Kitten's First Full Moon

Kitten's First Full Moon

Written by: Kevin Henkes
Publisher: Greenwillow Books; 7th edition (March 2, 2004)
Genre: Fiction

Readability Lexile: 360K

Summary:

This is a book about a cat that thinks the moon is a bowl of milk so she spends her time trying to drink the milk. She stays out late and never gets the milk that she thinks is but it is the moon. She ends up going home and her milk was waiting there all along.

Evaluation:

This is a good book and it is unique from the author’s other books. His other books tend to be about mice and about situations that people seem to face. It is a good book that gets children involved in the text and the pictures. You get to see how the cat is persistent in trying to get the milk. You get to know the cats personally and the illustrations help us get to know her even more. I can see how much the cat wants to get the milk and it makes me want to root for the cat to get some. IT has a happy ending where milk is waiting at home for it.

Literary Elements:

-          Theme- The theme is about going out and getting something that you want. You keep trying and trying until you succeed. It seems as if the cat does not succeed because it never gets the milk from the moon but it heads back home and ends up getting the milk anyways.

-          Characterization- This story really gets us to recognize the cats personality and wants. The cat wants the milk so bad that it will almost do anything for it.

Mini Lesson:

The mini lesson I would do is have my students write something that they have worked really hard to get and if they got it or not. They would have to write about how they felt during this time and if they would have changed anything to do better.

Illustrations:

The illustrations in the book are mostly black and white and gray, but they are still really interesting and they relate to the text showing us what the text is trying to tell us.

Target Audience:

Early Elementary to young child