Scaredy Squirrel teaches first graders about fiction and nonfiction

The Scaredy Squirrel picture book series by Melanie Watt is hugely popular. What’s not to like about a squirrel who is afraid of just about everything–most of all germs, tarantulas and killer bees!  So when Scaredy Squirrel has a disastrous day and falls out of his tree (after being all worked up about seeing a killer bee), he makes a brilliant discovery.  Instead of falling down into a bush of poison ivy (another fear!), he realizes he is a flying squirrel and he simply glides to the next tree.  How exciting!










After reading Scaredy Squirrel I read a nonfiction book about flying squirrels.  We learned all kinds of facts about flying squirrels, and saw some cool features like a glossary, diagram and a map.  We compared the photos in each book–the picture book had cartoonish drawings and the nonfiction book had photographs.  Also, we learned that  flying squirrels were nocturnal (even though Scaredy Squirrel would go to bed every night at 8:00 pm).  More information about Scaredy Squirrel series can be found at http://www.scaredysquirrel.com.