Nancy Carlson invites young readers to use their imaginations to share creative stories in her book, Henry’s Amazing Imagination! Henry loves to share stories during show and tell time in class. Due to Henry exaggerating the truth, his teacher suggests, “…why don’t you use it to write stories?“ And Henry does. This text is excellent for young writers as Nancy’s illustrations show the importance of large, vivid pictures that enhance the story.
Nancy Carlson writes many books that can be used to help children build themselves up. She does an excellent job of supporting the writing process in this book. Henry wants to write his story but is worried about spelling the words. His teacher asks him to spell the best he can as he gets the ideas written down. I often tell children this as they are writing. I’m excited that a book can be used to support the teaching.
Savorings for reading and in writing for Henry’s Amazing Imagination:
- Visualizing – while Henry shares his stories, the illustrations show the pictures in his mind
- Ellipses – connects one page to the next
- School Setting
- Spelling – Henry’s teacher encourages him to not worry about the spelling while getting the ideas down. “But…what if I can’t spell all the words?”
- Notice the dedication – to Peter Carlson