Sticky Burr

Title: Sticky Burr: Adventures in Burrwood Forest (#1)
and Sticky Burr #2: The Prickly Peril    
Author: John Lechner
Illustrator: John Lechner 
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication Date: 2007/2009  
Genre/Format: Fiction/Fantasy/Graphic Novel  
Summary: In Sticky Burr: Adventures in Burrwood Forest we meet Sticky Burr who is dealing with Scurvy Burr who doesn't think he is such a great burr in general and wants him gone.  In Sticky Burr #2: The Prickly Peril, Scurvy Burr takes over the storytelling and again tries to banish Sticky Burr from Burrwood Forest.  
What I Think: Finding books I know my students will love is always exciting.  I am even more excited about finding the Sticky Burr: Adventures in Burrwood Forest series because I will be able to introduce a new genre to my students while also working on some identifying main idea skills.  The illustrations and the stories are great in both of these books.  If you've read my reviews of graphic novels before, you might have noticed that I think graphic novels can be hard to read, there is so much inferring going on and it just seems like a lot of work to me.  These books are just-right graphic novels for me.  The pictures and the dialogue tell the story but I didn't have to reread and I didn't end up with headache.  Bonus!
    At the end of Sticky Burr: Adventures in Burrwood Forest there is a two-page layout of The Burrwood Gazette.  The stories from the book are written like a newspaper.  I love this part of the book because it's a mini-review and I just so happen to be working on main idea right now with my 3rd grader.  We have been reading non-fiction, identifying the details, and then coming up with the main idea.  Next, we'll work on deciding on a title for the passage we read.  This little blurb at the end is a perfect way for me to read the story with him but then still practice our non-fiction reading.  How cool is that?  I love when authors add little extras like this to the books.
     Another bonus, if you know how to play a piano or some other instrument, there's music for a little song at the end of both of the books.  I never thought I would find myself saying I liked sticky burrs...I remember getting them all over me when I was a kid and also having to gently pry them off of my dog's fur growing up...but I do, I really do like them!
Read Together: K - 2
Read Alone: 2 - 5 
Read With: Babymouse (graphic novel series) by Jennifer and Matthew Holm;  Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute (graphic novel series) by Jarrett Krosoczka; Kit Feeny: On the Move (graphic novel series) by Michael Townsend; True Things (Adults Don't Want Kids to Know) (Amelia Rules) (graphic novel series) by Jimmy Gownley; Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye (Geronimo Stilton, No. 1) by Geronimo Stilton
Snatch of Text: 

"BURR: (n) the rough, prickly

seedcase of certain plants

STICKY: (adj) tending to cling

to things difficult to deal with"

It's hard to quote a graphic novel, but check out the website to see artwork and fun!

Reading Strategies to Practice: Inferring, Making Connections, Making Predictions 
Writing Strategies to Practice: Dialogue, Main Idea/Titles, Narrative 
Writing Prompts: Choose a drawing from the book or draw your own sticky burr character and then create dialogue bubbles to build the story.   
Topics Covered: Friendship, Fitting In, Courage 
Translated to Spanish: No