A Book Review: Song and Dance Man

Bright and colorful pencil illustrations give life to the story about three children who follow their grandpa into the attic, where he becomes the song and dance man. He tell them about the days before T.V. back in the good old days. Grandpa begins to tap dance like he used to when he was a performer. The children are transported to the Vaudeville Stage, where Grandpa used to dance. When Grandpa is done with his performance the children hug him and tell him that they wish they could have lived back in the old days, but he smiles and tells them that he wouldn't trade his time with them for anything.
I would use this book to teach the students about making connections between literature and history in a fourth grade class. The students would write about what happens in the book and would connect it to things that they research about song and dance during that time period. At the end of the week we would put on a class talent show to let the students perform just like the song and dance man did.



Book title: Song and Dance Man

Author: Karen Ackerman
Illustrator: Stephen Gammell
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Number of pages: 32
Copyright year: 2003
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Standard Used: c. Link ideas within categories of information using words and phrases (eg., another, for example, also, because). [W.4.2c]