Siberian Huskies- (1) Informational Book

Siberian Huskies

By: Bob Temple

Genre: Informational

Award: N/A

Grade Level: Siberian Huskies is a great informative book for second grade students wanting to learn more about this breed. For the most part the word choice is reasonable for this grade level, with more complex unfamiliar words defined in the glossary of the book.

Summary: The informative tone, interesting facts, and real pictures emphasize the informational factual genre of this book. The book goes into detail about caring for huskies, their size, coat and color, and where they originate from thus showing that book is organized in a descriptive structure. The book includes a glossary defining technical vocabulary such as weaning and veterinarian. Additionally, the book lists related internet sites for more information about huskies. Each photo in the book has its own descriptive caption. Though the sentences do seem lengthy, the word choice is not overly complex. The information does seem to be presented in an intimidating manner, with a lot of information and text being on a single page. This is unattractive to students and may cause them to lose interest.  Siberian Huskies would be classified as a biological science book because it deals with living organisms.

Classroom Strategies: To engage students in this book have a classroom discussion with a KWL chart. Before reading the book, ask the students what they already know about Siberian Huskies and write replies on the board. This could include common facts such as, that they are related to wolves, or movies huskies are in like Balto.   Next, ask the students what they want to know about the bred, start them off by saying something you would want to know. Then read the book, either as a class or individually. Finally, complete the chart by asking the students what they learned about huskies from reading this book, writing answers on the board.

Another classroom strategy that can be utilized with this book is to use the websites suggested in the back of the book to gain more knowledge about dog breeds. Instruct students to visit the first site listed “Everything Husky” and look up a similar breed to the husky (the website lists information about similar breeds). Next, have them make a Venn diagram comparing the husky with the breed of their choice. This activity will allow students to restate facts they have learned about the breeds as well as comparing and contrasting them.

ESOL: compare and contrast, cooperative learning, researching, summarization, Venn diagrams, brain storming, and graphic organizers are all ESOL strategies demonstrated by the classroom strategies.

Read Aloud: If I were to read this book to a second grade classroom, I would most likely read the entire book aloud. I believe that the book may be too intimidating for students to read on their own because there is an overwhelming amount of text on each page. This could be intimidating to students and deter them from learning interesting material from this book.

Personal Opinion: I enjoyed reading this book and found it very informative. I chose this book about huskies because I own a husky myself (show in the above picture) and I just love this breed. It was interesting to compare information from the book to how my puppy behaves.