I’ve been thinking a lot about the mentor texts we share with students at the beginning of the school year. In most classrooms, the school year begins with narrative writing. As I mentioned in my April 2019 post, “Curating an Array of Mentor Texts,” I think it’s important to use a variety of mentor texts that will match both the reading and writing abilities of students. It is critical to providing a variety of texts to meet students’ needs if we are committed to differentiating instruction.
Summer is nearly upon us. While we spend time relaxing and renewing ourselves during summer vacation, many of us reflect on the school year that has passed and think about ways to freshen up our practice for the following school year. Just as we revisit our teaching practices, we can reflect and refine the mentor texts we share with students in minilessons, writing conferences, and strategy lessons.
In “Inclusive Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing with a Social Justice Lens,” I shared some questions to consider when selecting books to share for writing workshop. While I hope you’ll read the whole post, here are some of the questions, which Melanie Meehan adapted from Social Justice Books, to help teachers think about cultural awareness when selecting picture books to share with kids in writing workshop.
I want to help you get started on your quest by sharing some newer picture books (most of which create cultural awareness) that can serve as exemplary mentor texts to lift the level of students’ narrative writing.
Because by Mo Willems and Amber Ren
Publisher’s Summary: Mo Willems, a number one New York Times best-selling author and illustrator, composes a powerful symphony of chance, discovery, persistence, and magic in this moving tale of a young girl’s journey to center stage. Illustrator Amber Ren brings Willems’ music to life, conducting a stunning picture-book debut.
A Few Craft Moves You Can Teach Young Writers: The Way We Are Known Ending; Developing Setting/Creating a Sense of Era Lead; Movement of Time and Place; Pacing; Precise Nouns; Punctuation to Create Voice (e.g., commas, dashes); Repetition; Vivid Verbs;
Going Down Home with Daddy by Kelly Starling Lyons and Daniel Minter
Publisher’s Summary: “On reunion morning, we rise before the sun. Daddy hums as he packs our car with suitcases and a cooler full of snacks. He says there’s nothing like going down home.”
Down home is Granny’s house. Down home is where Lil’ Alan and his parents and sister will join great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Down home is where Lil’ Alan will hear stories of the ancestors and visit the land that has meant so much to all of them. And down home is where all of the children will find their special way to pay tribute to family history. All the kids have to decide on what tribute to share, but what will Lil’ Alan do?
A Few Craft Moves You Can Teach Young Writers: Character Details; Dialogue Advances the Story; Circular Ending; Hyphenated Words; Internal Thinking; Combination Lead (i.e., developing setting/meeting the characters); Power of Three; Setting Details; Show, Not Tell; Varied Sentence Lengths.
Ojichan’s Gift by Chieri Uegaki and Genevieve Simms
Publisher’s Summary: When Mayumi was born, her grandfather created a garden for her. It was unlike any other garden she knew. It had no flowers or vegetables. Instead, Ojiichan made it out of stones: big ones, little ones and ones in-between. Every summer, Mayumi visits her grandfather in Japan, and they tend the garden together. Raking the gravel is her favorite part. Afterward, the two of them sit on a bench and enjoy the results of their efforts in happy silence. But then one summer, everything changes. Ojiichan has grown too old to care for his home and the garden. He has to move. Will Mayumi find a way to keep the memory of the garden alive for both of them?
A Few Craft Moves You Can Teach Young Writers: Back Matter (i.e., translations and pronunciations of Japanese words); Strong Character Development; Code Switching; Dialogue That Advances the Story; Combination Ending (i.e., final action/wraparound) Developing Setting Lead; Movement of Time and Place; Precise Words; Show, Not Tell; Varied Sentence Lengths;
Pup 681: A Sea Otter Rescue Story by Jean Reidy and Ashley Crowley
Publisher’s Summary: Washed ashore alone, a tiny sea otter pup needs help! Soon, a rescuer is there, to take her in and keep her warm and fed. The pup faces challenges in her new life without her sea otter family. But with the love and care of her rescuer, she flourishes in her new home. Inspired by a true story, Pup 681 is a heartwarming and hopeful tale about family and love.
