Kitten's First Full Moon

Henkes, K. (2004). Kitten's first full moon. New York: Greenwillow Books.

      Kitten's First Full Moon is a great picture book for young students. This picture book won a Caldecott Award in 2005! In this book, a kitten makes a mistake when thinking the full moon was a bowl of milk. She goes through a lot of trouble to get to that "bowl of milk", but ends up upset and tired.
       Not only is the story great in this book, but the illustrations are phenomenal!! Kevin Henkes is the illustrator of this book. Done in a charcoal and cream-colored palette, the illustrations are created with thick black outlines, curves, and changing expressions that are full of nuance. My librarian at the elementary school I work at recommended me using this picture book for my class.
     Kitten's First Full Moon would be a great read aloud for primary grades. A great activity for kids to show the pictures in the book to the students first and have them narrate their own story based on the illustrations. For more fun, students can pick a page in the book and draw the illustrations using the grayscale pens (gray and black).