Chocolate Lily Book Awards: Bubble Homes and Fish Farts

Bubble Homes and Fish Farts is a nonfiction book explaining the many ways that animals make and use bubbles. It is the only nonfiction book in its category. The title elicited a few giggles from the primary students!

Mini book reviews from our primary classes:

division 6
The title is funny and there is lots of cool information. I learned new things. I liked the illustrations and the thinking bubbles. The cover make the book look like a storybook.

division 7
I think it's funny and interesting and the colours are watery. - Liat
The title is funny. - Phoebe
It was cool and interesting. -Calvin

division 8
The name of the book is funny. - Victor
It's about animals that live in water and make bubbles. - Andy
The pictures are funny because they talk. -Bobby

division 9
I liked learning about the sea otter. - Quizzy
The title is funny. - Alexander
I learned about humpback whales. - Thomas
The words are funny in the bubbles. - Kaz

division 10
It was interesting how the dolphin made the bubble rings. - Declan
I learned that some animals live in bubbles. - Madelyn

Ms Novakowski

Chocolate Lily Book Awards: On My Walk

This week, the primary classes read On My Walk by Kari-Lynn Winters. It is about a dog and his family who go for a summer walk on a beach in Vancouver and then it starts to rain!

Here are some mini book reviews from our primary classes:

division 6

I noticed that the illustrator outlined the characters and the dog. It made them stand out against the background. -Summi

 Both of the pages are fully illustrated (double-page spread). The sound words are funny and rhyme.
-Raamtin

 I think this book would be interesting for younger kids. The illustrations were cool. -Jennifer

division 7
The book is funny and uses silly words and sounds. -Riley

 It’s a book that’s easy to read.  I liked the colours of the pictures. -Sarah

 It was pretty cool. The dog was funny. I liked it when he was eating the ice-cream. Some of the words are not really real – they are gibberish, but that’s what makes it fun to listen to. -Will

division 8
This book is nice for little kids because it is short. There are lots of colours in the illustrations. -Victor

The pictures are nice. There are lots of animals. -Max

The words are funny. -Lynch

division 9
I liked that you could see Stanley Park and Vancouver. - Thomas
The dog was cute. - Quizzy
I like the details like the raindrops, trees and logs. - Creighton

division 10
The flippity-flop words are fun. -Josh
The dog eating the ice-cream was funny. - Emily
I like the raindrops. -Mark

Ms Novakowski

Chocolate Lily Book Awards

The Chocolate Lily Book Awards are an awards program for children's books by BC authors and illustrators. Registered schools are able to submit their "votes" for what book in each category that they think is most deserving of the award. The Chocolate Lily is an actual flower that only grows in woodland areas on the westcoast of BC.

This is the first year that Blair is participating in the Chocolate Lily Book Awards program and thanks to generous funding support from the Blair PAC we purchased all the nominated books in the picture book category. Each week, I will be reading one of the nominated books to all the primary classes and we will discuss personal connections we made to the books as well as do mini book reviews.

During the first week back at school in January, we read last year's winning picture book, Penguin and the Cupcake. All the classes thought it was so funny and thought the collage-type illustrations were really unique. It reads a bit like a graphic novel for younger students. The author/illustrator used really interesting text features and styling in the design of the book.

After reading the book, each class discussed why they thought this book was given the Chocolate Lily Book Award for 2010. Division 7 established criteria for us to evaluate this year's nominated books.
The students seem excited to be part of the group that "votes" for the winner!

Ms Novakowski