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Cool Daddy Rat by Kristyn Crow illustrated by Mike Lester

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You don't have to be a fan of jazz to enjoy Kristyn Crow's Cool Daddy Rat. You do have to be a fan of well-written, creative, rhythmy, and fun-rhyming text. Mike Lester's art, a sort of messy pencil with bright watercolors, seems to look like how jazz feels. With every phrase of story, Crow puts in a short, jazzy musical rhyme: hippy zippy zee zat, lookie lookie see dat, yipsy tipsy top dat. This is exactly the kind of book I make big hype about in our Emergent Literacy class. It's perfect for developing phonemic awareness in young children because Crow's text plays with language. Was that the author's intention, to make it into my recommended reading list for my EL class? I doubt it, but she does a great job anyway. Aside from the beautiful text itself, the story is sweet and endearing. You can feel the love between Cool Daddy and Ace, his stowaway son, both in words and pictures. A wonderful read aloud to read again and again. (P.S. - If you're wondering what the EL class is . . . call 852-6682. hurry scurry rat rat!)

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