The Dragonsitter!

Hello!

I'm linking up today with Deanna for Let's Talk about Books, a great linky for discovering amazing books!

Last week we had Josh Lacey, author of the GRK books, in to work with classes from years 2-5!

He talked to the children about his books and answered their questions about being an author, inspiration for his stories and about himself. It was so exciting for them to meet and work with a real author and see what they can aspire to in the future if they want to and work hard!

As I work in year 2 (6-7 year olds), the story he focused on with us was this:

It is perfect for this age group at the end of the school year because it is a chapter book but pretty short (I read it aloud to them in about 20-25 minutes) and very manageable. It is written as a series of emails which means it is easy to dip in and out of and holds their attention. 

Each email has an attachment of a picture too so there are illustrations to show them as you read which always helps (and mine struggle without!).

This is Eddie at the beginning writing the first email to his Uncle Morton Pickle who has left his pet dragon with Eddie and his mum (and sister Emily) to look after for the week. The first email informs Uncle Morton that his dragon has just eaten Jemima, Emily's pet rabbit!

The dragon causes all sorts of bother and we hear about this throughout. It had my class giggling (especially as there are more than a few mentions of dragon poo) and they now can't wait to read more Dragonsitter books.

They did some email writing themselves with Josh Lacey after the whole school assembly about a pet they were sitting for who was causing lots of trouble.

After our writing workshop we went back to class and wrote messages to Josh (email style) thanking him for visiting us and telling him what we enjoyed. I quickly made these messages into a book using copies of the front and back cover of the book and a bit of ribbon. He loved his thank-you gift!

This series of books would be a great first venture into chapter books for young children - you should check this one (and his other books) out!

Don'f forget to link up your favourite books!