Henkes, K. (2004). Kittens First Full Moon. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books.
Brief Annotation: Kevin Henkes makes a kitten’s attempts to drink the moon adorable even without color. The charcoal like images were a wonderful addition to the story. Even though I knew that the kitten was chasing the moon and not a bowl of milk, I still wanted the poor, hungry kitten to do the impossible and reach the moon.
Genre: Children’s picture book
Grade Level: k-3
Readers who will like this: Readers who enjoy reading about animals and cute stories about imagination would like this book. This books vocabulary is early level, and the font is large with the words spread out along the page, making it a rewarding book for a young reader.
Response/Rating (1-4): 4, cute story, interesting illustrations, and it had a happy ending.
One question you would ask before a read aloud: Have you ever seen something that wasn’t really there?
Reading Strategies Connection: Students could do a feelings chart (Yopp, Yopp Pg 87) for the kitten as the story progressed. I would want the students to read the expression on the determined kittens face. Students could then relate that expression to other actions that might make the kitten feel the same way. The story is focused on the kitten reaching the moon, and it does not use adjectives that would describe the kittens feelings. Therefore this would be a great opportunity to expand the students vocabulary.
Remember to make sure that when you describe the reading strategy connection you are clearly explaining the strategy, from which text, and why it is appropriate for that particular book.
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