A Few Craft Moves You Can Teach Young Writers: Author’s Note; Back Matter (i.e., fact sheet); Combination Ending (i.e., accomplishments/advice to the reader); Heart of the Story Unfolds Bit-by-Bit; Setting Details Lead; Interesting Print Layout; Punctuation to Create Voice (e.g., dashes, ellipses points, varied end punctuation); Speech Bubbles; Varied Sentence Lengths.
The Snow Lion by Jim Helmore and Richard Jones
Publisher’s Summary: After moving to a new home, Caro wishes she had a friend, but she’s too shy to meet the neighborhood kids. With a little imagination, however, Caro finds the Snow Lion. Together, they have all kinds of fun racing, climbing, and playing hide-and-seek. But when the boy next door asks Caro to come play, Caro isn’t so sure. Then, the Snow Lion has an idea! Making new friends isn’t always easy, but it is always worth it in the end.
A Few Craft Moves You Can Teach Young Writers: Dialogue to Advance the Story, Wraparound Ending; Setting Details Lead; Interesting Print Layout; Punctuation to Create Voice (e.g., ellipses points); Varied Sentence Lengths; Vivid Verbs.
What Is Given from the Heart by Patricia C. McKissack and April Harrison
Publisher’s Summary: “Misery loves company,” Mama says to James Otis. It’s been a rough couple of months for them, but Mama says as long as they have their health and strength, they’re blessed. One Sunday before Valentine’s Day, Reverend Dennis makes an announcement during the service– the Temples have lost everything in a fire, and the church is collecting anything that might be useful to them. James thinks hard about what he can add to the Temple’s “love box,” but what does he have worth giving? With her extraordinary gift for storytelling, McKissack–with stunning illustrations by Harrison–delivers a touching, powerful tale of compassion and reminds us all that what is given from the heart, reaches the heart.
A Few Craft Moves You Can Teach Young Writers: Dialogue That Advances the Story; Connecting with the Reader/Discovery Ending; Internal Thinking; Taking Readers Into the Past Lead; Movement of Time and Place; Precise Words; Punctuation to Create Voice (e.g., commas in lists, dashes); Strong Character Details.
All of the craft moves listed above are explained in the glossary of Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts.
Once you get these books – and others – in your hands, check out Melanie Meehan’s posts about pathways for narrative writing! Click here to read part one and click here to read part two.
Giveaway Information:
This giveaway is for a copy of each of the following books: Because, Going Down Home with Daddy, Ojichan’s Gift, Pup 681: A Sea Otter Story, The Snow Lion, What Is Given from the Heart. Many thanks to Henry Holt, Hyperion, Kids Can Press, Peachtree Publishing Company, and Schwartz & Wade for donating a copy of each of these books for one lucky reader.
For a chance to win these six books, please leave a comment about this post by Friday, June 7th at 11:59 a.m. EDT. I’ll use a random number generator to pick the winners, whose names I will announce at the bottom of this post, by Sunday, June 9th.
NOTE: You must have a U.S. mailing address to enter this giveaway.
Please be sure to leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment, so I can contact you to obtain your mailing address if you win. From there, my contacts at each of the above-mentioned publishers will ship your books out to you. (NOTE: Your e-mail address will not be published online if you leave it in the e-mail field only.)
If you are the winner of the book, I will email you with the subject line of TWO WRITING TEACHERS – NEW NARRATIVE PICTURE BOOKS. Please respond to my e-mail with your mailing address within five days of receipt. Unfortunately, a new winner will be chosen if a response isn’t received within five days of the giveaway announcement.
Comments are now closed. Thank you to everyone who left a comment. Mrs. Abbey’s Class‘s commenter number came up when I did the drawing so she’ll win the books contained in this post.
Thanks for sharing the titles and your thinking with us!
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I love adding new text to my classroom! Thank you for the suggestions!
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This is wonderful!! I am working on reading voraciously so that I can share new titles with my teachers. Thank you for all of the recommendations!:)
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Even if I don’t win these books, the craft moves listed below each book are so helpful to me! Thank you!
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I would love to share these books with my young writers! Thank you for the list and suggested craft moves!
