A Giraffe and a Half By Shel Silverstein

 

About Book

Title: A Giraffe and A Half
Author & Illustrator: Shel Silverstein
Genre: Poetry, Fiction
Major Book Awards: No major book awards
Recommended Age Range: 4 to 8
Appropriate Grade Levels: Pre-k to 2nd grade

Summary

This humorous and fun poetry book written by Shel Silverstein tells the story about a giraffe who has "what if" scenarios happening to it, causing an item being added to the giraffe after each scenario. But as the book comes to an end all the things that the giraffe has gained, eventually left it, kind of going backwards. Because at the end of the story it ended with just the giraffe itself, just like at the beginning of the book, starting the story off with just the giraffe. 

Evaluation - Would I Incorporate this Book in the Classroom?

This book was super fun to read! I really liked the illustrations and how the author incorporated both pages of the book, instead of having illustrations on one side and text on the other side. It was nice that he used both sides, because it really connected the story really well. I actually do see myself using this book in an early elementary level classroom. This is a repetitive book, so it'll definitely help students remember the story easier and know what to say next. Since this book has a a lot of rhymes, a fun activity to do with the students is a rhyming activity. After reading this book, I can give students words used in this book with pictures, and have them cut it out. After cutting out each word box, students will then glue in their journal the rhyming words. For example nose goes with rose, bee with knee, rat with hat, and etc. This will teach students rhyming words, as well as teaching them story sequence, since it's a very repetitive book. This book will also expand their imagination, because who would've thought that a giraffe has these things happen to it?!