Tova lives with her family on a small farm in the famous town of Chelm, a mythical village populated, according to Jewish folklore, by fools. Tova's farm has hens and even a rooster, but no cow. Her mother, Rivka, wishes they could afford to buy a cow, so they could have fresh milk and butter every day. One night Tova's father has a dream about how to get milk without actually owning a cow. He asks Tova to help him find a way to get milk from their hens, and the results are hilarious. Finally, to the family's joy and the hens' relief, the problem is solved by none other than the wise Rabbi of Chelm himself, and a little extra help from Tova.

Today's early literacy programs are more demanding than ever. No longer is it sufficient to teach letters, letter sounds, sight words, and simple texts in kindergarten through second grade. Children are expected to read and comprehend texts in a variety of genres with increasing complexity. Then they must integrate the ideas and concepts from those texts into their own writing. Two Books are Better Than One: Reading and Writing (and Talking and Drawing) Across Texts in K-2 helps teachers meet those demands. Each chapter contains an anchor lesson focused on a different way of connecting texts, including: by theme, characters, perspective, structure, or genre. The lessons feature research-based and common core aligned strategies: interactive read-alouds; shared reading and writing; scaffolded small group reading; accountable talk; close reading; and opinion, narrative, and explanatory writing. Each anchor lesson features two high-quality children's books, and each chapter is rounded out with a list of other recommended book pairs to support you in creating your own lessons.

A collection of ideas for activities to use in conjunction with over 90 children's books.