Old Black Fly. Written & Illustrated by Jim Aylesworth and Stephen Gammell

Aylesworth, Jim, and Stephen Gammell. Old Black Fly. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1992. Print. 30 pages
Age Group:	6 months to 4 years
Book Format:	Picture Book
Annotation:	A fun unusual ABC picture book about a naughty black fly spending the day landing where he should not go and traveling through the alphabet.  The rhyming text and splash type illustrations lend themselves to other creative activities that can be related to this poem.
Personal Reaction:	Love the great way this book introduces young readers to the genre of poetry, with the use of the ABC’s.
Keywords/Tags:	Fiction, Alphabet, Stories in Rhyme
Early Literacy Skills Enhancements:	Vocabulary Skills ~Promote literacy and the love of language ~Develop and increase emergent literacy skills and vocabulary Print Motivation ~Increase interest in and enjoyment of books Visual Literacy Skills by observing the illustrations. ~Pictures have meanings Reading Readiness, which includes understanding that ~Stories have structure and development of a sense of story Print Awareness ~Provide a language enrichment environment ~Show the importance of and provide an opportunity for young readers to listen, observe, imitate, and practice language while interacting with books. Narrative Skills ~Young readers will be able to re-tell a story based on the illustrations in Picture Books Phonological Awareness ~Enhanced by guessing rhymes ~Repeating repetitious words