Books Are Wild

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based on Wild About Books
by Judy Sierra and pictures by Marc Brown

About the Book
It started the summer of 2002 when Springfield librarian Molly McGrew by mistake drove her bookmobile into the zoo. The animals are fascinated by her reading aloud and soon all of them want to learn how to read too. Molly finds just the perfect book for each animal - tall books for the giraffes, small books for the crickets, joke books for the hyenas. In no time Molly has them going simply wild about the wonderful books. Not only do they read but become writers as well and Molly helps them open their own zoobrary. This book is the perfect way to promote the joy of reading.

Set the Stage
Look at the front and back cover and talk about the title and pictures.

• Why did the author choose this title? Who do you think is wild about books?
• Where might you find wild animals like this?
• What are some of the animals on the back cover doing?
• How did they get the books?

Review
After students have enjoyed the book; lead a spirited discussion with these questions:

• How did Molly get the animals interested in reading?
• What kinds of books did the animals choose?
• What else did Molly have to teach the animals about books?
• Which picture in the book is your favorite? Why?
• Why did they have to build a Zoobrary at the zoo?

Student Activity
This fun reproducible will have students deciding the sequence events happened in the book.

Related Activities
To extend students understanding of the story, try these:

• Sketch It Out: With your students help, list on the board six major events in the story. Then create a large storyboard with six frames. Have volunteers draw each of the events in the correct frame and add a caption to summarize what is happening. Retell the story using the finished storyboard.
• Read Other Books: Read aloud to the class other books by Judy Sierra such as Silly and Sillier or Antarctic Antics.
• Create a Poem: Introduce the class to haiku and create poetry as a group or individually.
• Animal Classification: Have students make a list of the different kinds of animals in Wild about Books. Ask volunteers to illustrate each type, and then place the pictures on the board. Ask students to sort the pictures by various criteria, such as how they move (fly, swim, crawl) or by habitat (pond, tree, underground).
• Books Are Our Friends: Make a list of the proper way to handle books.

Reproducibles:

• Books Are Wild! Student Activity Sheet

  (PDF)

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