Cities

Children's Literature

In these nonfiction readers for kids, basic concepts that apply to both reading and writing are emphasized. In this series "Write on!" the basic of use of capital letters is addressed in several books. In this particular book, readers are told that city names begin with a capital letter. Each spread has one page with a very short sentence about a city and the capital letter is shown in a different color so that it can be easily identified. The opposing page show a full color picture that matches the point made in the text. For example, "This bridge is in San Francisco." And the picture shows the Golden Gate Bridge with a blue sky above and fog underneath. The selected cities are from very different sections of the country and the information and images will interest beginning readers. The final text page asks readers to identify the capital letter for the city mentioned in the text (The answer is provided.). All of the words found in the book are recapped in lists as to their appropriate part of speech (accompanied by definitions of noun, adjective, and verb), a pronunciation guide and the page number where the word appears. It might have helped to introduce the concept of proper nouns to clarify what is capitalized. In this particular offering there are a few more cities listed on the closing page with all of the capital letters highlighted. A useful book for teachers and one that can broaden its reach across the curriculum. Others in the series include States, Days, Months, Names, and Places. The books are leveled so the concepts are more complicated in the more advanced books. These are in the Level 1 series. 2001, Sandcastle/ABDO, Ages 4 to 6.
— Marilyn Courtot