Mentor Text Library by Lisa Scalzo

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 00:27:28 UTC

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 00:27:28 UTC

Another favorite of Eric Carle's, this book showcases many different animals and what sounds they make. The colorful illustrations will also help children to identify what each animal looks like. The repeated phrase "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" is a great way of helping young readers to follow along and enjoy learning about animals.

The Giving Tree

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 00:43:15 UTC

This book is about a young boy who meets a tree who gives him parts of herself that he can turn into items that h wants, for example her apples become money. As he gets older, his frequent visits become less and less, occurring only when he wants something. However, the tree is always happy to give him what he wants. By the end, he is an old man. The tree is now nothing but a stump. She tells him she cannot offer him anything else, but he explains he just wants to sit down and takes a seat on her stump, to which she happily obliges. This story teaches children not only about friendships and generosity but encourages them to see both sides of the story, by showing them they can't always take, but they also can't always give, at the expense of their own happiness.

Jabari Jumps

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 00:57:05 UTC

This book tells of a little boy named Jabari. He is initially too afraid to jump off the diving board at the pool, however, his dad helps him through his fear and at the end he finally jumps off the high board. I chose this book because I feel that a lot of children will be able to relate to this, and it will also help them to understand that it is good to try new things and also afraid to be a little scared in the beginning

Hair Love

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 01:49:15 UTC

Hair Love is a book about a little girl, Zuri, who is trying to style her hair the way her mom used to but can't seem to get it right. Her dad tries to help her but can't do it either, however they wind up getting it right together. Zuri and her dad go to the hospital to pick up her mom who is bald due to chemotherapy. Zuri hugs her mom, and they go back home together. This book may help children who are dealing with a parent's illness understand that they are not alone. It also shows love, resilience, and adversity in the face of family tragedy.

Amelia's notebook

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 02:33:00 UTC

Amelia's Notebook is a jumble of different forms of writing from the perspective of a young girl named Amelia. the writing ranges from journal entries to to do lists, showing children that writing can be many different things, it doesn't all need to be formal writing like what is done at school. This story encourages young children to express themselves through writing and that they can have fun writing in different ways.

The Waterhole

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 16:05:48 UTC

this book provides a wonderful way of teaching children how to develop their voice. It is about 10 animals who go to a water hole to drink water every day in the woods. The voice trait is shown in multiple ways but most clearly By showing 10 different perspectives of 10 different animals. This will help children to not only understand the story, but to see the different ways each animal is portrayed. This is beneficial because it will expose students to different writing styles as well as different perspectives which they will need to learn to understand as they grow in their writing. It also has a strong message about the diminishing water supply and how The animals must work together For everyone to have some, much Like young students have to share their toys with their other classmates.

Pete the cat and his four groovy buttons

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 16:12:39 UTC

Pete, the cat is a great mentor a text For voice, because the phrases Which are often in the title of the book are repeated many times throughout the story in this case Pete says on every page “ My buttons, my buttons, my four groovy buttons.” This repetitive phrase will help children follow along and Understand what the book is about. As the story goes along, unfortunately, it loses all four of his buttons however, he doesn’t get upset which keeps the tone positive. A positive tone is important for young readers to hear because it will make them happy which will encourage them to write their own stories. Children will also stay, engaged you to the bright, colorful illustration and the simple, yet engaging way the story is written.

Go Away Big Green Monster

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 16:20:40 UTC

Go away, big green monster is a fun way for children to learn how to use their voice. This book is about a scary monster and his characteristics. In the book, they talk about his purple hair and his sharp white teeth and on each page, the same phrase “Go away, big green monster” is repeated. This is because the story is written in a way that wants the children to repeat the phrase back to the teacher after it is read to them. This also helps with voice because it is interactive which will help children develop a voice, and help them to feel in control And powerful and using their voices, as at the end the page reads, “go away, big green monster, You don’t scare me and don’t come back until I say so.”

The Rainbow Fish

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 16:49:29 UTC

The rainbow fish is a story about a young fish who has beautiful rainbow scales, however he is very selfish and does not let anyone else have a scale. Him refusing to share, makes no one want to play with him, At the end of the book, he realizes that if he wants to keep his friends, he needs to share, which he does in the end, making himself and his friends happy. This will resonate with children, as they will remember how they need to share to make their friends happy. This helps give children a voice because it will make them reflect on choices they’ve made in the past in reference to sharing which many have been frustrating or difficult at the time. The book’s message will relate to those experiences showing that while it my be hard to share sometimes we need to be fair to others and share when we need to.

