If You Were Born a Kitten

Yes. This book uses the skills of observing, classifying, and communicating. It talks about the different ways that different types of animals are born into this world, including their appearance, whether they were born in an egg, sac, or they just pop out. The kids can be looking at the pictures and observe the appearance of the baby animals, including humans when they were born. They can also classify the animals differently either by how the animals were born, if they were born one at a time, or if they were born with fur.

Author: Marion Dane Bauer
Illustrator: JoEllen McAllister Stammen
Year Published: 1997
ISBN: 0-689-80111-4

Summary

A book about how different animals give birth and the appearance of their new born babies.

Evaluation

Appropriateness: High
Authority: Medium
Accuracy: High
Liteary Artistry: High
Appearance: High

Questions

Does the book foster development of processes?

Does the book provide an opportunity for children to ask and answer their own questions?

Yes. The book encourages students to ask question and wonder about the different ways that animals were born and the book has a couple of sentences that tells how the animals were born. Teachers can use this book by first suggesting an animal and have children wonder how the animal is born, then read the book for the children to visualize it.

Does the book encourage children to think for themselves?

The book definitely encourage children to think for themselves because by looking at the pictures and reading the text the children will probably wonder why certain animals are born a certain way. The book provides some basic information in regards to how different animals were born, but it doesn't explain why they were born that way so it allows the students to question and think about why they might be born the way they do.

Is the science topic addressed in ways that are appropriate to the lesson?

I think the ways that the science topic addressed are appropriate to the lesson because you can use this book to cover the beginning of life cycle for different organisms. The topic of birth was both demonstrated in the pictures and through the text in this book. This book can be easily used as a way to introduce the science topic of birth.

Is the content based on sound scientific principles? Is it accurate?

Yes. The content in this book is based on sound scientific principles and are very accurate. It presents accurate information in a child friendly language so that the students can understand. For example, for the kitten it said they slip into the world in a silvery sac, and the mother would lick them free. It

Does the book distinguish between fact and fiction?

The book contains only facts. Before it gets to the page where it talks about human birth, it has a page that said how we are not like all the animals that were mentioned earlier in the book, yet we were born too and it talks about child birth. I think the book allows the students to observe and classify the different ways that animals were born, but it also makes a clear distinction between human birth and the birth of animals. The only part of the book that was a little bit related to fiction was where it asks the children to imagine if they were a type of animal and how they were born, but in the end it addresses how we are not born like those animals mentioned.

Are the illustrations clear and accurate?

The illustrations are very clear, big, and accurate. The illustrations represents what was mentioned in the text. It's really easy for the students to visualize what the text is trying to say and also be able to compare the different animals and make observations. The size of the baby animals and the size of their parents were also drawn in the right proportions.

Is the book written at the level of your students?

Yes. This book is a large picture story book with large text. I think this book will be suitable for students in pre-k all the way to 2nd grade. The book also doesn't have much high vocabulary that's hard for the children to understand so it's very suitable for kids in younger grade levels. This book can be used as a read aloud for pre-k to kindergarten students and independent reading for 1st to 2nd grade students.

Is there a multicultural component? Is it free from stereotyping?

There's not really a multicultural component in this book because it's mostly talking about animals. There's also no stereotypes in this book because it's mostly just animals with only two pages regarding human birth. The author of the book could have drawn more people of different races instead of just one race to so the reader would not get any suggestion of stereotyping or under representation.

Is the book free from gender bias?

Yes. Even though birth is often related to females, but in the book it also picked some animals that have the males giving birth, such as seahorses. I think the author definitely picked a variety of animals including different genders to show the diversity of birth across organisms.

Does the book show the close association between science and other disciplines?

Yes. This book definitely shows a close association between science and language arts. This book can be used as a read aloud and can be used to focus on making predictions, or recognizing onomatopoeia. The book mentioned animals that make certain sounds so teachers can use it to teach onomatopoeia. Teachers can also ask children to predict what the next animal the book is going to talk about and how they give birth.

Does the book present a positive attitude toward science and technology?

This book definitely presents a positive attitude toward science by addressing the different ways of animals giving births. But it doesn't really mentioned any technology in the book. I feel like the technology portion can be an extension activity that children can look into with regards to child birth, but because giving birth is a natural process so the aspect of technology wasn't really mentioned.

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