Written by. Jaqueline Briggs Martin
Illustrated by. Mary Azarion
Caledecott Award Winner - 1999
Recommended for Children Ages 4-8.
Genre: Non-Fiction, Science, Biography
Summary:
This book tells the story of Willie Bentley, who as a child becomes facinated with snowflakes and how each is unique and beautiful in their own rite. Despite how others view his quest, Willie devotes his life to taking photgraphs to share the beauty that he has found in his snowflakes with others. Willie Bentley spends many hours trying to find the right environment to take his photographs. This is an arduous task, being that he has to deal with a fragile muse: broken flakes and melted flakes.
This story teaches children to celebrate their differences and to look for the right opportunities to shine and sparkle. Children in Central New York will enjoy listening to this story as they can relate to the joy that Willie Bentley experiences as he catches his snowflakes and relate that to their own feelings of excitement about the first snowfall of the year. They will have the opportunity to learn something new, that snowflakes are all different one from the other and will enjoying exploring the validity of this claim.
Pre-Reading Activities:
Discuss with students what is means to explore: to become familiar with by investigating or experimenting. Activate their prior knowledge of the topic by brainstorming with them the things that they investigate and the reasons why using a t-chart.
Discuss with students what is means to explore: to become familiar with by investigating or experimenting. Activate their prior knowledge of the topic by brainstorming with them the things that they investigate and the reasons why using a t-chart.
During Reading:
Ask the students : Why Willie is interested in investigating snowflakes? Why is Willie's family is not supportive of his snowflake research? What would you do if you were Willie and your family did not support you? How do you think that Willie feels? Was Willie's research important? What did Willie learn about snowflakes? Why did he want to share his research with others?
Post Reading Activities:
Go back to the t-chart that we made before reading and add snowflakes to the chart as well as Bentley's reasons for investigating them. Allow students some time to look at W. A. Bentley's books and write a letter to Bentley discussing with him their reaction to his books and his biography. If time, also allow them to design their own snowflakes and then write words about themselves on their snowflakes; showing how each flake is different just as they are all unique.
About the Author:
Jacqueline Briggs Martin lives in Ithaca, NY with her huband who is a professor at Cornell. Her son and daughter are now grown and starting families of their own but she credits them as her inspiration for writing children's books. Martin states that she has always had a love for words and wanted to create stories that would appeal to adults and children as they read together.
About the Illustrator:
Mary Azarian won a Caldecott Medal for her in illustrations in Snowflake Bentley.She began her interest in working with wood cut prints as a fourth grade student, and after a few years of working with a press, and has returned to using this medium primarily for her illustrations and prints. Azarian uses her wooden forms to make her black and white prints and then hand paints the color aspects of her illustration, a technique that is rare in her line of work. She credits her prints inspiration to her life living on a farm in Vermont with her husband and three sons.
Ask the students : Why Willie is interested in investigating snowflakes? Why is Willie's family is not supportive of his snowflake research? What would you do if you were Willie and your family did not support you? How do you think that Willie feels? Was Willie's research important? What did Willie learn about snowflakes? Why did he want to share his research with others?
Post Reading Activities:
Go back to the t-chart that we made before reading and add snowflakes to the chart as well as Bentley's reasons for investigating them. Allow students some time to look at W. A. Bentley's books and write a letter to Bentley discussing with him their reaction to his books and his biography. If time, also allow them to design their own snowflakes and then write words about themselves on their snowflakes; showing how each flake is different just as they are all unique.
Jacqueline Briggs Martin lives in Ithaca, NY with her huband who is a professor at Cornell. Her son and daughter are now grown and starting families of their own but she credits them as her inspiration for writing children's books. Martin states that she has always had a love for words and wanted to create stories that would appeal to adults and children as they read together.
Mary Azarian won a Caldecott Medal for her in illustrations in Snowflake Bentley.She began her interest in working with wood cut prints as a fourth grade student, and after a few years of working with a press, and has returned to using this medium primarily for her illustrations and prints. Azarian uses her wooden forms to make her black and white prints and then hand paints the color aspects of her illustration, a technique that is rare in her line of work. She credits her prints inspiration to her life living on a farm in Vermont with her husband and three sons.
To purchase books of Willie Bentley click the following links:
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