Publisher’s Weekly
“It takes a dinosaur-themed roller coaster to show a kid that he has the right stuff... Newcomer Adams’ story unspools in couplets with plenty of heavy-duty action words (”Lurching, tilting up again/ Jerking, rumbling round the bend)... it’s a triumph that youngsters won’t mind reliving several times over.”

Awards:
  • 2006 Kansas State Reading Circle Recommended Reading List

  • Nominee, 2005 Read Aloud Book Award (MN)

  • Zoom! Activities

    1. Design a theme park. You can use a theme featuring a unit of study you are currently working on, or have the class vote on a theme for the amusement park. Brainstorm ideas of rides and attractions. For example, if you are doing a unit on insects, they may design a ride of metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a butterfly; or create an ant colony park.

    2. Have the students create an attraction using household items, such as styrofoam cups, toothpicks, building blocks…

    3. Write a story. Story starters may include:
        a day at an amusement park,
        a time when you were afraid, but used your courage to overcome your fear,
        a person who has encouraged you to be brave,
        a time when you helped someone else to be brave.

    4. Design a poster. Ask students to create a poster advertising a new ride at an amusement park. Remind them to use big lettering and bright colors.

    5. Write your own Zoom! book as a class. Each child can write and illustrate a rhyming page to describe a trip to a theme park. Put them together as a class book that they can read during center time or together as a group.

    Salty Activities

    1. Look up Salt Marsh Harvest Mice on the Internet. Draw a picture of their favorite nesting area, pickleweed.

    2. Do a report on an animal from the book. Write about why the habitat is so important for their survival.

    3. Take a field trip to a local wildlife refuge. Look for Salty there.

    4. Make a collage of your favorite illustration from the book.

    5. Hold a fundraiser in your class for your local wildlife refuge.
    © 2007 Diane Adams. All Rights Reserved.
    Website by RedFusion Media
    Contact/School Visits Press Release Activities Reviews