"Z Goes Home"

Z Goes Home
Written and illustrated by: Jon Agee
Published by Michael Di Capua Books/Hyperion in NY in 2003
ISBN: 0-7868-1987-1
Genres: Picture Book, Concept Book
Reading Level: Grade 1
Activity Level: Kindergarten

Summary: There are only thirty words in this book, but somehow that is just enough to make it very interesting! This is a book that teaches letters of the alphabet to young readers. Before the title page, readers see the letter "Z" leaving its spot as the "Z" in Zoo and heading home. Then, the author tells us all about each thing that the letter passes on his way home. Each beginning letter of a word that begins with the letter on that page is represented on that page by being incorporated into the illustrations. For example, the letter "P" stands for Palm, so the letter "P" is made by having the illustrations show the tree's leaves bending to make the curved portion of the "P!"

Response: I feel that I should explain why there are thirty words in a book that teaches about the alphabet. The last four words in this book are "Hey everybody, I'm home!," which "Z" says to his roommates--the other 25 letters of the alphabet! The humor of that is what makes me love this book.

Since I read Nothing by Jon Agee, I have become very excited about his books. This one is no less cute than the previous work of his that I have read. The words, though very few, have the ability to not only help students with their beginning letter sounds, but also to greatly increase their vocabularies. Some of the great vocabulary words Agee uses are: gargoyle, labyrinth, and xeroxes.

I really love the illustrations in this work as much as the words. Agee's way of incorporating the beginning letter of each word into a picture of that word is so creative! His artwork is very expressive, yet not highly detailed and his colors are muted greens, browns, blues, reds, and greys.

Teaching Connections: A teacher could use this book with kindergartners. She could read it to them on a Monday and have the unusual words within as the vocabulary words for the week, which she would quiz the students on on Friday. (Great children's level definitions are located in the back of the book.)

She could also give each student a paper with a die-cut letter on it and have that student look through magazines, newspapers, and maybe online throughout the week to find things that start with that beginning letter sound. When the papers are due on Friday, she could hang them up while the students are taking their short quiz on their new vocabulary words and the students would then have a visual representation of the alphabet and words that begin with them in their classroom!

What Students Learn: Through listening to their teacher read this book and doing this activity, students learn a plethora of new words as well as much about beginning consonant sounds.

Image Retrieved From: http://toyportfolio.com/Images/zgoeshome.jpg