I'm not even to the part where she meets the wolf, and I'm exasperated by three things already. Carmine rides a bike without a helmet. She's advised not to dawdle or stray, but does so with abandon. And the mockingbird who imitates wolf noises is seen as an omen," that is to say, something mysterious and symbolic, rather than logical and natural. And this in a book that purports to teach vocabulary, "omen" being one of the vocabulary words.

And I hope the 'twist' of the tale redeems the wolf. So far we have "Most wolves practice the fine art of lurking."
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Well, done. And the word choices were awkward because, as it turns out, this is an alphabet book. And there is a good ending. Kids will love this book. Maybe they (themselves, or in a team with their class) can use the format of the book to tell/write their own alphabet story. So that would be a Good Thing.

Overall, though, I was not charmed. Sorry." ( )

Carmine is an adaptation of the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood". Many students will possibly already know the tale and be able to guess the outline of the story. It's fun for them because the ending is a twist from the usual tale and is a happier ending for all. The main teaching aspect from this book that the author purposely did was draw the focus on certain words on each page or in each section. On each page before the sentences begin there is a single word that is drawn bigger and more colorful than the others. This is the word the author chose to have the reader focus on to learn a new word and how it's used in a sentence. Student's then must use their context clues to figure out the meaning of this word. Some examples are, " knoll, lurking, dilly-dally, beware, surreal, and yodel." I like that the author chose a commonly known story to play with words and gives a teacher the opportunity to stop and asks questions about words to make her students active listeners.

Also, at the end of the story is Granny's alphabet soup recipe which her and Carmine always eat together. For a younger classroom setting such as Pre-k or K if there is a kitchen center the students could be given a grocery list and shop to make the vegetable soup. ( )

This book had the same based as the known story of Little Red Riding Hood but the twist was wonderful. The author used some great descriptive words and made some possible unknown words standout to look the up. There as a focus word on every page. I made you want to read to page to see how it was used. The slight difference in the plot was a great touch and fit the word selection. ( )

This book is about a girl named Carmine who is off to go to her grandmather's house. On the way she stops to paint and encounters a wolf. She eventually gets to her grandmothers house and gets to eat the alphabet soup that her grandmother made for her. I liked the use of vocabulary in this book. ( )

This is a story about a little girl named Carmine and her trip to her grandmothers house. Along the way she finds that every letter of the alphabet can be found in the world around her. This is a cute book to teach kids about their ABC's. It also helps kids learn bigger vocab words like zillion, pluck, quiver, and indeed. ( )