Reading Review Guide: Giraffes Can't Dance

Giraffes Can’t Dance

Author: Giles Andreae

Illustrator: Guy Parker-Rees

Published: 1999

A.R. Level: 3.8 

Summary Prompts for Students

1. Why did the lions laugh at Gerald? (they think Giraffes aren't good at dancing)

2. How did that make him feel? (he was very sad and he ran away)

3. Who encouraged Gerald? (a cricket in the forest)

4. How did the crowd react when Gerald danced? (they were amazed, they asked where he had learned to dance)

Possible Themes/Morals

•  It isn’t nice to tease people
• It’s okay to try things you’re not good at, you might be surprised.
• Follow your passions. 

Vocabulary and Key Terms

• elegant (adjective): showing good taste, graceful and attractive
• bold (adjective): showing confidence or lack of fear 
• clot (noun): [British, informal] a foolish person
• entranced (adjective): filled with wonder

Reading Review Guide: Interrupting Chicken

Interrupting Chicken

Author: David Ezra Stone

Published: 2010

A.R. Level: 2.2

Summary Prompts for Students

1.      What did the chicken want to do before bed? (read a bedtime story)

2.     What were the stories that they read? (Hansel & Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Chicken Little, and Chicken’s story Bedtime for Papa)

3.     Why did Chicken stop reading the story to her dad? (he fell asleep and started snoring)

Possible Themes/Morals

• Interrupting people is wrong, and it takes time away from more important things.
• Sometimes it’s nice to do things for your parents instead of them always doing things for you.

Vocabulary and Key Terms

• involved (adjective): affected or excited by something

Reading Review Guide: Once Upon a Goat

Introduction: Since reviewing is an important skill for developing children, I hope to upload Reading Review Guides so that parents may go over what their child heard during their library time. I will also be offering teacher copies in case they would like to use them in their classroom. 

Reading Review Guide:

Once Upon a Goat

Author: Dan Richards, Illustrator: Eric Barclay

Summary Prompts for Students

1.      What did the king and queen wish for? (a child*** one humorous element in this story relies on the reader's understanding that "kid" can mean both a baby human and a baby goat)

2.     Why were the king and queen upset? (there was a baby goat on their doorstep instead of a kid)

3.     Why do the king and queen let the goat back into the palace? (it was raining outside and the goat could not find shelter)

4.    What mistake did the fairy godmother make? (she accidentally gave a baby goat to the king and queen and a baby human to the goat parents)

5.     How does the story end? (the king and queen let the goat family move into the palace with them)

Possible Themes/Morals

·        Even mistakes can lead to happy endings

·        The meaning of family; not all families look the same (parents & siblings; children and goats)

Vocabulary and Key Terms

·        kid (noun): a young child, but it can also mean a baby goat

·        hearth (noun): the area in front of a fireplace

·        blustery (adjective): stormy, windy

·        sincere (adjective):  honest, truthful, genuine