Wemberly Worried

Henkes, K. (2000). Wemberly worried. Hong Kong: Greenwillow books.

 Age Level:  4-8

Genre: Picture Book,

This picture book is about a mouse who worries all the time.  She worries about big things, small things and all things in between.  It is the beginning of school and Wemberly is worrying about that.  When Wemberly goes to school she meets a friend who is much like herself.  Will Wemberly ever quit worrying and enjoy school? 

After reading this book, I am excited to use it at the beginning of school next year.  This would be a great text to use as many of us worry about the star of a new school year.    I would absolutely recommend this book, especially for the beginning of a school year!

I love the illustrations in this text because they do a great job of representing this character’s feelings and mood throughout the text.  The colors (both cool and warm) in the illustrations help contribute to the story’s meaning.     

Wemberly worries very often and I feel this this would be a book many children could find relevancy with, as many of them also worry.  I think this would be a great text for primary classrooms because many children in this age do have worries of all sorts.    

Ideas for teaching/comprehension strategies that can be used with this text:  I would love to use this text to introduce person-against-self (or person-versus-self) conflicts.  I also think this would be a great book for teaching character’s feelings in a story because Wemberly’s feelings are very evident throughout the text.  I also could use this text with problem and solution. 

Questions to pose:

Why do you think Wemberly worries so much?

Can you relate to Wemberly?  Why or why not?

How does Wemberly change throughout the story?  Use details from the text. 

Why do you think we read this text in our classroom?