The Leaving Morning

The Leaving Morning is a story of a family moving. Watercolor paintings provide a glance into the life of this family as they prepare to leave one home behind to find another. The word choice is what makes this book shine. I can imagine what it would feel like to get ready to leave on this "soupy, misty morning". My class used Angela Johnson as a mentor author because she has a lot of writing techniques that children can try in their own writing. We used ellipses, wrote about our families, repeating phrases, and even more techniques you can find in this book. She was a great mentor author because she also writes about African American children. The kids in my class see people that they almost recognize in these pictures.


Johnson, A. (1992). The Leaving Morning. New York: Scholastic