What Will I Be?

What Will I Be?

Written by: Nicola Davies

Illustrated by: Marc Boutavant

Candlewick Press, 2012

22 Pages

Nonfiction Book 

     I picked this book, because I loved the illustrations on the cover.  I actually bought the book for my integrated language arts lesson for teaching life cycles; the book explains several different animal life cycles.  I love the book, because it goes through each step of a life cycle, but it’s written in a way that can be easily understood by children.  The book begins with the life cycle of a butterfly and how butterflies begin as an egg and turn into caterpillars that make cocoons.  Then, it talks about polar bears; it explains how polar bears are born and grow into polar bear cubs that learn to hunt from their mothers.  It also explains how turtles are born by hatching from an egg.  It also talks about how they swim out into the ocean and then return to the beach one day to lay their own eggs.  The next animal life cycle it explains is the frog. It shows a picture of an egg first, and then explains how the egg turns into a tadpole.  Then, the book explains how the tadpole grows into a frog, and how it will also lay eggs one day.  The last animal cycle tells how a bird is born by hatching out of an egg and how it learns to fly.  The very last page has a picture of a baby, which kind of relates the life cycles of animals to ours. 

     The illustrations in this book are wonderful. They are done digitally.  I love the colors that the artist used.  They are very bright and vibrant; the colors make the book fun and engaging.  The pictures do a great job of explaining the details of every life cycle.  The steps are numbered, which I love, because it helps students understand the order of each cycle.   The book is interactive as well, which was another thing that I really liked about the book, because it also keeps students engaged. There are flaps that you have to pull up that show what the animal looks like after it is born; the page before the flap gives a description of what the animal looks like when it is first born or when it is still an egg, and the students have to guess what it will be.  The illustrator did a fantastic job bringing the text to life in a simple way!

     This book could be used in kindergarten to second grade; however, I think this book is most appropriate for kindergarten and first grade, because is not very complex.  This book is great for teaching sequencing/ordering of events.  I would use this to teach students about animal life cycles and how each animal is born.  I might focus on just the butterfly or frog life cycles, or I could do an overview of the basics of each cycle.  If I only did one or two life cycles, I would have my students make foldable and put pictures of the animals in order.  But, if I wanted to do a lesson on life cycles in general, I would probably do a group activity where students match each animal when they are first born, or when they are an egg, with pictures of when they are adult animals.  I could also do stations where each group has a different life cycle and they put pictures in order, according to how the animal develops; then, I could have them rotate until all of the groups have done each life cycle.  Another thing I could teach with this book is habitats.  I would have my students do a matching activity where they match the animals with where they live; this could also be done in stations.