How to Party Like a Snail is an adorable book that celebrates the quiet people in the world.
How to Party Like a Snail
Naseem Hrab, author
Kelly Collier, illustrator
Owlkids, Sept. 13, 2022
40 pages
4-7 years
Synopsis
Snail loves to party — just in a very chill and peaceful way. But his friends don’t really understand his desire for quiet and eventually stop inviting him to their parties.
Poor Snail; he feels sorry for himself as he waits and waits and waits for a party invitation.
It’s not until Snail decides to throw his own party that he discovers his friend, Stump, also prefers a gentle celebration.
Opening Lines
Snail is a party animal.
Why I Love This Book
How to Party Like a Snail is a very charming book with the sweetest illustrations. It would be perfect to use in the classroom when teaching about friendship, understanding and empathy for others.
Introverted children will feel seen and realize that they’re not the only ones who are uncomfortable around the wild, the crazy and the noisy!
And the noise-lovers might gain an appreciation for and understanding of people who are uncomfortable with loud sounds and boisterous gatherings.
This feel-good book is a fabulous jump-off for discussions about the differences between people, learning to appreciate, understand and value those differences, and realizing the importance of friendship.
It’s the kind of book that I wish had been published years ago so that I could have read it to all my classes, as it speaks directly to the quiet children who might be feeling lost and underappreciated.
I hope you read How to Party Like a Snail. I know that many of the children in your class need it and will appreciate it!
Story Extension Ideas
1. As mentioned above, have a class discussion about introverts, extroverts, empathy for others and friendship.
2. Make lists of quiet and loud animals.
Then honour everyone’s unique personality. Do a writing and drawing activity where each person writes, “I’m quiet like a snail/bunny/worm when … but I can be loud like a lion/parrot/elephant when …” .
3. Make more lists: “It’s important to be quiet when …” and “It’s fine to be loud when …” This could be done in pairs, small groups or whole class.
4. Learn about snails. DKFindOut is a good place to start.
5. Make some beautiful snail art. Fireflies and Mud Pies has a project using black glue and watercolour.
6. Read the book Swirl by Swirl and follow up with this snail art project I did with a 1st grade class a couple of years ago.
Thank you for reading!
Thank you to NetGalley and Owlkids Books for the advanced readers copy. This post contains Amazon affiliate links.