I heart Mem Fox

Today one of my friends read the story Koala Lou to me. Koala Lou is one of Mem Fox's books and I heart Mem Fox. I actually have not read a lot of her books, but judging from the two I have read,

I heart her.

Koala Lou is the story of a little Koala Bear in Australia who feels a little left out and sad once her mom has other babies. She thinks that her mama does not love her as much anymore because she no longer says it all the time like she used to..."Koala Lou, I DO love you." (we had a lot of fun repeating that and practicing the emphasis on the DO). Koala Lou decides to enter the Bush Olymics because she thinks that if she wins, her mother will lover her again. Koala Lou practices and trains, but it is Koala Klaws who wins the gum tree climb. Koala Lou cries her heart out, but the comfort she gets from her mama makes all the difference in the world and the story ends:

"Koala Lou, I DO love you! I always have, and I always will."

Since the story takes place in Australia, many of the animals pictured were unfamiliar to both of us, so I went online and printed colored photos of a few that were specifically mentioned; emu, kookaburra, platypus, koala, and kangaroo. I also found some animal information printouts at enchantedlearning.com The drawback for Enchanted Learning is that you have to pay for membership and membership is required in order to download most of their activities and worksheets. Luckily, my school has an account so I was able to do so. I am not going to lie, I don't really love the activities that come from this source, but I did find printable sheets that have the animals I wanted, with a labeled image of each. Each animal page contains information about that animal including its size, where it lives, what it eats, what its babies are called, and parts of its anatomy (labeled in the picture).

After we finish the story (the bell rang right when it was Koala Lou's turn to climb the gum tree leaving us with a dramatic cliffhanger!), I want to relate the book to some non-ficiton reading and writing with my little friend. I am going to have her read some descriptions of animals and then match the descriptions with the photos and animal names. Once we learn more about these strange and interesting animals, I want my friend to select her favorite and write a nice paragraph about that animal including a topic sentence and several details. Depending on how long that takes, we may choose more than one animal and make a book. I work with this friend twice a week for 50 minutes, so I always prepare too much and then just play it by ear. I also want to do a compare/contrast with another story we read that was also about animals competing in olympic games. I really want to get her to write as much as possible since she struggles with spelling/writing. I will probably have her do one or two writing activities based on the story as well such as a summary or a description of Koala Lou.

Before she read to me, this friend carefully examined all three books that I brought by looking at all the pictures in each one and she asked me what each one was about. I love that she is so invested in what she reads and wants to make sure she is interested in it. Since I do many follow up activities on any book we read, I am glad she takes the time to choose what she is interested in.

Back to the lovely Mem Fox...

Another one of her fantastic books is Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge. This is such a touching story about a little boy who lives next door to a nursing home. When he learns that Miss Nancy, one of the residents, has lost her memory, he sets out to ask some of the other residents what a memory is because he is unsure. Each person has a different explanation, so he collects items of his own that fit each description so he can show Miss Nancy and help her get her memory back.  This is quite a tear jerker if I do say so myself and a really fantastic book to help kids respect and value people who are older...like 96 year-old Miss Nancy!

Here are some more of the books she has authored:

Do you have an all-time favorite children's author?

I would love to hear who your favorites are!

PS You may notice some changes in my layout as I am attempting to make my page less cluttered. I removed all of my blog awards, but I just want to say that does not mean I am not extremely appreciative of having received them, I just want to make more space for content. I love getting awards, but I will just cherish them secretly from on! I thought if I removed everything from the right column that I would have more room for my posts, but that was not the case because my format is still set up for three. I am gearing up to do a real blog makeover with the help of the amazing Leslie, and I know she can fix it, but she is quite busy, so that might not be for awhile and I would love to fix it sooner.

Anyone know if changing from a three column format to just two is an easy fix for someone with zero formatting skills??