Just the Two of Us

Title: Just the Two of Us
Author: Will Smith
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Publisher and date of Publication: Scholastic Press, 2001
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Picture Book
Age Range: K-2

Summary: This is a story written by Will Smith about becoming a father.
He talks about how much he loved his son when he was born and how he promised himself that he would be the best dad ever. With each page, the son gets
older and Smith stills talks about how he is trying to be the best dad and
how he would always be there for him.

Response: This book about made me cry. I didn't realize that the author was the famous Will
Smith. I loved seeing how scared he was when his son was born and how he
just loved him so much and how he would always be there for him. There's a
picture of Will Smith and his family on the back of the book but it was quite
a few years ago when it was taken. I didn't really know what this book was about when I checked it out but I loved it. I'm sure that his son loves reading
this book, knowing it was written to him. The illustrations are by Kadir Nelson and they're wonderful. Some words are bigger and emphasized to show how important
they are.

Teaching Ideas: This book does really have a lot of teaching ideas but I think children would love to hear it. Children could write what their parents say to
them or things that them and their parents do together. This book is sort of
a long poem so maybe the children could write their own poem about them and their parents. They may also pretend to be a parent to
their pet and write a poem to them. This would be a good discussion book for class. This may also be good for children in which their parents spilt up to understand that they still love them.