Must Read Monday - Susan Laughs

Even though its Tuesday, its in keeping with my linky party tradition to be a day late! So here is my Must Read for Monday (or Tuesday or any day of the week!).

This is a complete lucky find for me. I literally picked this book up off the library shelf amongst others when restocking my class book corner, then a child chose it for the before lunch story and I was blown away by it!

Susan Laughs is by Jeanne Willis, illustrated by Tony Ross (which I think is what attracted me to the cover). Its a simple story told in rhyming couplets (perfect as our English topic was rhyming poetry) with funny illustrations, however, its the end of the book which made me love it. On the very last page, you realise that Susan is in a wheelchair. When you then go back through the book, you realise that Susan is never unassisted in the pictures, and yet she manages to do everything other children can do. My class were fascinated and the discussion about diversity and differences was phenomenal, especially for a complete random book choice!

I highly recommend this book to all teachers of younger classes, although when I searched online, I also found lesson suggestions for older age groups on the Teaching English website. Also on that website is a whole list of books which promote diversity (my Amazon wish list just got longer!)

Go link up at Teaching Maddeness for more great books!