Pistes d'exploration

Discuss the concept of inferring from a text. How does a reader decide what to understand from the pictures and text in the book?

Discuss the importance of punctuation. Write sentences and change the punctuation to demonstrate the way it changes how we read a text.

With a partner, act out the Yo! Yes? conversation, adding in additional text to explain what is being said by each character.

Discuss making friends with others.

In pairs, retell the story using gestures and appropriate intonation. Use the punctuation in the story to help you decide which emotion you will express (e.g. an exclamation point = a strong emotion).

Scan the story and describe which emotions are expressed by the two characters during the story. Which visual clues helped you decide?

Yay, You!: Moving Out, Moving Up, Moving On, Dream: A Tale of Wonder, Wisdom, & Wishes

Mots-clés

Picture book , dialogue , differences , friendship , loneliness , punctuation

Commentaire descriptif

Yo! Yes? So begins a conversation between two lonely kids, one black and the other white, who meet on the street. When one reveals he isn't having any fun because he has no friends, the other takes his cue and the two happily run off together with a Yo! Yes! and Yow! The characters are rendered in watercolour and charcoal, and appear through most of the book on facing pages in postures that convey the body language of loneliness, shyness, reticence and more. Simple dialogue suspended above them propels the narrative using visual tools such as font size, colour and punctuation (with a focus on question and exclamation marks). In the final scene, after they strike up a friendship, the pair appear exuberantly together on the same page. This deceptively simple read-aloud is about how a few words can communicate so much and can overcome the differences between people.