A Note to Readers
Letter week! Who doesn’t love celebrating each one of those lovely letters during letter week–as well as diagraphs. And with Stef Wade’s amazing book Q & U Call It Quits, you have a built-in tool for making this week rock!
Enjoy!
Rochelle
Teaching Q & U CALL IT QUITS
Tell us about your book.
Q and U are QUality friends, but when they QUarrel, it’s a real QUandary!
In Q & U CALL IT QUITS, U decides she wants some time to herself–even though Q is lonely because he doesn’t always fit in with the other letters without her. When the rest of the alphabet notices the split, they decide they want to do the same. And utter chaos ensues!
This is QUirky story that plays with letter blends and digraphs while teaching kids the importance of friendship.
What do you hope your young readers will take away from your book?
As in much of my writing, I want kids to get three things:
- I want them to learn. Q & U helps kids understand the way letters work together to make digraphs and letter blends.
- I want them to love. Q & U teach an important lesson in friendship. Life can get pretty lonely and chaotic without our friends. It’s important to know who you are and what you need and to be loyal and honest with your friends.
- I want them to laugh. While there’s lots of content packed in, this is a super silly book with creative and expressive illustrations that will get the kids giggling!
How might a teacher or librarian use your book in the classroom?
This is the perfect book for letter week! I know a lot of classrooms have a Q&U wedding, or a Q day the school year or during ABC countdown week at the end of the year. This is a great book to read aloud while learning about the letter Q. It’s also a great resource when working on digraphs and letter blends. While there are a lot of Q words, other letter pairs show up as well. It’s fun to identify blends you’ve learned while reading!
Can you share an exercise or activity that teachers can do with students after they’ve read your book?
If you’re reading this book during Q week – you could try one of Q & U’s favorite activities, like making a quilt for the queen! Using small squares of scrapbook paper, kids can quilt a letter Q onto the page by gluing down the squares on the outline of the letter Q.
If you’re focusing on digraphs –you can do a look and find in the story for the different digraphs and letter blends and chart them on a graph.
What book(s) work well with your book?
Z IS FOR MOOSE by Kelly Bingham
LITTLE i by Michael Hall
About the author.
Stef is the best-selling author of A PLACE FOR PLUTO, illustrated by Melanie Demmer, and THE VERY LAST LEAF, illustrated by Jennifer Davison.
Stef’s next picture books, Q AND U CALL IT QUITS, illustrated by Jorge Martin, releases from HarperCollins on June 15, 2021 and EVERYDAY’S A HOLIDAY, illustrated by Husna Aghniya, releasing from Running Press in summer 2021.
Stef holds a BA in advertising from Marquette University and an MBA in Integrated Marketing Communication from DePaul University.
A Chicago-girl at heart, she’s bounced all over the Midwest with her college sweetheart husband and her three historically and literary named boys. She currently resides in Brookfield, WI.
