Chocolate Lily Book Awards: The Little Hummingbird

Our last Chocolate Lily Picture Book Award nominee is The Little Hummingbird. Although illustrated by a Haida artist, the story and artwork draws upon aboriginal cultures from around the world. The style of illustrations really interested the students. As we read the conclusion to the story, the message of "do the best you can" was very clear to the students. They were able to connect to this and explain that the story also showed us that little things can make a difference and we should all help out and do what we can.

After reading the story, we went back and looked at the illustrations of the hummingbird throughout the book. The students were then given a piece of black construction paper and were asked to create their own hummingbird. We attached these to bamboo skewers and used them to act out the story as we read it a second time. Each hummingbird was so unique and the student really enjoyed the dramatization of the story.

Comments from the students included:

We learned "do the best you can" by Sean (div 10)

I liked the shapes. by Kayla (div 10)

I liked that the hummingbird tried the best she could. by Alicia (div 10)

I like how the illustrations had secret messages. by Rosie (div 8)

I like the hummingbird because he tries to help the forest. by Vinchy (div 11)

The pictures were interesting. by Annika (div 6)

I like that the hummingbird tried. by Tamar (div 6)

I like the shapes in the illustrations. by Creighton (div 7)

I like the message in the story. by Marlena (div 7)

~Ms Novakowski