Featured Friday: The Issy Books by Pat Calfee
Disclosure: The FTC Disclosure Provision is a law that requires influencers to disclose when they are being paid to promote a product or service. So please know that if I'm not making money through affiliate links/sponsored content on the post you're currently reading, it's an oversight on my part and will be corrected soon. Read the full disclosure about all the legal stuff here.
Title: The
Issy Books: set one, set two and set three
Set one: Mattie and Miss Rat, A
Bug Named Lady, Snappy the Crab, Lizzie the Lizard, and Webster the Spider.
Set two: Jimmy the Giraffe,
Oscar the Octopus, Harry the Hippo, What Can Bam Bam Do?, and Flossie the Flamingo.
Set three includes all 10 books
Author: Pat
Calfee
ISBN:
Set one: ISBN-10: 1938406133
ISBN-13:
978-1938406133
Set two: ISBN-10: 1938406141
ISBN-13:
978-1938406140
Set three: ISBN-10: 193840615X
ISBN-13:
978-1938406157
Purchasing links:
Book blurb:
The "Issy
Books" are a set of 11 books written for "emerging
readers"—children just learning how to read. The books are unique in that
all of the illustrations come from the imagination of five-year-old Isybilla Gee. Her
grandmother, reading specialist Pat Calfee, writes the Issy Books.
Using sight words, controlled vocabulary, and illustrations to support the
beginning-level stories, the Issy Books are specifically designed to
engage young minds in reading. Picture clues and predictable text help
early readers gain confidence in their new reading skills.
Author bio:
Pat Calfee is an educational consultant with 25
years experience as a teacher, curriculum coordinator, and Staff developer.
Before retiring from public education, Pat taught 2nd and/or 3rd grade
for 15 years. She also worked for 2 years for North Carolina's Department of Public
Instruction as a State Assistance Team Member. Over the past 8 years, Pat
worked with Beaufort County Schools in North
Carolina in various capacities such as Curriculum
Specialist/Staff Development Coordinator and most recently as the K-5
curriculum coordinator.
Anyone who knows Pat will tell you that teaching is in her heart. She has a
passion for helping teachers at all levels discover new and innovative ways to
deliver instruction. In addition, Pat is a wife, mother and grandmother to
three beautiful granddaughters! She enjoys spending time with her family on the
Pamlico River
in North Carolina.
Her inner child is in full force when she is with her grandchildren. They
love swimming, riding bikes, painting and reading books!
Born with a passion for art much like her mother,
five-year-old Isybilla Gee started drawing and painting as soon as she could
hold a paintbrush. Like the children who read the Issy Books, Issy herself is
just learning to read, and her ever-present optimism and delightfulness shines
through her art in surprising and colorful ways.
Issy draws and paints from her imagination, but also from life, using animals,
flowers and the world around her as reference.Her grandmother, Patricia
Calfee—whom she affectionately refers to as "Gigi"—writes the stories
that Issy illustrates. Issy also enjoys
swimming, gymnastics and playing with her little sister, Sophie. She lives in Washington, NC,
with her mom, dad, and sister.
Author website:
Mini Interview:
Why did you write this
book?
As a
lifelong educator, becoming a grandmother was one of the most exciting events
in my entire life. I could not wait to do all of the fun things to
“stimulate” their little minds. The fun times just kept getting better and
better. We spent our time together reading books, playing with play dough,
singing songs, dancing, coloring and painting. Becoming a “Gigi” was the
best thing ever!
One of my
granddaughters, Isybilla, displayed a unique gift for drawing from a very early
age. She loved drawing and painting and would create drawings way beyond her
years. Everyone was always amazed at the paintings that Issy would create with
very little effort. Issy wanted to draw all the time and would always proudly
present members of the family with her treasures as personal gifts. She was a
born artist and we all knew it!
My daughter suggested that I use my background as a primary teacher and reading
specialist to write books for Issy to illustrate. This sounded like a great
idea….and this is where the adventure began!
First, Issy made a list of animal characters that she wanted to draw and even
included their sassy names. She named Flossie the Flamingo, Webster the
Spider, Snappy the Crab and her own Boston Terrier, Bam Bam, plus many more! In
all, I wrote and she illustrated ten stories about characters straight from her
imagination!
Powerful Motivators for Reading
As we started putting the stories and the illustrations together, we saw that
we really had created something very powerful. The stories were perfect for
beginning readers with controlled vocabulary and the use of sight words. The
illustrations were perfect to lead young readers as they used “picture clues.”
And we knew that beginning readers would love the colorful illustrations that
were obviously created by someone their own age. What better way to get
beginning readers motivated to practice reading!
Of course we loved the books ourselves, but it was only when others began
sharing their stories with us that we realized how amazing they really are.
Just a few days ago I was contacted by one of my friends, a retired elementary
educator, after she received a full set of The Issy Books and shared them with
her two grandchildren. She told us how excited her kindergarten grandson
was to have “just right” books to read. He reads the books to his little
sister and is so proud. My friend told me how both children loved the stories,
the animal characters and most of all… the pictures! He is so amazed that
someone his age drew the illustrations. Her grandson wants to read the books
over and over, and his little sister wants to hear the books read over and
over! I then realized just how powerful these little books are in the small
hands of beginning readers.
0 comments