Other favorites by Janell Cannon

Cannon, J. (2000). Crickwing. New York: Scholastic, Inc.

In her tradition of bringing clarity to the mysterious lives of animals, Cannon has written Crickwing about insects. Crickwing is primarily about ants and cockroaches. This is an excellent book to teach students in elementary or middle school about insects or life chains and biomes. As usual, Cannon has included a few pages with science facts in the back of the book. Crickwing is a cockroach with a mild disability who loves to create fantastic food sculptures. Tired of being bullied by the other animals in the rainforest, he decides to turn the tables and pick on the ants. He learns a valuable lesson about ants and being a bully.

Cannon, J. (1997). Verdi. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company.

In this Cannon book, we learn about snakes. Continuing her tradition of educating us about "scary" animals, Cannon has written Verdi about snakes. In this book, the main character, a python is worried he will get old and sluggish like the other pythons in the forest. The illustrations by Cannon are fantastic as usual. This book could fit into the science standards in practically any of the middle and elementary grades. It is a fantastic example for teaching students to write stories that incorporate both fact and fiction.