The Upper Case: Solving the Mystery of a Perfect Picture Book Friday

I have always loved mysteries all the way back to the kittens who lost their mittens. I loved Encyclopedia Brown and The Bobbsey Twins. Scoobey Doo was my favorite cartoon.  So Tara Lazar's Private I books are right up my dark and dangerous alley.

Her first book in the series got me with the title:

A couple of years ago, I was assisting a class of second graders as they were starting a math lesson. That day's assignment was on page 789. I let out a kind of snorty laugh and one of the kids looked at me like I was an alien. She had never heard the joke. Jokes are hard to explain to second graders. The humor gets lost when you are trying to explain a Homonym and how it makes for a funny joke. But, when the joke is laid out in front of you in a story, kids can get it all on their own.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago and the second grade class I was subbing for were getting a little squirrely with their math and language studies. I pulled out my special copy of 7 Ate 9 and we had a math and language lesson all in one.  Don't worry, I just read the book and didn't tell them they were putting their lessons to work. They already knew the story, but were happy to read the book again. They love being in on the jokes and the mystery. Thank you Tara for signing the book. It is now in the school library and the kids can read it again and again.

On to Perfect Picture Book Friday:

Title: THE UPPER CASE: TROUBLE IN CAPITAL CITY
Author: Tara Lazar
Illustrator: Ross McDonald
Publisher: Disney Hyperion, 2019

Now, before we get started, put on your best Humphrey Bogart voice and read this out loud . . .

Opening lines:
I was dozing in my chair when Question Mark barged into my office. He looked bent out of shape.
"What's the matter, Mark?" I asked.

The problem, you ask. All the uppercase letters are missing! But Private I is on the case and he's taking you along to talk to Little b, and all the punctuation to solve this mystery.

Why I love this book:

• A mystery as noted at the beginning of this post.
• Tara has a wonderful ability to bring language and number humor alive. 
• Throughout the story readers learn about punctuation in a fun way. 
• You get to use your Humphrey Bogart voice and create many more voices for all the characters.
• I love how Ross McDonald brings all the letters and punctuation to life. Those little legs and big shoes . . . adorable.

Activities and Resources:

Practice your best Humphrey Bogart voice. Here's a little video to get you started.

Check out Tara's website. 

Check our Ross's website.

I was going to add some "Fun ways to teach capitalization and punctuation." But so far I haven't found any that are as fun as this book. If you have fun ways to play with these lessons, please share them in the comments.

Here's a book to pair with The Upper Case. https://jilannehoffmann.com/2019/10/25/a-bunch-of-punctuation-perfect-picture-book-friday-ppbf/

As always, be sure to check out Susanna Hill's blog for more perfect picture books.