Don't leave the story in the book : using literature to guide inquiry in early childhood classrooms / Mary Hynes-Berry ; foreword by Jie-Qi Chen.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: the work of a lifetime -- -- Part I. Praxis and practices -- 1.How are learning communities like Stone Soup? : Exploring a Praxis -- 2.What can we learn from the Three Little Pigs? : The three Es of quality intellectual work -- 3.Can Cinderella's slipper be gold instead of glass? : The role of questions in quality intellectual work -- 4.How can we play with Abiyoyo? : The SIP of play and quality intellectual work -- 5.What makes a good Goldilocks? : Assessing the quality of picture books -- -- Part II. Disciplined inquiries -- 6.How long is Tikki Tikki Tembo? : What's the problem with naked numbers? -- 7.How did the sun and the moon come to be in the sky? : Playing with the amazing facts of science -- 8.How do you get from patches to a patchwork quilt? : Reading an object to spark inquiry across the curriculum -- 9.Who's the strongest? : What makes stories such effective tools for quality intellectual work.

"Drawing from 30 years of teaching and professional development experience, this book offers a roadmap for using children's literature to provide authentic learning. Featuring a ''storyteller's voice, '' each chapter includes a case study about how a particular fiction or nonfiction work can be used in an early childhood classroom; a series of open-ended questions to help readers construct their own inquiry units; and a bibliography of children's literature. This book provides a unique synthesis of ideas based on constructivist approaches to learning, including the importance of positive dispositions and learning communities, the nature of higher-order thinking, and the relationship between methods such as guided inquiry in the sciences and balanced literacy."--Publisher description.