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Spinelli, Eileen. Three Pebbles and a Song. Dial Books for Young Readers. New York, New York. 2005. ISBN 0-8037-2528-0

Summary: Winter is coming. Moses helps his family endure the long winter by dancing, a juggling act, and singing a song.

Readability Level: Beginning of year 2nd grade

Review: Three Pebbles and a Song has a excellent story structure. The plot is predictable, allowing young readers to make predictions and draw conclusions. The language in the story is beautiful. The text is laid out simply with beautiful illustrations by S.D. Schindler.

Teaching Possibilities: The classic story structure in Three Pebbles and a Song is an excellent model for teaching children to write narrative stories. You can use this book to teach word choice, verbs, dialogue, and sentence fluency. There are many opportunities to teach vocabulary with this story. This story is good for predicting, asking questions, making connections, and visualizing. You can also use Three Pebbles and a Song as a fiction "jump text" for teaching a science unit on animals.

Visit the Author's Website: Eileen Spinelli