An illustrated version of Anne Whitford Paul's poem about letters as building materials.

This book uses the metaphor of building construction to talk about all the parts that add up to writing.

Although I love the premise of this book, it was not that engaging for me. I found the explanations interesting, but the text somewhat empty. It does however add an excitement to writing structures that I have not seen before. It starts with small pieces being put together to make something, then the pieces get larger and larger until a world of stories is created. ( )

This is a great book for preschoolers and first graders to start learning about the way english is structured. Whitford does it in a wonderful and creative way. It's sure to get kids learning quickly.

This can definitely be used in the classroom as it should. ( )

What a cool resource.

Behind the colorful and fascinating illustrations of Kurt Cyrus is a minimal amount of text that talks about how papers, stories and books are built from letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs. In the book a young boy starts to build a city out of the most basic building blocks-- letters. He joins the letters into words. The words into sentences; sentences then into paragraphs.

Here's an example of the text so you can see what they are doing:

Hammer a through z into words.
Pile your words like blocks into sentence towers--
measure some tall, saw others short.

Mortar each sentence with punctuation,
then frame your sentences into paragraph villages,
stack your paragraphs
into chapter cities.

As you can see Ms. Paul gives a framework to even punctuation; and I plan on reading with my son and daughter (currently 7 and 9) to let them "see" how important these elements are. I think it'll be particularly effective with my son who loves to build things.

Talking Points :::
Ann Paul uses the construction metaphor as a means to reinforce how literature is constructed from the parts of speech. I say reinforce because "Word Builder" doesn't teach these concepts, but rather provides a visual aid that will be useful for children that grasp things better when they see them demonstrated.

The book is best targeted to elementary aged children who have covered these concepts. I think it would be a great addition to the classroom.