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Wow! Love these book choices!
bmitchell@brownsburg.k12.in.us
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I love how you have provided craft moves for these books. I think that is the challenge teachers have.
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Love adding new mentor texts to my classroom!
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What a great opportunity. Loving the blog.
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Love the titles and thank you for including the possible craft moves! Can’t wait to read them!
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These books would make a great addition to my mentor text basket. Looking forward to reading them over the summer!
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Email correction 😊
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Because is an amazing book, and will be a first-rate mentor text for recognizing cause and effect, and for understanding what sparks you to do something. Love the Patricia McKissack book – what a beautiful story to empower young writers. I look forward to reading and using ALL the titles!
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I’m always looking for new mentor texts, and these (new-to-me) books sound wonderful!
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Goes right along with the Writing Strategies book I am currently working through. Mentor texts are an incredibly helpful teaching tool when teaching writing to young children.
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I love this! I struggle with teaching writing, and using picture books as mentor texts seems so much more doable.
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I am currently compiling a list of books for a new reading buddies program with 4K students across town. These books would make geat additions to that list as well as serve as mentor texts for the older students!
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Thank you so much for this post! It is so important to have mentor texts that reflect our students and the world that we live in. I can’t wait to share this list with my colleagues! Brava!! dgrohman@somsd.k12.nj.us
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All of those books are new to me and all sound wonderful!
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Amazing,this is a promising selection,outstanding and very essential to be used in the curriculum.
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I always like finding new mentor texts, they can become over used very quickly in too many classrooms. Thanks for sharing
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Thank you so much for the infusion of new mentor texts and suggestions of how they can be used. Much appreciated!
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I would love to win these for my children’s book collection. Such beautiful artwork❤️
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I would love to add these books to my collection!
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I love these books, what is even better is the writer’s craft ideas you have included. Sometimes, it’s hard to find a specific book to match the writing craft you are teaching. Thank you for putting it all together for us! I can’t wait to get started in the fall!
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Thank you for sharing these titles as well as ideas for using them. It is so important that students have examples, good examples to see. I am unfamiliar with these titles so I am very excited to check them out.
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Looks like a great selection of mentor texts! So excited to hear the buzz again about using the mentor texts in writing too. So powerful.
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I’m looking forward to adding some of these titles to my writing toolkit. Thanks!
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These books look amazing!
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Yay! Thrilled to test out these mentor texts with my middle schoolers.
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Wow! What Ana amazing set of books to promote cultural awareness in schools! Thank you for this opportunity! 👏📚
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Thanks for sharing, these all look amazing!
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Wow Stacey,
What a great list of books. I can’t wait to dive in and read them this summer! Thank you also for the tips on writing moves.
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I think it is so important to teach our students social justice. Looking forward to reading these books.
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What an amazing array of multicultural text that provide positive lens for students to view themselves from. The craft moves included are awesome! The text also lend themselves to showing that students are more alike than different which sparks meaningful conversation and authentic writing.
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This is a great list and great point- mentor texts are a perfect way to engage our students in texts that expose them to new ideas, cultures, and respect for differences!
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I can’t wait to read these!
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I just finished my very first year teaching kindergarten!!! I would love to add these to my library! I really appreciate all your posts!
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Always on the lookout for new narrative picture book titles, and thanks for including the list of possible craft moves!
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Thank you for making it easy to expand my collection of books I’m using with kids to reflect more diversity.
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As a director of early literacy, I am always looking for books to share with my teachers that reflect the many different children that we teach everyday.
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I am new to teaching literacy and these serve as great tools to help assist me in not only my shared reading time but also for my classroom library.
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The book titles are wonderful – even better is the list of possible craft moves for each! Thank you!
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Wow! Such a great list. I would love to start my writing workshop next year with some new books!
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The books all sound so great and they look wonderful for narrative teaching in the fall. Thanks as always for these great recommendations.
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Looking forward to reading these books at my local bookstore, Book People this afternoon! Thank you for the recommendations & specific craft moves to be on the lookout for.
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Excellent selection of mentor texts. Would love to try out the ideas for narrative writing. Thank you.
