Hey A.J., It's Saturday! Blog Tour

I'm super excited to be sharing my thoughts on Hey A.J., It's Saturday! and how it might be used as a mentor text to kick off the blog tour. Each blog will have a giveaway so be sure to check all the blog stops to join in on the fun!

Title: Hey A.J, It's Saturday! 
Author: Martellus Bennett 
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary:  
A.J. Is an imaginative girl who finds another world that is strangely right downstairs in her kitchen. So strange there’s already a feast, breakfast being served by creatures and beasts.

Oh! What is going in this kitchen of hers? Pancakes! Waffles! Scrambled eggs! And a Jamaican Giraffe?

Breakfast will never be the same. Ever!
What I Think: Honestly, Marty Bennett's imagination comes to life in this wonderfully imaginative breakfast adventure. As a mentor text, I love that reading this book might spark kids' imagination and give them some ideas they can incorporate into their own writing or even spur some stories. I would stop at the two-page layout that invites readers to listen up close as Marty explains some secrets about breakfast and ask students to brainstorm what some secrets they might know about breakfast...and then even brainstorm some other secrets they might know about other parts of their days or lives. Insider information is exciting to write about and helping writers see that they might be secret experts is a fun way to engage them and get them into writing.

Marty also includes some alliteration and rhyme as you can see in the second snatch of text here. Alliteration is just so much fun! Stop and have kids listen to the sounds - not only the repetition of the "f" sound and the "s" sound but also point out the assonance here as the short "i" is repeated throughout.  Ask kids to write their own silly sentences using alliteration or assonance.

Snatch of Text:  

"There's a couple of things about breakfast that no one in the world knows. 

I'm going to tell you these secrets so listen up close."

"Fifty silly fishes,

swimming in the dishes.

This cannot be right.

Why are animals

in the kitchen?"

Writing Prompt: Write about your most outlandish breakfast ever or the wildest breakfast you can imagine!
Additional Resources: Order Hey A.J., It's Saturday! at the Hey A.J Shop. And find the app on iTunes and the Google Play Store.

Here are the stops on the blog tour!

Jen at Teach Mentor Texts - 8/16

Niki at Daydream Reader - 8/17

Michele at Mrs. Knott's Book Nook - 8/18

Jessica at Little Lake County - 8/19

Linda at Teacher Dance - 8/20

Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers - 9/4

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks to The Imagination Agency for send me this title

and providing a prize pack for one winner from my site!