It is rest time and Sam takes the book “Hug” by Jez Alborough to his mat, next to Will. It seems Sam is familiar with the book as he reads aloud the title before opening the book.
As Sam settles in to read Will scoots over so he can also see the book. Sam turns to the first page of the story and, with his finger moving along the word ‘hug’ he reads to Will “I want my mom”. He does this again on the next few pages. I ask if he remembers the name of the book.
Hug!
That’s right, let’s look at the cover. We turn to the cover and read H-U-G, hug. Is this the same word as the word on the pages?
Sam turns to the first page. Yes! Hug!
Sam and Will go back to reading the book, pointing to and reading the word ‘hug’ on each page. For most of the book it is the only word but then they turn to a page with different word. Both boys recognize it does not say hug, but what does it say? Sam suddenly remembers, “Bobo” he says, “Bobo”. The next page is different again. Sam moves his finger along the letters, “I want my mama”. ‘Almost’ I say, ‘it says “Mommy”’. The next page is full of hugs, Sam and Will laugh. This book is weird, it only says hug!
The story is finished and the boys look at inside back cover, there are three pictures of other Jez Alborough books.
These are the chapters, says Sam. Looking at the pictures they give the chapters titles….
Find a giraffe friend,
Run! – hey! We have this one!
Splash. Sssssplash!
The boys turn back to the beginning and read the book again. They do this over and over, many times.
We are going to say Hug a lot of times today!
Later Kaya asks me to read the book to him, Sam can read it to you I say. Sam reads, just as an adult might, with the book on his lap, reading upside down, so Kaya, who is facing him can see the book.
Midway through the book Sam turns the page the wrong way. Kaya notices and tries to correct him, No, says Sam, this is the way, and turns the page in the wrong direction again. He stops, turns the book to face himself and realizes his mistake. You’re right Kaya, this is the way. Kaya also notices that ‘hug’ is written in much larger text on one page and so shouts HUG very loudly.
Sam finishes the story then tells Kaya the names of the chapters. That’s not right says Kaya when Sam says “Run for your lives”. As Will pointed out earlier we have this book in our library, Kaya turns to me, pointing to the picture, What’s that called? Sam says it’s called run for your lives. It’s not. What does it say? It says “Where’s my Teddy”. Oh yeah – I forgot says Sam.
Sam was reading a story he had heard previously, a very simple story with only three words. Reading the same word over and over was not boring, it was fun, he and Will enjoyed a shared experience, growing in confidence each time they read the book. Later Sam happily read to Kaya. They demonstrated many pre-reading skills: recognizing that letters are associated with sounds, and sounds go together to make words; that we read from left to right; they used vocabulary associated with books – words, pages, chapters, title; they took clues from the text and illustrations and we also talked about the author and other stories of his we know. Such much more than just three words.
