Cornelius P. Mud, Are You Ready For School?

Title: Cornelius P. Mud, Are You Ready For School?
Author: Barney Saltzberg
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Date of Publication: 2007
Illustrator: Barney Saltzeberg
Genre Designation: Children’s Fiction
Readability Lexile: Pre-K-2 (ages 4-8)

Summary:
This light hearted story is about a spunky pig who is supposed to be getting up and ready for school.  Momma pig checks in with Cornelius to see if he is aware of the time, out of bed, made his bed, dressed, and all of the other things that we need to do before we leave for school.  It just doesn’t seem right though, and Cornelius is just not ready to go.  At the last moment it comes to Cornelius and momma pig that he needs a kiss goodbye, it was exactly what he needed!  Cornelius runs right off to school, but what school is he going to? 

Evaluation:
This story was a great quick read, that gave the reader good laughs and allowed foreshadowing and prediction.  The author uses repetition within the story allowing for a newer reader to predict text that may be coming next.  It is my belief that this is a nice tool for young readers, because it allows them to see words that they may be comfortable with as well building confidence with their reading skills.  The story does a nice job of telling a new student about the importance of getting up and moving in the morning for school, even if it is a little bit different!  I don’t think that this story lends itself to as many literary teaching elements as I would hope to see in a truly good children’s story.  However, with that being said I do feel as though it has a good message about morning routine and getting ready to school.  I also do feel that the story could be used as a good tool in using picture clues and prediction about what is going to happen.  Our main character does not end up going to a “regular” school but ends up going to a clown school which explains some of the goofy things that were happening earlier in the story. 

Illustrations:
The illustrations were a nice addition to the story.  They were easy to understand and not overwhelming.  As previously mentioned the illustrations actually served as an extra tool to infer more meaning that wasn’t explicitly told to us by the text. 

Mini-Lesson:
This mini-lesson would focus on prediction.  I would read the story two times, but the first time it the cover would covered with construction paper so the students wouldn’t be able to see it.  I would then read the title and ask the students to make predictions about the story based on the text alone.  Now we will read the story this time the students will get to see the illustrations, we will stop and make predictions throughout the story.  At the end we will discuss how their predictions stayed the same or changed from before they saw the illustrations until after they saw the illustrations.