The Day the Crayons Quit

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 16:56:17 UTC

This book is a great mentor text, because it shows the many different points of view/voices and perspectives of the different crayons. The book is about a young boy who tries to open his box of crayons to color only to find out they’re all on strike. They all have different complaints about the crayons and want to see more appreciated. The different perspectives will help children to develop their own voices in writing, and the colorful pictures will keep them engaged and interested in the story while being able to follow along themselves.

Click Clack Moo

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 17:16:07 UTC

This book is a very good example of a voice Mentor text because it showcases a lot of persuasive writing, Which is beneficial for children to learn a young age as can help them develop a confident voice. The book is about a group of cows living on a farm who wrote letters about what they want from the farmer who at first admonishes their request, however by the end, a deal is reached and both the farmer and the cows get what they want. This will help children to understand that for everyone to be happy they must communicate with each other and sort out their issues together. The repetitive phrase “click clack moo” will help children follow the story and the colorful pictures will also keep children interested as the story moves along

Diary of a worm

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 18:44:06 UTC

Diary of a worm is about a worm who gets to take home is his class pet a gnat. However he leaves the cage open and the gnat escapes. The story takes you through a timeline of places and times of the worm, trying to find the gnat. This is a great example of showing organization in writing and will help children be able to put their events in chronological order while writing different pieces.

Pete the Cat I love My White Shoes

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 18:49:39 UTC

Pete, the cat and his white shoes as a good job at organizing their writing. Pete has bought new white shoes, however, steps in the mud, blueberries and strawberries throughout the book turning them brown blue and red respectively. Pete doesn’t let the color change affect his love of his new shoes and continually stay positive about the color change throughout the story. The book organizes this writing By showing the different stages of which Pete’s shoes get their colors changed. Going from white to blue to brown to red to wet and showing Pete feeling towards each the colors.

The Roller Coaster

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 18:56:06 UTC

This book is about a child who is about to go on a roller coaster. The organization trait is perfect in this story, as he explains the anticipation of waiting in line to get on the rollercoaster, the excitement of stepping on to the ride, the exhilaration of experiencing the ride and the dizzying feeling after the ride is over. Which are all of gongs that every child who has ever been on a roller coaster can relate to.

Girl Wonder: A baseball story in nine innings

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 19:06:33 UTC

This story which is about a female baseball player, who explains important life events over the course of nine stories, which she refers to as innings. This is a great example of organization because the events are all in chronological order and neatly arranged in another period in her life. This story can help children learn how to arrange different events and line them up in their writing in order.

Exploding Ants

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 21:18:07 UTC

Exploding ants is about different animals and insects and the fascinating things about how they live and survive. The book shows organized writing in the way that the author has a page dedicated to each animal/insect where they describe where it lives, what it does, and how it survives in the wild. This will also teach children more about animals and how they live.

Sea of Ice

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 21:51:34 UTC

This story is about the ship The Endurance. It was a ship in 1914 that was supposed to sail the Atlantic Ocean. Every day is documented in this book like that of a timeline which lets the reader know where exactly they are in the story. This is a very organized way of writing. This is beneficial for children because they will most likely know of this ship from history lessons and this can give them more background on what happened.

Fancy Nancy

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 22:16:58 UTC

Fancy Nancy is a little girl named Nancy who loves all things fancy such as dresses, crowns, and expensive jewelry. She uses many descriptive words to describe what she wears and likes, using words like “extravagant and sophisticated”. This will help young children learning new words to describe things that they want to express in their writing.

Come on, Rain!

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 22:22:39 UTC

This story is about a little girl, whose town is experiencing a drought. She keeps saying the phrase come on rain to try to get some relief from the hot Summer day. Eventually, it does rain and the drought ends when the book is over. The author uses extremely descriptive wording in the story, using the words “ Sweltering”, “ Parched” and “ Sizzling”. These words would most likely not be known for the age group that this book is aimed that, however this can really help children develop their language usage in their future writing.

In the Tall, Tall Grass

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 22:31:58 UTC

This book is all about animals you may see in the grass. The book talks all about those animals/insects which will help children identify them. The author also uses rhyming words on every page Which children will enjoy, And there’s also a lot of descriptive verbs like crunch and munch that children will be able to use while writing their own stories and sentences.

In the small, small pond.

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 22:34:44 UTC

This book, which is the sequel to “In the tall, tall grass.” Talks about all the animals that you would find in a pond like tadpoles and fish. This makes children understand what types of animals and amphibians live in the water, Which children may not know if they do not live near your bodies of water like ponds or oceans. This book also uses a lot of descriptive imagery with colorful pictures as well and again rhyming words.

