Written by Nina Laden, Illustrated by Renata Liwska
This is a favorite read aloud of mine. It encourages student discussion and writing. It does not have a lot of text, but the text it has gets you thinking and remembering. It asks simple questions such as “does a book remember it once was a word?”, “Does a chair remember it was once a tree?” At the end it asks you what are some of your favorite things to remember. It inspires you to think about your favorite memories and listen to others share theirs.
Review by Vanessa Eyre, Robert Frost Media Center
Rating: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
Interest Level: Grades K-3
Once Upon a Memory
Written by Nina Laden, Illustrated by Renata Liwska
Little, Brown
40 pages
Release Date: December 3, 2013
Sounds adorable! I’m adding that to my list of books to buy.
My kids received this book as a Christmas present a year ago, and I really, really loved the text but felt like the illustrations actually detracted and distracted from the big concepts of the text, far too busy with the cutesy anthropomorphic animals. I really would love to see what a different illustrator might have done with this text. I actually would love to see how kids would illustrate this text if you gave it to them without the illustrations.