Happy Endings: A Story about Suffixes
Written by Robin Pulver
Illustrated by Lynn Rowe Reed
Happy Endings: A Story About Suffixes is a fun and wacky introduction to the way words end and what that does to the meaning of each word. Mr. Wright has the audacity to try to teach something the last day of school: suffixes. The kids don’t want to learn anything, forcing Mr. Wright to yell that they will tackle word endings after lunch. The Words Endings not only get their feelings hurt, they worry about getting tackled, so they hide. This has turned into a complete disaster. Now Mr. Wright threatens to cancel summer vacation unless they get this situation under control! The kids start looking for those missing word endings, patterning their search after the detective they read about. Even though the Suffixes have been working out and have a fighting chance in case they get tackled, they would rather give clues than get physical. Now that the kids are looking, they see the word ending clues in plain sight, even though they have been mixed up within each of the words. Summer vacation is saved and the kids have learned about suffixes.
There are so many ways to use this book. It is a good class read aloud. It is also a good choice for a center because the graphics and the text work so well together to illustrate the concept. Whimsical illustrations are very kid-friendly. The lower third grade reading level will challenge most second graders, but not overwhelm them. Students could make posters or write clues similar to the examples in the book as literacy activities. There are worksheets at the publisher’s website: ( http://www.holidayhouse.com//docs/HappyEndings.pdf ). Students will have so much fun with this book that they won’t realize that they are learning about suffixes.
TITLE: Happy Endings: A Story About Suffixes- AUTHOR: Robin Pulver
- ILLUSTRATOR: Lynn Rowe Reed
- PUBLISHER: Holiday House
- REVIEWER: Risa Brown
- EDITION: Hardcover, 32 p.
- ISBN: 978-0-8234-2296-8