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These would be amazing for our teachers and school counselor because next year social justice and equity are going to be part of our focus. As a high poverty school many of our students have never gone beyond their home and school. Plus, I would especially love having Ojiichan’s Gift because I am Japanese American, my two daughters call my father Ojiisan and when we visit they get to see the garden that he has had my whole life. It would be nice to share that with my students!
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Appreciate this post with new-to-me titles. Also appreciate the craft moves you suggest for each title.
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One of the most powerful teaching moves I’ve made in recent years is to include a “classroom book a day” (i.e. picture book a day) in my fourth grade classroom. Endless possibilities for teaching AND the kids love it. Would love to add these to my collection.
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These look amazing and diverse. I know my second graders love experiencing, connecting to, and learning about different cultures through impactful literature. I’m definitely adding some to my teacher favorites bin (aka mentor text)Thank you for sharing.
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You have shared wonderful titles and added in a bit of inspiration! Thank you for this opportunity!
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I look forward to including this new collection of mentor texts in my narrative unit. Thank you!!
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While I read tons over the summer, you reminded me of the importance of reflecting on the mentor texts I use throughout the year. I definitely need to do this. I enjoyed reading the list of craft moves you gave for each book. What great suggestions.Thank you.
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Great NEW books! Thanks so much!
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Thank you for this informative post. I look forward to adding these books to my library!
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What an awesome addition to my mentor text collection! Always looking for great new books since I loop with my students!
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Love this set!
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A great list!
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This is a timely topic for me as i just read an Edutopia article on reading aloud to middle schoolers. I teach at-promise eighth and ninth grade students at a Title One middle school where our reading zones literally begin range between below reading all the way up to my honors English I ninth grade class. To say that my precious students have limited reading success and are seemingly reluctant and disengaged learners is as accurate as it is woefully sad. At any rate, I truly believe that this series of books–specifically as mentor texts, can serve only to enrich the learners–students and educators alike–winning notwithstanding.
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Thanks for listing the ‘craft moves’ with each mentor text – so useful.
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What great recommendations! Thanks for sharing.
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What a great list. I can’t wait to check these out.
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I have a lot of reading (and buying) to do once I hit the US in two weeks! Because is the only one I have got my hands on so far. I always LOVE your mentor text suggestions! Thanks!
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You’ll have suitcases full of books by the time your summer ends!
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Thank you for the mentor text recommendations! I can’t wait to read these and add them to my library.
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Middle school kids love picture books! These titles are perfect for teaching the lesson ideas you shared. I’d love to add them to my classroom. Thanks!
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Always looking to add to my collection of mentor texts.
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Always looking to add to my collection of mentor texts. Thank you for the suggestions
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I love using “kid books” as read-aloud mentor texts for my 6th graders. They act like they are too grown up for carpet time and a story, but at the end of the year so many of them mention “story time” in their reflections.
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I love using mentor texts, and this post includes so many good ideas for each book! Nearly every vacation of my childhood was a trip “down home.”
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Keep it up! Thanks so much for always suggesting new reads for our kiddos!
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What a glorious array of mentor texts! So well-chosen. And the craft move advice to teachers of writing is invaluable. Lucky indeed is the winner of this treasure trove.
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What a beautiful article. I love the premise for book selections, and also all the craft moves we could teach children from these mentor texts. I look forward to reading & purchasing many of these texts this summer. Thank you!
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There is such power when a child can see him/herself in a book. Thanks for the book suggestions.
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What a wonderful resource you’ve shared here, Stacey! New titles and a summary of craft moves! Win-win! Thanks so much for introducing me to these books and authors.
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Thank you for sharing these mentor texts. I nearly bought Because at our school book fair. It’s a beautiful book. I would love to win the set and share them with my staff.
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I love this! Writer’s craft can be one of the hardest things to teach, but this makes it easy!
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Im so excited about these new options!
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This is an amazing selection of books! Yes, please enter me in the drawing. These are the kind of books that open doorways for grand conversations with kids.
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Love this selection! I’m so appreciative of recommendations as I learn more about the importance of social justice. What a powerful, beautiful way to begin the year!
