Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!!! - Picture Book

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault

illustrated by Lois Ehlert

 

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a fictional picturebook written by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault and illustrated by Lois Ehlert.  The letters of the alphabet all want to climb to the top of a coconut tree. But as they ascend, they wonder if there will be enough room.

Genre: Fiction

Format: Picturebook

Author's Biography:

The late Bill Martin, Jr is often referred to as "America's favorite children's author."  He wrote nearly 300 children's book including the classic Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do you See?, illustrated by his friend Eric Carle.  John Archambault met while Bill Martin, Jr while he was in graduate school. John was finally able to collaborate with his mentor with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, which was published in 1989.  Martin and Archambault published 10 other successful children's books together, including: Knots on a Counting Rope, Barn Dance, The Ghost-Eye Tree, and Listen to the Rain.

Annie's Review

According to Literature and the Child page 127, quality fiction picturebooks should have text and illustrations that establish the mood, setting, characters, and theme of the story.  The illustrations should expand on the story appropriately, and the layout should be visually appealing. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom meets these criteria. I enjoyed reading this book as it was often rhyming and song-like.  The text alphabet letters are bold and in uppercase, while the illustrations are colorful and lowercase is represented.

My very creative daughter came up with a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom costume with letter stickers and foam paper glued to a foam hat!  I may be biased, but that's the cutest coconut tree and nerd!

Motivational Activates:

Letter Recognition - A fun activity involving upper case letters pre-printed on coconut tree leaves and the lower case on the trunks.  Assessing the students knowledge of letters by matching the correct leaves with trunks.

Make Your Own Tree - Pre-print a coconut tree, provide students with various magazines.  Have the children find all the letters in the alphabet, cut out of the magazine and glue onto their coconut tree.

Snack reinforcement - Graham crackers as the trunk, green apple for palm leaves, grapes for coconuts, Alpha-Bits cereal that climb the coconut tree!

Reader Response Questions:

Have you ever climbed a tree?  What might happen if you climb to the top?

What happened to the letters when they fell?

Looking at "black-eyed p", have you ever had a black eye?  Can you think of another type of black-eyed p?

References:

Bill Martin, Jr., Biography. Retrieved from http://billmartinjr.com/bill_martin

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Snack. Making Learning Fun. Retrieved from                                http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/RecipeChickaChickaSnack.htm

 Galda, L., Cullinan, B. E., & Sipe, L. R. (2010). Literature and the child (7th ed.). Belmont, CA:

            Wadsworths, Inc.

Kansas Reads to Preschoolers. Author Bio - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Retrieved from             http://www.kcfb.info/chicka/index.html