CELI Literacy Specialist Angie Caldwell reads “This Book is Not About Dragons” to children at Willie Price Lab School.

OXFORD, Miss. —Spoiler Alert: “This Book is Not About Dragons,” by Shelly Moore Thomas is actually jam-packed with fire-breathing monsters, and, is the 2017 winner of the University of Mississippi’s CELI Read Aloud Book Award.

Given annually by the Center for Excellence in Literacy Instruction (CELI) at the UM School of Education, the annual award honors books designed for children ages 3 to 10. Established in 2010, this is the seventh time the award has been given by CELI, a center which provides curriculum support and training for Mississippi reading teachers.

“‘This Book Is Not About Dragons’ is an excellent book to read aloud to children,” said Angie Caldwell, CELI literacy specialist who oversees the award process. “This book piques children’s curiosity and creates an engaging reading experience. Teachers reported that the children bounced with anticipation, chanted phrases and echoed actions in the book while reading the book aloud. Teachers also stated that the children asked for the book to be read again and again!”

This year’s winner was selected out of several titles, which were distributed to teachers at multiple north Mississippi schools, including UM’s Willie Price Lab School. Schools which field-tested the book were awarded free copies of the book.

“My class loved this book,” said Willie Price teacher Chelsea Walters. “They begged me to read it again and again and they talked about it all through lunch.”

The plot of the book follows a mischievous mouse narrator who leads the reader on a tour of a countryside that has obviously been ravened by a fire-breathing dragon. The book is designed to ignite the interest of young students who can start to pick apart the narrator’s false claims that, amid all of the fire and smoke and destruction, there are actually no dragons hiding the background.

“As a teacher, I find enjoyment in observing my students actively engaged in the read-aloud process,” said Candace Gooch at Bramlett Elementary School in Oxford. “While reading ‘This Book is Not About Dragons,’ my students were predicting, inferring and simply enjoying the text. They were excited and asked to have the story re-read multiple times.”

The CELI Read Aloud Book Award program is partially supported from a grant from the Robert M. Hearin Support Foundation of Jackson. The goal is to promote reading aloud to young children as a way to teach literacy, reinforce a love of reading and help children understand the deeper meaning behind books. Winning books receive the right to be published with CELI’s Read Aloud award seal on the cover.

Participating teachers were asked to evaluate how well the texts stretch children’s imaginations, capture interest and utilize a rich vocabulary. Upon turning in results, a committee of UM faculty, staff and literacy teachers selected the winner.

Thomas’ “This Book is Not About Dragons” was published by Boyds Mill Press in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, and was illustrated by Fred Koehler.

By Andrew M. Abernathy