FeedBad Kitty by Nick Bruel
December 20, 2008 in ABC books, Bruel, Nick, Personal Connections, Picture Book, Preschool to 1st grade teachers, Shared Writing Tags: ABC books, Bad Kitty, books about cats for kids, books about pets, books for preschoolers, Nick Bruel, picture books
This photo got a lot of comments when I used it with my Halloween post. It seemed only appropriate to share it during the holidays, too and with this book!
Reviewed by Margo Dill, www.margodill.com, margodll@aol.com
Picture book for preschool through 2nd grade students
Bad kitty as main character
Rating: When I read this book, I said to myself, “Now, why couldn’t I think of that?” A great ABC book–a new twist.
Short, short summary: Kitty was not bad UNTIL there was no kitty food for her. Then here comes the first ABC part of this book–a long list of vegetables that kitty’s owners want her to eat instead of cat food. So, Bad Kitty comes out and starts doing bad and mean things in ABC order, of course. Finally, her owners realize they need to get her some good food–so they do, and they tell her about her new cuisine in ABC order. Now, she’s happy and sorry for her misbehavior, and she tries to be nice again in, you guessed it, ABC order.
So, what do I do with this book?
1. Kids love ABC books. This one has four ABC lists, but can your students think of another? When you are finished reading this book, you can do a shared writing with your students, or they can do their own. You can either make an ABC list about the new puppy at the end of the book, how Bad Kitty would spend a summer or winter day, or Bad Kitty’s favorite sweet foods. Have fun with it, and be creative just like Nick Bruel is.
2. To extend activity one, create your own ABC book based on Bruel’s characters. After you have finished your ABC list as a class, ask students to illustrate one of your ABC ideas and try to do it in Bruel’s style. Gather all the illustrations together, and make them into a book for your children or students to enjoy during independent reading time.
3. Students will want to share ALL their pet stories when you are reading this book. It will seem to start so innocently as cute, little girl A raises her hand and says, “One time, my cat. . .” and then 30 minutes later, you are still listening to pet stories. So, what can you do? Prepare your students and parents ahead of time. Decide what day you will share Bad Kitty with your students, and ask them to bring in pictures of their pets or grandparents’ pets. Ask parents to write down a few key facts and one funny story about the pet. Let students take turns thoughout the day, sharing the photo and stories about their pets.
If you have used this book with students or your children, please leave a comment here and let us know how it went. For more information about books to use with preschoolers, check out: Shirley’s Preschool Activities.
If you have a book you would like me to read and review, please leave a comment here or email me at margodll@aol.com.
December 22nd, 2008 at 3:04 am
Wow. What a great blog! And what an honor to be included here. I’m glad I ran across this place.
Since I’m here, I thought I would share some of my own experiences with sharing this book when I visit schools. In fact, I already utilize some of the exercises Ms. Dill suggests.
But first, I feel that I should point out that there already is a sequel to “Bad Kitty” featuring that naive dog in the form of “POOR PUPPY.” But, moving right along…
I create interactive exercises for each of my books and turn to them depending on the age group I’m meeting. For “Bad Kitty,” I do indeed use an alphabet exercise that works well with a group, but I’ve also designed it as work for individual kids. The point of the exercise is to explain that even though it took me 2 months to illustrate this book, it took me nearly 6 months to write it because it’s not as easy as it looks to find the right word for each letter of the alphabet 4 times.
The alphabets we work on are “First Names,” “Sounds,” “Sports,” and “Instruments.” First Names is by far the most accessible exercise for kids. Perhaps not so surprisingly, “Sounds” is the most abstract for them.
When working with a large group of kids, I tend not to go through the entire alphabet, but pick a subject and then pick a letter and then see how many words the kids can find as a group. The lesson here is that sometimes the letters that you would think should be easiest aren’t.
One fun group activity I almost always employ is to see how many Sports starting with the letter “S” the group can find. The obvious ones like “Soccer” and “Skating” are always chosen early. Around #10, the list grows harder to fill. My challenge to each group is to find at least 15. I think the record is 23. Pay attention to the kid who shouts out “Sumo Wrestling”… that kid has a bright future.
Anyhoo… since this is such a cool blog, and since I already employ an exercise similar to the one being suggested here, I thought I would offer free pdf files of the exercise I use to anyone who wants it. Again, it’s a simple alphabet exercise that could be given to kids as a group, in teams or individually. Just email me at nick@nickbruel.com and I’ll happily send it to you.
By the way, in reference to another suggestion… I’ve visited at least two schools in which classrooms have created an alphabet called “Bad Kiddie” in which they put together an alphabet of all the awful things a kid might do, complete with drawings.
Great blog. Thank you for the kind words.
December 24th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Nick,
Thank you so much for all that information. Those are great ideas for children’s writers, who have to do school visits, parents, librarians, and teachers!
Thanks!
Margo