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These books look amazing and fit right in with the curriculum work I will be doing this summer.
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WOW! What beautiful stories to add to my ever growing collection! Thank you for the introductions. 🙂
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I love reading books that encourage diversity.
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Always exciting to hear about new picture books! I’ve been working with my MS and HS teachers on incorporating them into their ELA lessons.
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What a wonderful selection! It is always helpful to have new perspectives and titles to help young writers. Another stellar post!
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Thanks, Stacey! Perfect time to be looking at new books!
Can’t wait to to share all of your links! I so appreciate that TWT is always a rich source for writing teachers, workshop teachers and writing workshop teachers! ❤
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Thanks for your kind words about TWT, Fran!
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Thanks for all the wonderful resources.
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My first six summer reads! These will be perfect for building community at the beginning of next year.
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I used Because this year in class. Can’t wait to get the others.
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I’m always looking for mentor texts that students can relate to. I would love to have these titles for my writer to learn some crafts.
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Because by Mo Willems is one I am familiar with and have loved for many reasons. I can’t wait to check out the others for narrative mentors!
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I wish there was a job for curating mentor texts as that’s where most of my paycheck already goes! I’m always on the look out for books that speak first to the minds and hearts of teachers, students, family, and community. We are so lucky picture books and their authors have become more and more diverse around various cultures and experiences so that as bishop so brilliantly says so books become mirrors, windows, and doors. The collection you shared would do just that! I would love to add these to my collection and share with both teachers and students. Icing on the cake is the multiple and various applications they can have to highlight the skills noted. It’s so important that we choose Texts wisely with intention so they transfer long lasting meaning reaching heart, mind, and soul.
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What a wonderful list of books. I would love to donate them to my son’s classrooms. We might have to read them a couple of times at home first!
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This looks like an amazing list – and it reminds me so much of the one that Claire Landrigan shared earlier this week on the Book Love Elementary Summer Book Club Facebook Live post. Thanks for gathering a treasure trove of texts for us!
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I can’t wait to use some of these diverse books next fall!
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I can’t wait to get my hands on these and share with my colleagues!
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Perfect timing! I’ll have them to mark up all summer long! Thanks for the suggestions! 🙂
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Thank you for sharing some exciting new books. I can’t wait to share with my Children’s Lit class and my reading students this fall!
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Thank you for your suggestions. I look forward to following your blog.
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These books look great. I love how you’ve included the craft moves that can be taught with each as well–so helpful!
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Thank you for sharing these great mentor texts. I would love to win them. If not I want to get some of them anyways.
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Such a great collection of books to inspire. I can’t wait to check them out. Thanks for sharing these titles as well as craft lesson ideas!!
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Thank you so much for including the craft moves I can demonstrate with these new titles. That’s where I always need guidance. I love the books but have trouble noticing all the ways I can utilize them when teaching my students. Hope I get a chance to try them out next year.
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Thank you, Stacey, for once again giving us ample ideas for teaching craft moves. These look like wonderful books to enrich the diversity of a classroom collection. Happy summer!
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Would love to start the year using these. You always highlight the best books!
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What a great collection of mentor texts! I am excited to check out these titles.
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My teammates and I have been building a new middle school unit using realistic fiction to examine identity and perspective– I would LOVE to add in some new picture books to complement their study!
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Loved checking out the craft moves you mentioned! Thanks for this post— added them to my TBR list for the summer.
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I believe in the importance of mentor texts, but I have so few. It is so difficult to find culturally diverse books that are appealing to the needs of today’s children. I would love to include these texts in my collection.
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Hi Darla!
Check out the booklists on Social Justice Books, https://socialjusticebooks.org/booklists/, for lots of titles. Also, my book, Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts includes 180+ lessons for 20 books, most of which are feature diverse characters. Finally, be sure to check out my past mentor text book reviews on TWT, https://twowritingteachers.org/category/mentor-texts/. You’ll find a lot more titles there.
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I love using mentor texts and then refer to them every time we need to relearn the lesson. I would love some new ones!
