Something Wonderful
This book is best for:
- action verbs
- temporal concepts
Review
Set on a beautiful rural Australian farm, Something Wonderful follows an inquisitive and analytical boy as he pulls things apart and puts them back together in order to figure out how they work. Sam often gets so engrossed in doing this that he forgets all about doing his chores! This makes his dad a bit frustrated, but these feelings soon give way to amazement as Sam’s dad sees the wonderful invention that Sam has created…
Something Wonderful is an inspirational story that celebrates the imagination, creativity and analytical thinking of children as they discover the word around them. The beautiful illustrations make the rural Australian countryside, and it’s sometimes unpredictable weather, come to life. The book is written in past tense and features an array of action verbs and temporal concepts. The beautiful descriptive language used throughout the book promotes oral and literate language development.
For further possible speech and language targets, see the list below.
Book Details
Narrative Structure: Abbreviated Episode
Themes:
- people
- places - farm
- tools
- creativity
- imagination
- individuality
- inventions
- science
Speech and Language Targets
Speech Sounds:
- /d/ - dad, paddock, wood, old, shed
- /m/ - mum, Sam
- /p/ - pull, push, put, parts, help
- /s/ - Sam, sun, chase
- /w/ - wind, washing, wood, walk, want
Grammar:
- adjectives
- copula (was)
- regular past tense verbs
- irregular past tense verbs (forgot, lit)
- subjective pronoun (he)
- superlative
- action verbs
- mental verb (think)
Semantics:
- labelling
- describing functions of objects
- predicting
- explaining means to a goal
- making inferences
Concepts:
- location (in, on, inside)
- quantity (many, empty)
- temporal (when, then, suddenly, while, until)
Social-Emotional:
- individuality
- problem solving
Narrative:
- character description
- weather
- direct character speech
Book Info
Published by Penguin Books Australia in 2016 (ISBN: 9780143506669)