Kangodile: A great teaching tool

Here's how one leading educator puts it:

What child wouldn't be drawn to a book that offers the fun of a toy, the excitement of a game, and the surprise of a mystery? Janet Landay's unusual alphabet book, Kangodile, does all of these and more. Each page unfolds accordion-style, showing half of an animal, either it’s head and part of its body or the rest of it’s body and its tail, and each page is labeled with the corresponding half of its name, for example, Bab or boon. With the two folded pages opened, we are presented with a richly colored completed animal, a baboon. And that's just the beginning of the fun.

It's not surprising that children from two through seven and even older are captivated by this inventive little book. First of all, its broad appeal is drawn from a child’s love of animals. Two- and three-year-olds relish physically opening, closing, and spreading the accordion pages across the floor as they pore over the lushly colored illustrations.

Like two- and three-year-olds, four-year olds love the excitement of turning the page to see how an animal is completed - and they are never disappointed. With their newly acquired grasp of reality, they find things that seem unreal hilarious, hence their love of silly rhymes and jokes, and their complete delight in combining the face of a baboon with the tail of a crocodile to create a "babodile," or my favorite, a "shurtle," combining the face of a shark to the tail end of a turtle.

At five and up, Kangodile builds on children's drive to be with friends and offers the fun and excitement of making discoveries together. Also fives use their beginning awareness of the sounds of letters as they playfully try to sound out the names of these silly animals. For sixes and sevens, like fives, newly acquired phonics skills are used to identify the many possible names. Even children who struggle with reading will work on these words for the sheer fun of it.

This attractive little book stimulates productive social interactions, supports reading skills, and most important to children, is full of fun and surprises.

Salvatore Vascellaro, Ed.D
Professor of Children's Literature
Bank Street College of Education
New York, NY

Visits

I like to visit grades K-3 in elementary schools (especially during book fairs!), as well as zoos, libraries, and museums that have organized activities for kids. My visits combine looking and discussing with hands-on art activities. I usually begin by sharing Kangodile with my young audience and inviting volunteers to fold the book to make new animal combinations. We talk about favorite animals and speculate on the attributes of the hybrid creatures. During the art-making part of the visit, I have children make pictures of at least two animals (real or imaginary) and show them how to cut and paste them to create two hybrid creatures. For that part of the presentation, I need tables, paper, crayons or markers, scissors, and glue.

Please contact me directly for more information and availability at info@janetlanday.com.