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Thanks for sharing the craft moves you will specifically find in each of these mentor texts. Beautiful stories with so much to offer.
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Such a wonderful collection of mentor texts. These would be great to share with our young writers. Thanks for keeping us current with valuable resources.
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Thanks for the thoughtful list and complex, but doable , craft moves for young writers. I’ll be looking for these.
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Thank you for sharing these new books! I look forward to using them in my classroom!
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I appreciate the amazing ideas for using the highlighted mentor texts.
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Your ideas fill me with ideas! I had not heard of any of these books. They all sound great. Thank You!
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Love your generosity of time, vetting great mentor texts. Every title is new to me.
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WOW!! I’m always on the lookout for new book titles for narrative writing. I have a few favorites, yet love/need something new and refreshing to lift my “game!” Thanks for sharing Stacey!
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Thanks for sharing these great picture books and how they can be used as writing mentors. Teachers will appreciate this.
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As an administrator of a workshop school, I’m always looking for resources to support my teachers with Interactive Read Aloud and mentor texts. This post is so helpful!
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Thanks, Stacy,
After the past years professionally in the intermediate to MS world my head has been more in YA, and intermediate titles. With my return back to primary, I am looking for some strong new PBs. This is an outstanding list. I will begin looking for these.
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Always happy to help, Julie!
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Once again, you have created a wonderful list of new books to consider for next year. I will be looking for them in our library. Thanks, Stacey!
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I love these ideas. I am moving from 4th grade to second grade in a community where students have many challenges on a daily basis that keep them from being ready to learn. These books appear to reflect many of the issues they face. I would live to add them to my library.
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I always look forward to these posts – the craft moves mentioned are both familiar and new and I find myself retagging some of my mentor texts with new ideas. Oh, and these posts also prompt a brief spending spree – So many good titles!
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I would love new titles to use for the beginning of the year. You always highlight the best books!
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That’s great feedback! I hope to do more of them in the fall. I’ve been busy working on a big project and haven’t had as much time to share book posts like this. More to come… soon.
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I look forward to using the craft move ideas with my student writers.
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Beautiful! Thank you for sharing these new books and how to use them well. My K-2 writers sure would enjoy these!
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Thanks for organizing this great list…and offering a giveaway!
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Thank you for sharing and including skills and concepts that each book can be used to teach.
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I love that you included craft moves for each book. Great post.
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Oh! I would love to have even one of these books! Thank you for sharing.
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While integrating stories of creativity, joy, celebration, and resistance of people of color, teachers are raising the voice of ALL their students. This is what education looks like in a democracy. Thank you.
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Beautifully stated, Robin. This is the work I hope many people are doing in their classrooms.
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With more and more teachers being pushed to “teach The Box with fidelity”, it is critically important that we continue to advocate for best practices. Thank you for providing a collection of thoughtful works that diverse students can see themselves in. It is important that we also share the purpose of these stories with the adults who are clueless about the missed opportunities of not having them embedded in our lessons.
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Feel free to share the link to this post, or my past mentor text posts (which can be found at https://twowritingteachers.org/category/mentor-texts/), with any of your colleagues.
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Thanks for sharing! I can’t wait to add these titles to my library.
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Thanks for the ideas! Also for another reminder of the questions to ask myself as I reflect on the stories I read to and with my students.
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I love that you listed the possible craft moves. So helpful! I am excited to have this post as a resource to share with teachers when they are looking for mentor texts!
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Wow! What a great collection of fresh mentor texts! I’m so thankful for this list. I’m adding each book to my Amazon cart right now!
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Thank you for this post! These books look wonderful! I’m always looking for new mentor texts which will add diversity to my collection.
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These books sound like they’ll make wonderful additions to any library!
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Beautiful choices! I teach high school but love using my collection of picture books to teach craft moves. Love incorporating social justice teachings, too.
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You made my day, Elizabeth! I love hearing high school teachers tell me that they use PBs with their students.
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Oh my goodness!! Thank you for not only sharing new mentor text book titles, but also possible craft moves with each one!! AND on top of that, giving the books away! Thank you!!
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Thank you for the chance to win such wonderful books. I only heard about one of the books you listed. Great information. Thanks for sharing.
