Summary: This story is about five animals waiting on a windowsill, waiting for something to happen. As they wait, gifts appear on the windowsill with new friends and more surprises.
Summary of Professional Reviews: Horn Book online guide gave this book a rating of 1. They enjoyed the message this story provided for the readers, "waiting is a huge part of every child's life." This book won the Caldecott medal and the Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor award for its "straightforward text sets up predictable patterns with small surprises."
Review by Madie Henderson: This story by Kevin Henkes explores five different toys waiting for something amazing to happen. When I first read this book, I didn't understand the purpose or message behind the story until I did some research about this story. I finally realized, as a child, you wait for everything. Life is all about waiting. Waiting in line, waiting for a call, waiting to grow up, waiting for a change, etc. Hankes describes these five toys "waiting to see what would happen next" by the windowsill.
This book would be useful when teaching… This story could teach children about the benefits of waiting. A lesson teachers could use for this book is to ask the students to share or write down something s/he is waiting for and why. While the children are writing, they should express their emotions and thoughts while they are waiting like the characters in the book have expressed. Another lesson teachers could use for this book is to describe the different weather patterns.
Summary of Professional Reviews: Horn Book online guide gave this book a rating of 1. They enjoyed the message this story provided for the readers, "waiting is a huge part of every child's life." This book won the Caldecott medal and the Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor award for its "straightforward text sets up predictable patterns with small surprises."
Review by Madie Henderson: This story by Kevin Henkes explores five different toys waiting for something amazing to happen. When I first read this book, I didn't understand the purpose or message behind the story until I did some research about this story. I finally realized, as a child, you wait for everything. Life is all about waiting. Waiting in line, waiting for a call, waiting to grow up, waiting for a change, etc. Hankes describes these five toys "waiting to see what would happen next" by the windowsill.
This book would be useful when teaching… This story could teach children about the benefits of waiting. A lesson teachers could use for this book is to ask the students to share or write down something s/he is waiting for and why. While the children are writing, they should express their emotions and thoughts while they are waiting like the characters in the book have expressed. Another lesson teachers could use for this book is to describe the different weather patterns.