Groundhog at Evergreen Road, by Susan Korman (our review)

A couple of months ago I happened to spot a post on Craig's List for a nearby garage sale being held by a retiring early childhood teacher selling many of her books and other learning tools. I got there just as the sale was opening and could have spent all morning—there were boxes upon boxes of beautiful, practically new books; we came home with over 50 new books, a couple of puppets, and a small stuffed elephant, all for less than $20. Groundhog at Evergreen Road, by Susan Korman, was one of those books (you'll be seeing a lot of them in the next few months) and is a real treasure: the pictures are delightful and the story informative yet fun. We used this book Five-in-a-Row style (more on that later), so we read it at least once every day for a week focusing on a new part of the story each time: one day we read it then took a walk looking for things that made us think of the groundhog; another day we used our kitchen scale to measure out dried beans in the weight of a baby groundhog versus an adult; we colored and drew groundhogs and mapped out dens; we planned menus, we practiced new words, we talked about predators and prey. It's amazing to me the paths that one short story can set you upon.

But before I overlook it, here's Calvin's commentary on the book:

His summary of the book: "It's a book about groundhog. It's about groundhog going in his den and making a den and eating green beans. It is a pretend story but it could actually happen in real life. It is true that a hawk or a coyote would eat a groundhog like that."

He likes the book because "I like the groundhog when he scurries into his plunge hole."

He couldn't pick a favorite part because he likes the whole book and would recommend it to others "for sure."

Any final comments? "I love this book! It's my favorite book." (this week, that is).