*A special thanks to Penguin for generously giving The Storymamas a review copy of the book. All opinions are our own.
I am Jane Goodall by Brad Meltzer is one of multiple books in this engaging picture book biography series. The reader meets Jane Goodall when she was a young child, and it chronologically tells the story of her life. Illustrator Christopher Eliopoulous uses cartoon images that appeal to the reader and help make the words come to life. We love that it reads like a story and includes comic-style speech bubbles, which entice most young readers.
When you take a look at this series, you’ll find the rest of the biographies are about people in the world that kids are eager to learn about!
Here are some ideas for using this series in the classroom:
-Biography projects. This series is great on its own, or if working in a higher grade, they could be used to differentiate for readers that aren’t quite ready for a chapter book.
-Persuasive writing. I am Jane Goodall is a great book to read aloud to kickoff a persuasive writing or petition unit. My students were inspired by her work with chimpanzees and then wrote about their own passions.
-Teaching non-ficiton reading strategies. This narrative non-fiction series lends itself well to note making, and the timeline at the back of the book is a great text feature to point out.
We hope you enjoy this series as much as we did!