Zoe Gets Ready

"Zoe Gets Ready" is an adorable little story from the contemporary realistic fiction genre (Murguia, 2012; Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, 2010).  Zoe is a little girl who only gets to pick out her clothes on Saturdays. Every other day her mom picks her clothes out.  What Zoe wears is largely determined in her mind by what she will be doing for the day. The story takes you through the outfits she considers wearing, and what her day would be like if she wore them. Her dress changes are interspersed with her mother encouraging her to hurry up and to not make a mess in her room.  Zoe finally decides to wear all the outfits (Murguia, 2012)!  

I feel this fits under the contemporary realistic genre of picture books, as the dialogue and thoughts of the characters are natural, the plot is understandable to the intended age group, and the theme is applicable to the readers' lives (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, 2010).  This is something not only the children can relate to, but the parents reading it to them as well.  The story is great, but the illustrations add so much to the story as well.  They do as any good picturebook illustrations do, they help establish the mood and setting of the book and appropriately expand on the text (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, 2010, p.127). Not mentioned in the text but depicted through the pictures, is the younger sibling who follows Zoe around and wants to be part of her adventures.  The pictures are bright and colorful cartoons. The illustrations are created by the writer.  They are very attractive, and are what initially drew me to this particular book.  

Reader Response Questions:
1. What kinds of activities do you do, or like doing, that you read about Zoe doing in the story?
2. On what occasions do you get to select what you wear?  What do you choose?
3. How does picking out your own outfit help you feel like a "big kid"?




Motivational Activities:
1. Draw a picture of something that you get to do all by yourself that makes you feel very "grown up".  
2. Pick someone in the class to help you act out one of your favorite activities. Tell if there are special clothes you like to wear for this activity and why.  

Bethanie Murguia has written many other books. There are 2 other "Zoe" books following this one: "Zoe's Room (No Sisters Allowed)", and "Zoe's Jungle" (Murguia, 2013; Murguia, 2014).  Please check out her professional website at: www.aquapup.com.  








References

Galda,L., Cullinan, B., & Sipe, L. (2010).Literature and the child (2nd ed.) 
         Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning. 
Murguia, B. (2012). Zoe gets ready. New York, NY: Arthur A. Levine Books. 
Murguia, B. (2013). Zoe's room. New York, NY:Arthur A. Levine Books. 
Murguia, B. (2014). Zoe's jungle. New York, NY: Arthur A. Levine Books.