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I love having new books that excite my students and leave them wondering. Sounds like a great collection of books!
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I truly need new mentor texts to go Ali g with my first grade writing. Our writing curriculum in our district is poor and our students writing has gone way downhill since we switched curriculums. I need to raise my expectations for this next school year.
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Always looking for new mentor texts with application ideas! Thanks for sharing! Write on!
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These books look amazing! They would make the perfect addition to my 4th grade classroom!
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Thank you for the great ideas! Hope I’m lucky!
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Thank you for this list. I always use mentor text to teach writing craft and I especially am thrilled to use texts with a sharp cultural or social justice lens.
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These books look great – can’t wait to preview them this summer and plan w them
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These look like wonderful mentor texts! I am always trying to find new literature to share with my students. These would be perfect for our small moments unit. How exciting!
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I love your short little book talk summary and then the suggestions for teaching craft. So much more powerful to actually see it in text before fore attempting to write.
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What powerful new mentor text selections. Thanks you for sharing these titles with us and for this giveaway. Your recommendations and teaching points are helpful and much appreciated. These books are going on my list for next year’s kiddos!!
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I absolutely love Writers Workshop and use mentor texts every step of the way with my K students! These books would be a wonderful addition to my “basket”. I love the way the article shared ways to use these texts with our Ss. Mentor texts and noticing a are such powerful motivation to help our students see themselves as authors and to grow their thinking as writers! I’m excited to be a new follower!
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Love having new books to use in my classroom. Thanks for this post.
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I love the variety of books you shared along with the summary and the precise way each book might be used with the students! This is extremely valuable. I also think I have my book for my first read aloud to build community—-The Snow Lion!!! Thank you!!
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Two Writing Teachers,
Thank you so much for all of your insight! I especially love when you share new mentor texts! Each of these sound wonderful and would be a great addition to my library!
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It’s great to see such diversity in topics and authors chosen as mentor text examples – thank you! It would be wonderful to share these books with teachers in my Summer Writing Institute.
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Last time I came to Millersville, I lugged a suitcase of books with me. I’m still planning for 6/26, but know that I’m considering another suitcase. 🙂
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Thank you for sharing. Which grade levels would you suggest for these books as part of writing workshop?
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Picture books can be used across grade levels.
That being said, as a former fourth and fifth grade teacher, I could imagine using all of these in an upper elementary classroom.
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Thank you.
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New teacher here. Would love these for our team. Thank you for sharing!
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Awesome post, as always! I learn so much from your blog! Thank you!
🤞 brllyardley@hotmail.com
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Wow! Such diverse and inspiring mentors texts! Looking forward to trying these suggestions.
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I love the wide variety of titles!
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I love finding new powerful books! Thanks for sharing these.
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These beautiful books would be so helpful to our writing and reading. My team would love these!
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This reminds me of Peggy McIntosh’s article, “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” We all need mirrors and books are such a powerful way to help us all feel seen, valued, and represented!
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I have been making a real conscious effort to make sure I am choosing books that reflect my students and readers in them. Mentor texts are always cherished and provide a gateway into the further learning and reading we do together.
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Bringing diverse mentor texts into the classroom was something I focused on this year. During literary essay writing, I watched students select a book to analyze that they connected with. Making books available that students could see themselves in allowed this to happen in a meaningful way, which resulted in stronger writing. I would love to add these titles to my mentor text basket. Thank you for sharing this post.
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Many of these would make great texts for analyzing in a literary essay.
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I am excited to try some of these new books. As always, thank you for your helpful and insightful posts.
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Thank you for the opportunity! These books all look fabulous, and they’re making me excited and recharged for next year’s narrative launch! Diversifying the literature we share with students is SO important!
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These books all sound great. We are working hard to buy books that act as both mirrors and windows. Thank you for this post.
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These all look so good and I don’t have any of them yet!
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So excited to see these new titles and share them with literacy coaches in my building so we can all use them next year.
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Would love to share these with my 2nd grade readers and writers next year! So many possibilities…so little time!
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Exciting to have new mentor texts to check out. Thanks!
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