I used this book in a text about transitions and when I read it the book provoked an emotional response and I knew I had to blog about it. At first glance the book looks a little cheesy, the cover is a violet color and the illustrations are dull. The colors used are dull and pastel. The illustrations seem very 1980's which make sense because the the book was published in 1987.
I did not look this book because of it's illustrations though it was the story that really moved me. Like the title might indicate this story is about a girl whose parents are divorced and she spends Saturday with her father. I felt that the writing was very heartfelt. I was moved when the girl talked about how she was afraid her father did not love her anymore and that he would leave her. This is a concern that many children have when their parents get divorced and this book talks about that concern in a way that children would understand. I would recommend this book as a good book on the topic of divorce. Even though this book was written in 1987 it is such a sensitive topic today and this book addresses it tastefully and so chlorine can understand. It will definitely help get questions answered and conversations started.
Friday, December 11, 2009
If You Give a Mouse Cookie By Laura Joffe Numeroff Illustrated by Felicia Bond
I had never heard of this book until I began working at the daycare I am at and that is really unfortunate since this is such a fun book. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is a fun story about a mouse that wants a cookie, then a glass of milk, then a napkin, and it goes on until the human who is serving him falls asleep. The illustrations are pretty straightforward pencil drawn pictures, however, I found the mouse to be very cute. A character that asks for one thing after another can be obnoxious but if he is cute it makes him a lot less annoying. The one issue I had with this book is that I found i had little educational value. I don't know how I would fit his book into a curriculum. I guess we could create a story about a mouse and mimic what the idea of the book. I like to chose books that can be used cross curricular. There is not that much time for to teach the children all that you would like so I would like to pick books that can be used across subjects because it might save a little time and students can see that different subjects can go together.
Over the Farm By Christopher Gunson
Usually when I think about counting books I think about little board books that young children can chew on and quite frankly I think many of those books are boring. This book is a paperback so it is geared toward children who are a little older and no babies. I really liked the illustrations because each of them looked like a painting, There was visible paint strokes and color mixing in the pictures. I really enjoy seeing details like this because we can see the illustrator's process. We can see the paint they used and how they moved their brush. The book is about counting animals so in addition to counting they are learning about different animals. This book seems simple and straightforward and it is but that is works for kindergartners, they don't need some great literary piece they just need a book that is educational as well as entertaining.
Rosie's Walk by
I found this book on a search for a wordless book for my child study, which was an opportunity we had to work with 2nd graders on reading and writing. In class we were shifting from an emphasis on reading to an emphasis on writing. I thought that using a wordless book would be good to use because the student would still be working with text like we had done previously but in a different way, we would be writing the text that was missing from the book. Rosie's Walk did contain some text so it did not seem intimidating to write the missing text because only some pages did not have text as opposed to the entire book.
Rosie's Walk is about a hen taking a walk, being unaware that the entire time she was being followed by a fox that wanted to eat here. It was actually quite comical because the fox experienced many unfortunate things happening to it while Rosie the hen kept walking, completely unaware. The illustrations were interesting. There were a lot of oranges, greens, yellows, and reds. They seemed very 70's, I felt like I was stepping into the Brady Bunch house when I looked in the book. Besides it's slightly outdated illustrations I liked the book and the 2nd grader I worked with liked it as well, and it was a great book to write on.
Rosie's Walk is about a hen taking a walk, being unaware that the entire time she was being followed by a fox that wanted to eat here. It was actually quite comical because the fox experienced many unfortunate things happening to it while Rosie the hen kept walking, completely unaware. The illustrations were interesting. There were a lot of oranges, greens, yellows, and reds. They seemed very 70's, I felt like I was stepping into the Brady Bunch house when I looked in the book. Besides it's slightly outdated illustrations I liked the book and the 2nd grader I worked with liked it as well, and it was a great book to write on.
Me I Am! By Jack Prelutsky Pictures by Christine Davenier
This book is all about being who you were meant to be. This book is meant for younger children and I think that it would be good for them to understand what feelings are and everyone has feeling they all different. I work in a daycare and young children sometimes do not grasp feelings and that they are different from others. By understandings this they can learn more about themselves and appreciate themselves for who they are. I think this book promotes healthy self esteem, which is something many children lack. By building healthy self esteem children will be able to follow their interests, not be affected by their peers, and lead happier lives.
Besides this positive message I also really enjoyed the pictures. They were really engaging because they contained a lot of detail. Children, especially younger children, really like to point out the details they see in the pictures. The bright colors uses is also eye catching. The one thing that liked was that it looked pencil drawn which gave it a rough look sort of un finished look but I think it worked for this book.
Besides this positive message I also really enjoyed the pictures. They were really engaging because they contained a lot of detail. Children, especially younger children, really like to point out the details they see in the pictures. The bright colors uses is also eye catching. The one thing that liked was that it looked pencil drawn which gave it a rough look sort of un finished look but I think it worked for this book.
A Pizza tge Size of the Sun by Jack Prelutsky Drawings by James Stevenson
Jack Prelutsky is one of my favorite authors that I have recently rediscovered through being assigned to read poetry books, His writing is absolutely delightful. I say this because it is always entertaining to read his work. In this book of poems he writes about random things like a poem called, "I sailed half a ship" and "Do Not Approach an Eu." I can envision reading a couple of poems while the kids sit down or lie down with their eyes closed so they can listen to the descriptive language and form images in their mind. I would do this if the class needed to unwind from a stressful or tense day, it would give everyone a chance to let loose and relax. This book also makes a great read aloud because the pictures are black and white and very simple so as a teacher I would not feel guilty about not showing the pictures. By not chowing the pictures the students will be able to create their own mental images and it is important for readers to be able to do this.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Author Study
As a class we chose to research different authors and come in with background information about them and a list of books they wrote or illustrated. We were also asked to inlcude their website as well. This is the biogprahpical information I found out about my cjosen auhtor, Tomie dePaloa!
