I Will Not Eat You - Adam Lehrhaupt & Scott Magoon

1. The Unknown: I love that you don't know what is lurking in the cave and you don't find out until halfway through the book. Kids will love guessing!

2. The Pattern: Kids love patterns in books and books with patterns make for great read alouds. The best part about books with patterns is the spot where the pattern is broken!

3. Simple Sentences: The short and to-the-point sentences work perfectly for this text. The pacing is quick which is perfect because kids won't be able to wait for you to turn the page.

4. Illustrations: Amazing full color pages, the color choices that match the tone of the text, the details that add to the story (Like the detail of what the bird left behind on one of the rocks!), and the contrast in the endpages.

5. The Wordless Spread: Arguably my favorite element in any picture book and this one doesn't disappoint. So simple, yet so effective.

Parents: Kids will love guessing what is inside the cave on the first read. The low word count makes this a great choice to read over and over again.

Teachers: Have your students use this as a mentor text for their own cave stories. What will be lurking in their cave? What animals will stop by that won't interest the main character and what will be the one thing that will make the MC emerge from it's home? For reading work, you could use this text to teach how a good reader makes predictions and/or using your schema. 

Writers: Simple, tight text; little twist at the end;  repeating pattern

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