Williams, V. (1986) Cherries and Cherry Pits. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books.

Brief Annotation: This book is a collection of drawings made by a young girl. Each drawing becomes a story, which we hear as if we were watching the girl draw the pictures right in front of us. The stories, which seem somewhat unfinished and disjointed at first are all woven together by the common image of cherries and cherry pits, connecting the many characters. Finally we hear a story about the little artist who draws herself planting cherries and inviting people from all over the world to come and eat cherries and spit out pits with her.
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Grade Level: 2-4
Readers who will like this: Imaginative kids. Kids who like to draw and make up stories. Kids who like to see illustrations that look like something a child drew.

Response/Rating (1-4): ** I did not really like this book. It was a bit too disjointed and confusing. I appreciated what the author was doing, and I think the book would be a great lead in for creative writing activities but it was hard to use as a read aloud. It also models creative process strategies which is cool.

One question you would ask before a read aloud:
Just looking at the picture on the cover of this book, make up a story about the girl. Tell it to your neighbor.

Reading Strategies Connection:
This book would pair well with a gallery walk strategy (Tompkins, 39). Students would each create their own drawing and begin a story about it, following the book’s pattern “THIS is…” The work would be displayed on desks or the wall and students would walk around leaving sticky notes with their comments about the work. A gallery walk would reinforce the type of questioning that happens between the narrator and picture artist in the book, as students also question each other about what they mean and why a drawing led them to create that particular story.