On my bulletin board this week: A photo of Michelle Obama reading aloud to children, with my ongoing tag, "What do good readers do?" This month we're talking about how good readers make inferences.

So: a heated discussion between two five/six year olds about the photo:

That's the First Lady.
No it's not.
Yes it is.
Not it's not.
Yes it is.
No, they made lots of ladies before her.

Meanwhile, my absolute favorite new book for teaching children about making inferences:

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen.

A bear (I make him speak in a monotone) asks one forest animal after another if they have seen his hat. No one has seen it, although a rabbit wearing a pointy red hat vehemently denies that he would ever steal a hat. The bear has a delayed "aha" moment several pages later and races back. Spoiler alert: The bear eats the rabbit, but we only know it by inference. Bald-faced lies are delivered without any remorse. It's all the students can do not to shout out what they have inferred. And meanwhile they laugh uproariously at the animal's flat yet strangely expressive faces. This wicked masterpiece is a possible contender for a Caldecott award, to be announced Monday morning. Award or not, I can tell it will join the handful of all-time favorites in this library.