At This Very Moment

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy. Every Wednesday, I'll review a non-fiction picture book. (It may not always be a picture book.) Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what other non-fiction books are shared this week!

Title: At This Very Moment
Author: Jim Arnosky 
Illustrator: Jim Arnosky 
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile 
Publication Date: May, 2011 
Genre/Format: Non-Fiction/Fiction/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: Using gentle, rhythmic text and gorgeous watercolor paintings, Jim Arnosky invites young readers to imagine what wondrous things animals are doing across the globe. While you might be sweating in the middle of the afternoon, an owl has found a cool hiding place inside a cactus. And while you're filling up on dinner, puffins are swooping down on the ocean by the cliffs to catch fish. It's an amazing world out there-at this very moment.
What I Think:  We live in such a big, big world but and sometimes it feels that way but other times it doesn't. I have to say that blogging and participating in other social media has helped me so much more connected to the world in general. Having connections, albeit online, with people all over the world helps me feel like the world really is a smaller place than it is. It's amazing to think that because of social media, I have a glimpse into life in different places in the world. Finding other people who are passionate about similar things that I am passionate about has been an amazing experience. It's pretty cool to think about people all over the world reading a similar book, writing It's Monday! What Are You Reading? posts, and embracing writing for themselves by participating in Teachers Write.
     I love how this book celebrates this idea of amazing things happening all over the world but with animals. Jim Arnosky highlights various animals and shares what they might be doing this very second. As I was writing this post, as you are now reading this post, as a student is listening to At This Very Moment being read aloud, other things are happening out there on this wonderful planet we call home. It's pretty neat to stop and imagine and something we probably don't do often enough.
     When I was a sophomore in high school, I read the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder. I probably should reread it because I don't really remember all that much about it. I do remember the characters talking about addressing an envelope and something to the effect of writing out the address as being not only the state and the country but the continent and the Earth and the universe and the galaxy. It really put the whole idea of how small we are in the whole scheme of life and science into perspective.
     While At This Very Moment is a simple text, I love the idea of thinking about what other things are going on in the world and helping students to see how much bigger the world is than just the world that they interact with everyday. I think that because of technology there is a chance that they are realizing this in some way but this makes the idea manageable for young readers and a great place to start the discussion of global connectedness.
Read Together: Grades K - 3  
Read Alone: Grades K - 3 
Read With: The Beetle Book by Steve Jenkins, Extreme Earth Records by Seymour Simon, Paul Thurlby's Wildlife by Paul Thurlby, What If You Had Animal Teeth? by Sandra Markle, Who Lives in the Sea? by Monika Mira, Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins, Where in the Wild? by David M. Schwartz and Yael Schy
Snatch of Text:  

"At that exact same moment 

in the Arctic, cold and white,

a polar bear is running fast 

across a field of ice."

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connection, Visualizing 
Writing Strategies to Practice: Expository 
Writing Prompts: Research one of the animals in the book to find out about their habitat and then write an expository piece about what you discover. 
Topics Covered: Integration - Science, Integration - Social Studies 

I *heart* It: