Good Morning, Pond

by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, Cynthia Jabar (Illustrator)

The leap of a little green frog signals the start of a new day as the creatures of the pond awake and go through a variety of morning rituals.

Genres: Childrens, Animals, Picture Books

32 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1994

About the author

Alyssa Satin Capucilli was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1957. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, and pursued her interest in dance, becoming a professional dancer and dance instructor. Though Capucilli had written stories, poems, and even puppet shows as a child, she didn't consider a career as a writer until after her own two children were born. To this day she sees herself as both a dancer and a writer, and the two professions complement each other nicely: dancing is, in her words, “telling stories in another way,” and readers of her children's books can attest to the rhythm of her language. Since 1994, she has written more than 15 books for children, and her work has been translated into French, Hebrew, Afrikaans, Greek, and Bulgarian.

Capucilli lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, with her husband and children. They have a chocolate Labrador retriever named Huckleberry, who likes to watch the author at work.

Reviews

[Heather Meeks]

This book is about pond animals that are waking up. It has many rhyming words. I think that this is something that I would use in the mornings during a unit on spring.

[Lex]

A sweet, cozy, mellow read for when it is time to calm the kids down after a busy activity time

[Breanna Maughan]

This is a cute book that shows all sorts of animals and what sounds they make.

[Britt Kitko]

Summary: PreSchool-Grade 2-As the animals that live in or around a pond begin their day, three pajama-clad children come out to watch. The text starts off as a cumulative story, but after every third spread, the cumulation begins again, so that for a frog, fish, and snails "it's wake-up time at the pond"; for salamanders, grasshoppers, a turtle, and birds "it's stretching time"; for dragonflies, the old toad, ducks, and geese "it's singing time"-and for the youngsters-it's all three. Bright watercolor cartoons are drawn with childlike simplicity. The text is printed on generally light or white parts of the page in a nice large typeface, and animal sounds are printed in sans-serif, freehand letters. A serviceable but unmemorable addition.
Rosanne Cerny, Queens Borough Public Library, NY

Audience:
- Reading level-Early
- Genre- Realistic Fiction
- Topic- Springtime, animals, insects, pond life, morning

Curricular uses: Read aloud- Could be used as a morning read and allow the children to wake up like the insects and animals do.

Social Issues: singing insects and animals, stretching insects and animals

Literary elements: Repetition of the characters that do similar things in the mornings, rhyming throughout the text, tone/mood expressing morning as a happy time of day, personification of animals and insects.

Interactions and counteractions of text and image: Images show what each of the characters are "saying" like quack, buzz, croak, whir, tweet, and glub to help the reader keep the characters straight.

[Blanca R.]

Reading this book can help children to imitate animals and relaxation because children can practice streching,singing, and imitate.
LE:pretend each child jump as a frog,stir and streching as a salamander,open the mouse as birds,buzzing winds as dragonflies,croak as a toed,quack as a duck,honk as geese.

[Michael]

A very simple story about animals waking up and frolicing in a pond, but I'm highlighting this one for racial diversity, as the three children have light brown skin and brown hair, which is atypical for this genre.

[Jacqueline]

Loved reading this book!

[Shelly]

The kids really love this one so I'll give it 4 stars. I never found it fun to read. Not one that stuck with me.

[Susan]

Grouping cumulative text in circles of three, this clever tale introduces students to a variety of writing styles and patterns while helping them see pond life through curious and fresh eyes.

[Jami]

A good book for introducing natural environments and wildlife at a pond.