Asking questions may seem like it comes naturally, but it's actually a learned social skill. How do questions and answers work? What makes a good question--and what makes a rude one? Who cares about questions?
April Pulley Sayre has done enough school visits to know that
question formation can be tricky for kids. Faced with a "hilarious
cascade of non-questions, sort-of-questions, and what-was-that
questions" from her young audiences, she realized that a book was
in order. April is the award-winning author of more than 65
nonfiction books for children and adults, including Trout Are Made
of Trees; Thank You, Earth; Best in Snow; The Slowest Book Ever ;
and the Geisel Honor book Vulture View. Each year she speaks to
more than 15,000 students--who ask her lots and lots of
questions.
Leeza Hernandez is the illustrator of several books for children,
including Eat Your Math Homework, Eat Your Science Homework, Eat
Your U.S. History Homework, and Never Play Music Right Next to the
Zoo. She is also the author and illustrator of Dog Gone! and Cat
Napped! www.leezaworks.com
♦ What are questions, and what are they good for? On a beach, in a
garden, visiting a museum, sitting in class with the president of
the United States (a woman of color, as it happens), and elsewhere
a racially diverse and compulsively inquisitive group of children
demonstrate the ins and outs of productive questioning: "Are you
the new teacher?" "Is this a veggie burger?" "Do you know if
walruses have ears?" "Where do you park Air Force One?" Sayre
describes how speakers use words such as "who" or "where" plus
intonation to formulate questions in English (with a brief
excursion into Spanish: "Where is the gerbil?" "¿Dónde está el
jerbo?"). In explaining that questions can express curiosity or
care for others as well as simply act as requests for information,
she also points out situational subtleties: "Did you burp, Madam
President?" can be discomfiting in some contexts, for instance, but
appropriate in, say, the course of a medical exam. She also
suggests that "How" questions can "ask in a gentle way about
feelings, tender topics, and complicated subjects," and that it's
OK to make mistakes in the course of learning what works and when.
Younger audiences, hard-wired to start asking questions from an
early age, at last have a toolbox for formulating more and better
ones. "So be brave," the author concludes. "Be bold. Ask
questions!" Funny, thoughtful, and rewarding to read, no
question.
— Kirkus Reviews, starred review
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