Ask: What do you see on the covers? What does this tell you about the book's contents? What do you think the book will be about?

There should be a lot of prediction going on at this stage.

Building Background
To help children get an idea of the people in this story, you might build background that relates to familiar things like castles, soldiers, and the renaissance time. This gets them in the right frame of mind for the subject at hand. You can write the words they come up with on a piece of paper or on the board to be referred to later. For example, you may want to focus on soldiers, and the armor they wear and what it is called, etc.

Book Walk
Before passing out the book, remind children to look at the pictures to help them if they get stuck on a word. You may want to go through pages that have difficult words and have children brainstorm words they think might describe what the characters are doing.

Reading Strategies
As children are reading the story, ask them questions to help them remember different strategies they know or have learned. Suggest questions such as:

• How will the pictures help you understand the text?
• How does what you read connect to what you already know?
• What can you do when you come to a word you do not understand?
• What can you do if you don't understand a part you have just read?