Tomie dePaola was born on Sept. 15th 1934 in Meriden, Conn. Growing up dePaola lived with his father, mother, and three siblings. At a young age dePaola loved books, his mother read to him every night which fostered his love of literature. At age four dePaola declared that he wanted to be an illustrator and dancer. dePaola pursued these passions though his school career by taking both dance and art lessons. After dePaola graduated high school he went on to attend art school at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. After attending the Pratt dePaola went on to receive his MFA from California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California. DePaola has named artists such as Fra Angelico, Giotto, Georges Rouault, and Ben Shahn as major influences on his art. Despite having received his MFA it took dePaola several years before he illustrated his first children’s book. dePaola took jobs teaching, designing greeting cards, and stage sets before illustrating his first children’s book in 1965. The first children’s book that dePaola illustrated was a science text titled, Sound. A year later dePaola wrote and illustrated his first children’s book titled, The Wonderful Dragon of Timlin. To this day dePaola has illustrated 200+ children’s books and dePaola wrote and illustrated 100+ of those books.
There is a list of books he was written
DePaola, Tomie. Marcos Colors . New York, New York: G.P.Putnam's Sons, 2003.. This is a board book so it is meant for younger kids. The book teaches children to identify colors in both Spanish and English.
DePaola, Tomie. Adelita- A Mexican Cinderella Story . New York, New York: G.P.Putnam's Son's , 2002.
This book is about a girl Adelita who is orphaned and forced to work for her stepmother and stepsisters. One day there is a grand fiesta and Adelita attends and falls in love with a man she meets there. She feels bad for her lack of wealth and position so she leaves the fiesta. The man searches for her and finds her and they live a happy life together
DePaola, Tomie. Tom. New York, New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons , 1993. This story is about Tomie’s grandfather who he called Tom. The whole book is a recollection of their greatest memories together .
DePaola, Tomie. Strega Nona- Her Story. New York, New York: G.P. Putnam's Son's , 1996. Strega Nona is the subject of many of Tomie dePaola’s books. This book is the story of how she learned to be a strega and other memories from her childhood.
DePaola, Tomie. Big Anthony- His Story . New York, New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons , 1998. Big Anthony is Strega Nona’s helper and he is a loveable character who sometime causes problems because he is inattentive. This is a story about how Big Anthony came to meet Strega Nona
These are some great resources I used when complying this information
Ellem.
Tomie dePaola’s Website
http://www.tomie.com/
Other Helpful websites
http://www.kidsreads.com/authors/au-depaola-tomie.asp
http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/authorsillustrato/a/tomiedepaola.htm
Tomie dePaola was born on Sept. 15th 1934 in Meriden, Conn. Growing up dePaola lived with his father, mother, and three siblings. At a young age dePaola loved books, his mother read to him every night which fostered his love of literature. At age four dePaola declared that he wanted to be an illustrator and dancer. dePaola pursued these passions though his school career by taking both dance and art lessons. After dePaola graduated high school he went on to attend art school at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. After attending the Pratt dePaola went on to receive his MFA from California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California. DePaola has named artists such as Fra Angelico, Giotto, Georges Rouault, and Ben Shahn as major influences on his art. Despite having received his MFA it took dePaola several years before he illustrated his first children’s book. dePaola took jobs teaching, designing greeting cards, and stage sets before illustrating his first children’s book in 1965. The first children’s book that dePaola illustrated was a science text titled, Sound. A year later dePaola wrote and illustrated his first children’s book titled, The Wonderful Dragon of Timlin. To this day dePaola has illustrated 200+ children’s books and dePaola wrote and illustrated 100+ of those books.
There is a list of books he was written
DePaola, Tomie. Marcos Colors . New York, New York: G.P.Putnam's Sons, 2003.. This is a board book so it is meant for younger kids. The book teaches children to identify colors in both Spanish and English.
DePaola, Tomie. Adelita- A Mexican Cinderella Story . New York, New York: G.P.Putnam's Son's , 2002.
This book is about a girl Adelita who is orphaned and forced to work for her stepmother and stepsisters. One day there is a grand fiesta and Adelita attends and falls in love with a man she meets there. She feels bad for her lack of wealth and position so she leaves the fiesta. The man searches for her and finds her and they live a happy life together
DePaola, Tomie. Tom. New York, New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons , 1993. This story is about Tomie’s grandfather who he called Tom. The whole book is a recollection of their greatest memories together .
DePaola, Tomie. Strega Nona- Her Story. New York, New York: G.P. Putnam's Son's , 1996. Strega Nona is the subject of many of Tomie dePaola’s books. This book is the story of how she learned to be a strega and other memories from her childhood.
DePaola, Tomie. Big Anthony- His Story . New York, New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons , 1998. Big Anthony is Strega Nona’s helper and he is a loveable character who sometime causes problems because he is inattentive. This is a story about how Big Anthony came to meet Strega Nona
These are some great resources I used when complying this information
Ellem.
Tomie dePaola’s Website
http://www.tomie.com/
Other Helpful websites
http://www.kidsreads.com/authors/au-depaola-tomie.asp
http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/authorsillustrato/a/tomiedepaola.htm
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