Library Orientation - Book III

Book #3
Stella Louella’s Runaway Book by Lisa Campbell Ernst
Second Grade, Lesson One

Meet Stella Louella. A young book lover who reads her library book everywhere, which leads her to lose it one Saturday morning.

I always start off telling the kids that this is a book about a little girl who loses her book. I love to hear the collective gasp! I tell them that I hope what happened to Stella never happens to them.

Author and Illustrator Lisa Campbell Ernst did such a good job leaving clues in the text that will tell the children the name of the book Stella lost. I admit that I read this book for a year and never noticed until one day a student pointed out the clues. My mind was blown! Since it is our first story I review what I expect to see the kids doing while I am reading. I tell them that if they are listening they might be able to pick up on the clothes that will reveal the book title. When I am done I always ask someone to tell us the title.

Lisa Campbell Ernst also doubles as the illustrator so she drops clues in the book illustrations too. After the story is over I always flip back through some of the pages and point out clues. At the end of the book you see the crowd of people each leaving the library with a book of their own. I love to tell the kids some of the book titles that the characters checked out. It always gives my students the giggles.

To end the activity, I repeat the same Yes/No activity that I did with my first grade. You can read more about that in my previous blog post.