Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear is written by Lindsay Mattick and illustrated by Sophie Blackall. This book won the Caldecott Medal in 2016. The book is actually nonfiction, and it tells the story behind A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh. Some people do not know that Winnie-the-Pooh is based off of a real bear that was found and rescued during World War I, by Captain Harry Colebourn. The bear befriended Christopher Robin in real life later on. Lindsay Mattick, the author, is Captain Colebourn's great granddaughter. This book contains primary documents from the family's archive.
This book is a children's book, but I think I would use it with upper elementary to middle school students. One activity I would have my students do is conduct research to see what other fictional characters are based on a true story. I think that the students would be really interested in finding out about the characters that they grew up reading about and watching on TV. I would also have my students come up with their own fictional character based on a real event that happened during their lifetime. I found a unit plan on Finding Winnie:
https://homehearts.com/2016/01/14/finding-winnie/
The Adventures of Beekle The Unimaginary Friend is written and illustrated by Dan Santat. This book won the Caldecott Medal in 2015. This book is about an imaginary friends that are born on a far away island. The imaginary friends play with each other on this island, waiting to be imagined by a child. Beekle gets sick of waiting for a child to imagine him, and he decides to go on a journey looking for his friend. His journey takes him places he could never imagine, like a big city (much like New York City).When Beekle is just about ready to give up, he finds Alice. Alice and Beekle are perfect for each other and they go on many adventures together. On their adventures, Alice and Beekle search for more friends (both real and imaginary).
This book would be perfect for teaching students not to give up on something they really want. I think it would also be fun for students to come up with their own imaginary friend. They would have to name their friend, describe them, and draw them to present them to the class. Friendship is a major theme in this book, so there are a ton of activities that could be tied into a unit.
https://smedia3.webcollage.net/3d06686aa26b9ee9b200d65a618aabda21a396e8?Signature=%2BcJMnlDDfIRPc1D0GE7cLRPAJg8%3D&AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIIE5CHZ4PRWSLYKQ&Expires=1893511344&response-content-type=application/pdf
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/brian-smith/helping-students-make-friends/
Questions to Consider:
Do you have favorite authors? Illustrators? Why do you like their work?
Have you seen picture books used in middle elementary grades on up to
high school? Was it effective? If not, how could it have been? If yes, why so?
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