Shifty Characters, invites early readers into the world of change from a lyrical, language arts point of view. These shifty characters have the ability to reposition and re-invent themselves without adding or omitting a single letter. They go about transforming themselves into new words, thoughts and sounds as they change from verbs to nouns. The story subtly segues into how God can transform our character even when we are children. This delightfully, rhythmic work, promises to keep young book lovers laughing, and turning the pages as they experience usual and unusual people, places, and things through the antics of the Shifty Characters. Most importantly, it will invoke thought and parent/teacher/child dialogue about the connection between transformation and salvation.
Shifty Characters, invites early readers into the world of change from a lyrical, language arts point of view. These shifty characters have the ability to reposition and re-invent themselves without adding or omitting a single letter. They go about transforming themselves into new words, thoughts and sounds as they change from verbs to nouns. The story subtly segues into how God can transform our character even when we are children. This delightfully, rhythmic work, promises to keep young book lovers laughing, and turning the pages as they experience usual and unusual people, places, and things through the antics of the Shifty Characters. Most importantly, it will invoke thought and parent/teacher/child dialogue about the connection between transformation and salvation.
Excerpt
Letters are really cool characters. They belong to the alphabet.
They stand beside each other to form words we don’t often forget.
When they are ready to move, these characters know things just won’t be the same.
The words they were a moment ago are now about to change.
They switch their places for new spaces. They like to move around,
to create new words, create new thoughts, and to also create new sounds.
Professional Reviews Shifty Can Be Good!
Generally when the word "Shifty" is included in a title or sentence, one tends to conjure up thoughts of evasiveness, deceit or trickery. But upon reading the cleverly written Shifty Characters, by Shirley Francis-Salley, you immediately see how children can learn, in an entertaining manner, how simply rearranging the order of letters in a word can create another word with an entirely different meaning. This book encourages imagination and creativity in the young mind to explore ways to bring about transition when you give thought to the letters that make up a word.
As my own 11 year old daughter read the book, she began to anticipate how a given word in the book would change to a new one. She, like I, took satisfaction in being correct as to the new word developed as we read through the interesting sentence rhymes that were framework for each word modification. The character qualities/traits that tie into good spiritual thoughts and behavior is a wonderful way to conclude this book on transformation. This is a great exposure to young people new to reading, right up through elementary school.
A.H. Newbold
Fayetteville, GA
Great Little Book!
This book is a great reading asset for young children. It not only combines letters and words, it has a spiritual connection. I think parents and children alike will absolutely love this book. It will become a favorite and a keeper. The illustrations are also amazing!
E. Dolan
New York, NY
Excellent Concept!
I truly enjoyed Shifty Characters. The concept of changing letters around to form new words quickly became a new and exciting game for my grandchildren. The illustrations played a big part of Shifty Characters. It showed different nationalities in the form of letters coming together and working together, as it should be with all of us.
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