Those Magnificent Sheep in Their Flying Machine - Peter Bently & David Roberts

1. The Rhyme: For me, bad rhyme breaks a book and frankly, makes me cry. But Peter Bently's rhythm and rhyme are spot on and really adds something extra fun to the story.

2. Little Blue Bird: I love when the illustrator adds an extra element to the written text. David Roberts is one of my favorite illustrators and he does this so well.

3. The Sheep: Lambert, Eunice, Marty, Mabs, Old Uncle Ramsbottom, Bart, Ben, and Babs. Because nine sheep would have been too many, and seven would be too few.

4. Read aloud-ability: It is absolutely impossible to read this book without a smile and lots of expression.

5. Circular Ending: These sheep have quite an adventure. But I love that they end up right where they started. To find out why you have to read the book!

Parents: Kids will have so much fun listening to you read this book aloud! The vibrant illustrations will capture their imagination while they listen.

Teachers: Fabulous book to model reading with expression. As with all well rhymed text, you can also use this book to model how a good reader uses words they do know to help figure out words ones they don't.

Writers: fabulous rhyme; circular ending; voice; characters that jump off the page

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