"Ask Me"

Ask Me
Written by: Antje Damm
Translated by: Doris Orgel
Photogographers:Various
Published by: Roaring Book Press in Brookfield, Connecticuit in 2002
ISBN: 0-7613-1845-3
Genre: Picture Book
Reading Level: Grade 1
Activity Level: Grades 1-4

Summary: This book's purpose is to start conversations between parents and children. Within its 221 pages, every other page lists a question that could begin one of these conversations and the other pages are pictures related to those questions, mostly of children. Some of my favorite of these conversation starters are:

What have you taught someone? (p. 196)
Which animals scare you? (p. 152)
What have you brought back from a trip? (p. 126)
What will you save for your own child? (p. 22)
What story do they tell about you as a baby? (p. 32)

Response: I really liked this idea of these conversation starters for parents and children. It is not that I believe that parents and children do not discuss things, but I think the questions in this book are wonderful in that they help make relationships between parents and children even stronger, as the author hopes they will. This book puts parents and children on the same level because it asks these questions in ways children can understand and yet in ways both parents and children can both relate to.

I love that the illustrations and pictures in this book are of children doing their daily activities and colorful drawings that children have created. It makes children want to read this book as much as parents should want to!

Teaching Connections: Altogether this book is specifically targeted toward parents and children, I think it could certainly be used in the classroom. A teacher could have this book in her classroom and choose a different child each day to read a question. Then, the students could have a chance to write and/or draw about their experiences after the teacher has told them about hers related to the daily topic/question. I think that this is a great way to make children more comfortable with their teachers because they have things in common.

This activity could be implemented in a first grade classroom, where children would draw a picture and write a sentence in response to the questions; in a second grade classroom, where children would be required to draw a picture and write a paragraph in response; or in the upper elementary grades where students would not draw a picture, but instead, would write increasingly long passages about their experiences and possibly share them with the class. This would be an especially great warm-up activity for the day in fourth grade classrooms, since fourth graders have the writing test to prepare themselves for.

What Students Learn: From this book, the conversations that are sure to ensue, and the activity, children will learn more about the people in their lives and life in general. The will also gain the ability to express their thoughts well and better writing skills.