Tracey and the Sun

Tracey and the Sun is a realistic fiction story about a girl who moved to a new home where the sun shone every day. The sun kept ruining her day by burning her legs, melting her cookies, and making her miss goals from the sun being too bright. Suddenly, Tracey felt cold, and she thought it was because the sun heard her angry words. While Tracey was shivering, she helped a little girl that fell. All of a sudden she felt the sun again. The story is narrated with dialogue and illustrative text.

Tracey and the Sun is a simple narrative story. Critical thinking questions are provided to guide the reader. Illustrations match the text. A visual information guide is provided for teachers to draw students’ attention to the changes in fonts and style. There is an infographic at the end of the book outlining the parts of a narrative including the who, where, when, problem, and solution. An activity on drawing their own visual map of a narrative is provided for teachers to extend students’ learning.

Readers develop vocabulary such as nouns (sun), verbs (melt), and singular/plural (cookie/cookies). Opportunities arise to discuss apostrophes to show possession (Tracey’s mum) and apostrophes within contractions (you’ll). Focus on short and long vowel a, suffix ness (kindness), base words (leapt), and silent letters (crumbs).

This title is from the Sails Literacy series. Hook readers and ignite their curiosity - over 850 levelled texts with bright, colourful, sophisticated designs.