Mentor Text Monday: Those Random Mentor Texts!

There are so many ways to come across Mentor Texts, and pretty much every one of them will have some kind of takeaway value, even if they are not in the past three years.

That being said, if you are going to rely heavily upon in for some aspect of your own works-in-progress, you should be mining current books, no more than 3 years old.

But today, I am tackling my To Read Pile and it's an extremely random one. Anything goes for this pile, so we will see what I can get from it!

First is Donna Bateman's DEEP IN THE SWAMP, illustrated by Brian Lies (Charlesbridge, 2007). This book is by an old friend who I lost touch with. We shared two wonderful years at Chautauqua together! So it's a re-read for me. My takeaway from this book is that good rhyme and rhythm never goes out of style!

Deep in the swamp, in the warm morning sun,

Lived a mother river otter and her little pup One.

"Splash!" said the mother. "I splash," said the One.

So they splashed and they played in the warm morning sun.

Neither does wonderful art!

Notably, this also, despite aging, it has several strong hooks: Rolling rhyme, teaches swamp animals (their sounds, actions and homes) and is also a counting book! And it had swamp flora and fauna facts and a map in the back. So much to love! And I love this book as much as I did way back when! It's one to be read again and again, like all good books should be!

Next up is VERY GOOD HATS by Emma Straub, with art b Blanca Gomez (Penguin Randomhouse / Rocky Pond Books, 2023). Similar to my last pick, this one is a concept book. This one starts out with a question, and challenges the readers idea of what a hat is:

Do you know what a hat is? I bet you think you know what a hat is.

It introduces the challenging word haberdashery, but of course, it's okay -- because there's enough context via art and text for the reader to figure out what that is! It's at times silly, imaginative and/or creative, all the while introducing hat words and things that could be hats! The part I find most useful is when it introduces the spread with career hats. It's very child-like in its sensibilities of what could be a hat, and the art is very kid-friendly and fun, too! I think the takeaway for this book is to make learning fun!

My last Mentor Text of the day is HOW TO BE A T. REX by Ryan North, with art by Mike Lowery (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2018). First and foremost, this one has a huge hook - dinosaurs! But believe it or not, that can make dinosaur books a challenge. Once when I submitted my THE DINO STORE manuscript for a conference critique, the editor sat and told me she loved it, but had ten other dinosaur books on her list, so asked me "What else do you have?" That question resulted in the sale of MOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE SCARES to Meredith Mundy of Sterling (at the time). So that issue is something to think about - check how many similar books your prospective publisher has on their list and make sure yours is new and different!

This book was so fun to read aloud - a win for the reader and the listener! The main character SAL had such a fun voice!

"One day in class, my teacher asked us "what do you want to be when you grow up?" And I said, "A Tyrannosaurus Rex." Because, obviously. [She is wearing a T. Rex t-shirt].

It just gets better from there as Sal struggles with an older brother and behavior and navigates the fine line between being a T. Rex and a human. It could have been acquired as far back as three years before 2018 so I am impressed that it deals with SEL topics in the most fun and non-agenda driven ways! I LOVE this book and though it was a library book, I bought myself a copy to read again and again to my students as an example of a compelling, fun and kid-friendly voice that will delight readers and engage listeners!

I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on these books! If you did please feel free to leave a comment in the comment section. And if you want to discuss something share it there as well! Happy reading and writing!