossary for all the words including which language they come from. He uses everything from Swahili to Latin to Latvian. This entertaining tall tale can provide an interesting lesson.
This book sounds really interesting and fun! I love the name Baloney! That alone will get kids interested in reading this book as well as the cute green alien on the front cover. Very cool how the author uses interesting words and then provides a glossary with the language in which it comes from. Sounds like a book that will get imaginations flowing!
ReplyDeleteThis book looks like one my boys would love! I'm going to look for it at the library. Does he provide a pronunciation key as well? Not sure about the szk blend.
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