B is for Blue Crab

Title: B is for Blue Crab: A Maryland Alphabet

Author: Shirley C. Menendez

Illustrator: Laura Stutzman

Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press

http://www.sleepingbearpress.com/

Publication Date: 2004

Genre: Nonfiction, Picture Book

Audience: Gr. PreK-2

Overview: This book goes through the entire alphabet relating each letter to some aspect of life in Maryland. It begins with Annapolis, the capital, providing a short rhyming line as well as a description of the history of the city. This pattern continues throughout, providing quite a lot of information about places in, symbols of, and people from Maryland including Muddy Creek Falls, jousting, and Francis Scott Key. It is full of information and vibrant pictures bring each page to life.

Activity: For this book a teacher in Maryland may be interested in students creating their own page to add to this book. Whether it be a letter of their choosing or each student doing a letter of the alphabet. It may also be used to cross into a Social Studies lesson about the state of Maryland. Other books using the same idea can be found for many other states as well, so we may want to consider using these depending on where we are teaching.

Reviewer's Name: Meghan O'Leary