Mostly Monsterly

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 22:42:49 UTC

Mostly, mostly is about a little girl named Bernadette who is a monster. Though she’s a monster, she likes to do a lot of things that other girls her age like to do like color, pick flowers and play with animals. The author use a lot of words to describe her like “ fangs”, “growl”, “claws”, and “fur”. This helps children to create a picture in their mind of what Bernadette looks like. It will also help them right as they get older to give them an idea of what kind of words they can use to describe someone or something that they are writing about.

Owl moon

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 22:47:59 UTC

This book is about a young owl and her father looking at the night sky together. She asks questions about the nature around her and her father answers them. It’s something that most children can relate to, spending time with a parent and asking them questions. The author does a good job at Painting us a winter scene Using words like snowy, silvery, and shadowy in terms of what the snow looks like. The pictures also help to tell the story, but it’s the word that are really at the point across to the children who are reading the book who may use these words in their own future writings.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 23:00:22 UTC

The story tells all of the letters of the alphabet racing up to see you can be the first to reach to the top of the coconut tree. The story structured in a way that teaches kids how to Read in a rhyming rhythm, It also teaches all the letters of the alphabet, finally, the amusing story and the simple yet interesting illustrations will keep children entertained and engaged throughout the entire story.

Chicka Chicka 123

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 23:10:09 UTC

This book which is a sequel book to “Chicka Chicka boom boom” Features yet another race, However, this time it is the numbers racing up to the top of the tree. Once again, there is a lot of descriptive words like “twisty” and “loopy” And more practice reading in rhythmic form.

Polar bear, Polar Bear, What Do You See?

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 23:14:14 UTC

This book, which is a sequel book “brown bear brown bear what do you see?” Talks about all the different animals like the first one only more rare animals, like polar bears, penguins, and panda bears. This book Also features a rhyming form and repeated phrase of writing.

Goodnight Moon

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-04 23:52:24 UTC

The story is about a bunny, who says good night to all of the inanimate objects in his house during bedtime. This promotes sentence fluency by creating unique ways to say goodnight and promoting a smooth way of conveying the story to the reader.

Piggie Pie

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-05 16:24:12 UTC

Piggie Pie provides sentence fluency by demonstrating smooth transitions between sentences and makes for an entertaining and interactive read aloud.

Old Black Fly

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-05 16:27:25 UTC

This is about a fly who disturbs a family home by landing on various items that all start with the following letter of the alphabet. It is also written in a rhyming format which gives the writing a nice flow.

The Way I Feel

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-05 16:31:12 UTC

"The Way I Feel" uses impactful wording and bold illustrations to help children learn to explore and process their emotions. It flows nicely, allowing for children to connect each word to its corresponding emotion.

Punctuation Takes A Vacation

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-05 16:35:25 UTC

When all the punctuation marks take a vacation from a classroom, the students must learn how to communicate without them. This will help emergent writers with writing and remind them why it is so important to use puncuation.

Scaredy Squirrel

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-05 16:38:44 UTC

This story is written in a jumble of letters, words, and symbols. This will show students a different way of writing and describing what they are reading.

CDB

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-05 16:41:58 UTC

This book uses conventions by creating illustrations and developing codes underneath them to create riddles with jumbles of letters to create a caption for the picture and a clue for the riddle.

Girls Like Spaghetti

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-05 16:45:55 UTC

This story demonstrates conventions by showing the importance of commas. The book explains that without commas, the sentence you are writing could be read as something that is completely different.

Twenty Odd Ducks

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-05 16:49:03 UTC

This story aims to show the reason why apostrophes are so needed. It explains that not using them correctly, or at all can change everything about your sentence which can lead to your writing being very confusing.

I Will Never Not Eat A Tomato

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-05 17:29:59 UTC

This story is about a little girl named Lola who refuses to eat tomatoes, or any other new foods. Her older brother Charlie decides to name some new foods silly names to get her interested in trying some new foods. The illustrations in this story are very unique as well

No David!

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-05 17:39:03 UTC

This book is about a little boy named David who is always getting himself into trouble. The presentation in this story is shown through colorful illustrations and easy to read sentences that make it easy for the students to relate to David's behavior at some point in their lives.

Alphabet Under Construction

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-05 17:42:30 UTC

The presentation of this book will both engage and amuse children while also teaching them the alphabet. As the mouse works all the way around the alphabet fixing up some letters while completely erasing others,

Blue

lisascalzo24 — 2025-03-05 17:53:59 UTC

This book only has a couple of words, in which are all written in big fonts is a great example of presentation in a children's book. The book only has a few easy-to-read words which are written very big. this will make it easier to understand for young students who are just starting their writing journey.