A Sick Day for Amos McGee

A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Phillip Christian Stead is this year's Caldecott Medal winner.  The Caledecott is awarded yearly to the most distinguished picture book by the American Library Association.  Each January I get excited to see which picture book will be awarded the Caledecott Medal.  This year, when the announcement was made, I immediately ordered a copy of A Sick Day for Amos McGee.  Because of the demand for the book, I had to wait a couple weeks for my Amazon box to arrive.  However, it was well worth the wait!

Amos McGee is an elderly man who works at the zoo.  He spends time each day with five of his friends: elephant, tortoise, penguin, rhinoceros and owl.  One day Amos is sick and cannot go to the zoo to visit with his friends.  His friends decide to take a trip from the zoo to visit Amos at home.  The story is truly about the bond of friendship and loyalty.  Children (and adults) can easily relate to this story.  It is a great story to talk about the qualities of friendship.

Because it is easy to relate to this story about friendship, it is a great story to make text-to-self connections.  There are also several places in the story where it is easy to make an inference.  There are a few pages where no text is present - only illustrations.  The reader needs to use background knowledge (from earlier in the story) and clues from the pictures to understand what is happening.

Some questions to guide your  conversation are listed below.

1. When introducing this book to your child talk about the title.  What happens on a sick day?  Think about a time you have had a sick day.  What did you feel like?  What made you feel better?


2.  Read to the tenth page of text.  Ask your child:  Would you like a friend like Amos?  Why or why not?  


3.  Read to the twelfth page of text.  Ask your child:  How do you think the animals feel when Amos does not come visit?  


4.  Read to the page that reads "Late that day..." and ask your child:  What are the animals doing? Have your child narrate the pages without text.  See if they pick-up that the animals are following the same path Amos takes to the zoo every day (but in reverse).

5.  Read to the page that reads "Hooray!  My good friends are here!"  and ask your child:   How do you think Amos feels when he sees his friends?  How do you feel when your friends visit you when you are sick?


6.  At the end of the story ask your child:  This is a story about friendship.  Amos took time out of his day to always visit with his friends.  When he was sick his friends came to help him feel better.  What do you think makes a good friend?  Can you share a time when you were a good friend to someone?