 Hi everyone, my name is Steph. This is Little Bookish Teacher and today I have a review of Who's Afraid of the Light by Anna McGregor. This is a gorgeous picture book that was sent to me by the publisher Scribble Kids Books and I'm so grateful. This book is awesome. They also sent some really cool little bits and pieces with the book. So there is a bookmark, there is a gorgeous postcard, there is a scratch art plate that has the instructions for what to use it for which is really cool and you'll see why when I talk about the book as well as quiz and some activities which would be great for kids. So Who's Afraid of the Light is a fictional non-fiction text. I'm going to read you the synopsis. It says come on a trip to the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean. There are many fascinating creatures that call it home. There's nothing to be afraid of is there and on the back you can see it says the dark is good, the dark is safe but beware real monsters hide in the light. A lot of this book has this feature like scratch art which I absolutely love so that's where that little activity comes into play. So the basic premise of this book is about Anna McGregor exploring the midnight zone of the ocean, that layer of the ocean where no natural light penetrates and the creatures that live there. So we learn about these creatures through a fictional text. So you have the narrator who has this white text and then this character called Fergus who the narrator is talking to through the book and as we go through the book we meet various creatures and the narrator tries to figure out what kind of animal Fergus is because the narrator can't see Fergus and also Fergus has never seen itself so he has a bit of trouble describing itself to the narrator and of course it does come down to the fact of is Fergus hiding or is Fergus something else because many of the creatures that live at the bottom of the ocean use light to lure and pray and so those are the kinds of animals that we learn about. And there's a really great page at the back of the book that has information about all the animals that we meet in the story as well as some of the key scientific terms like bioluminescence which makes it really great for exploring as a nonfiction text as well as a fictional story. The things that I loved about this I love fictional nonfiction texts because they make learning facts about various topics very digestible for kids which means you can read this book and not feel like you're going to be completely bogged down by lots and lots of facts that the kids have a hard time learning about. So if you're younger readers this is great because as you go through the story and we meet various characters the narrator tells us something about them and it's a very short paragraph that is very easily broken down for younger readers. This has a great topic it's very intriguing who doesn't want to know about all those creatures that live in a part of the ocean that is so far down that it seems almost alien and it's a great hook for a topic as well because it's so fascinating. I love that Fergus's identity is kept a secret through the whole book because it keeps you guessing and it allows plenty of opportunities for inferring and predicting as well as keeping that impetus for continuing to read because you want to know what he is you want to find out exactly what kind of animal Fergus is and as I said I really love that the last page has those actual facts and goes into them a little bit more deeper has the scientific names of animals and adds that extra layer of information that really enhances what we've read about because the story has intrigued the reader the facts then give us more information. So how would I use this in a classroom I mean this is a really fantastic science or inquiry text because we are learning information about sea creatures and we're learning about a part of the world that we can't just go and visit and can't just find out information about ourselves. It's also great for thinking about environmental conditions and adaptations animals have to live in said conditions. It's a great mental text for showing how nonfiction can be informative and entertaining because quite often if you say oh I'm going to read an information text to the class you're thinking of a like an actual fact book whereas this has plenty of facts in it but it's a picture story book first and foremost and the story is driven by the facts that we find out about in it so it's a really interesting way of learning things and it's a great way to show kids that information just doesn't have to be written in a report it can be written in a very entertaining way because this book does have nonfiction elements it's a really great jumping off point for tier three words like bioluminescence and scientific language you read about it in context you pull it apart you learn about the word really great for building vocabulary. It's also got a really fantastic first sentence hook so it says here we are at the deepest darkest depth of the ocean beyond sunlight's reach suddenly you want to know what's going on down there it's a great book for using to teach inferring and predicting in a reading lesson because you are constantly trying to figure out who Fergus is what's going on what is the next animal that we're going to meet it has all of those elements in here and also it makes a great link activity for some scratch art whether you're using it as a writing or a reading response and the kids have to craft a message that goes onto the scratch art or whether they're using the scratch art to actually draw some of the animals that they meet in the story and that would create a really cool display. The other thing that I've got to say is that the end papers have these two seagulls who talk to each other and then at the end of the book they reappear and you can see that the time of day has changed as well so it's a really cool way to pull the whole story together. So thank you to Scribble Kids Books for sending me a copy of this phenomenal book, absolutely loved it, really really cool. I will leave links to the publisher's website as well as the author's website so you can check out more information about the book. In the comments I would love to know if you are planning on picking up this book or if you have other fictional non-fiction books that you enjoy reading please feel free to leave some recommendations down below. If you just want to let me know that you're here but you don't only have a comment feel free to leave a light emoji down below otherwise I hope that wherever you're out in the world you're staying safe and healthy and I will see you in my next video. Thanks so much for watching, bye everyone.