At Daddy's on Saturday by Linda Walvoord Girard Illustrations by Judith Friedman

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

The Semester Recap!

This semester I have been overwhelmed by children’s books Reading and blogging about 45 children’s picture books and 9 novels seemed daunting at the beginning of the semester. I didn’t know why we had to read so many books! Looking back I have ended up actually enjoying it, at times it was hard but I have been exposed to so many books. My knowledge of children’s literature had been expanded. Before I could only tell you about the fiction books that I loved as a child. Now I know so many authors and different types of books different genres of children’s books.
One of the projects that I found to be especially helpful was the genre presentation. For this presentation our classmates researched different genres and presented us with information on the characteristics of the genre and books in that genre. I referred to the information we received on the genres for another class I was in. I was working with a student and we were moving from an emphasis on reading to writing. When thinking about what resources I could use that incorporated reading and writing I remembered our discussion of wordless books and how these books have illustrations but little to no text. I thought that I could use this during my time with my student so she could read the little text the book had and then write the “missing text.” This example demonstrated how important knowledge of children’s books is to the classroom teacher.
The discussions we have had in class on the choice of text and what choosing a certain text might mean to the students has also been helpful. I never thought much of text selection before, I thought that as long as it tied into what I wanted to teach on then it would be okay. Now I am taking into consideration who is the text writen for? Is there a group of people who are stereotyped by the text? What message am I sending my students if I read this text aloud? Read alouds can be powerful and can show students what you as a teacher value. I want to value all of my students and their backgrounds so in order to that I need to be critical of the texts I read or have them read.
Now all the blogs and the time spent in the library searching for the right books has been time well spent. My blog can be a great resource for me to refer back to when I am looking for a poetry or a book about two dads. I have a list of poetry books, controversial books, graphic novels at my finger tips. Now I can see that I have created a resource that will serve to help me in the future

Daddy, Daddy, Be There By Candy Dawson Boyd and Floyd Cooper

I happened to stumble upon this book when doing some reading for a project. It is not really a poetry book. It is book written about fathers. On each page the text starts with Daddy, daddy…… then goes on to describe how fathers make their children feel or experiences children share with their fathers. . There is a mellow tone to the book and the illustrations portray this with the subdued colors. The illustrations were kind of blurred, almost creating a dream sequence as if recalling a memory.
The way that the text is written I feel that every page could be its own poem. When the poems are read aloud there is a rhythm to them, which is something that many poems have. I think I hold lose definition of poetry, I just think that poetry is different for every person so who am I to say they are wrong? Even though this book is not categorized as a poetry book in the library if I had my own classroom I would have this book in the poetry section.

Don’t Bump the Glump By Shel Silverstein

I loved Shel Silverstein when I was younger so when I found out that we were suppose to read poetry books I knew that a Shel Silverstein book would be one of the books I blogged about. I have never heard of Don’t Bump the Glump so I chose to read it. In true Silverstein style the poems in this book were kind of nonsense. A lot of words he wrote don’t make any sense but that is what makes his poetry fun. My favorite poem I read was titled, “Slithergadee.” It is a poem about how a creature called slithergadee won’t catch up with the narrator so the narrator almost begins to taunt him. Then the poem stops mid word making the reader assume the narrator got eaten by slithergadee. It’s a fun and silly book to pull out for a loud when there is some down time in the classroom.

Science Verse By Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

This is such a fun book, it mixes poetry and science, and not many books can do that! First off I REALLY Enjoy Jon Scieszka and his books and the first that always catches my eye are the illustrations. His illustrations are very bold and distinct. I say this because it seems like he uses different art techniques when creating them, and he varies the techniques throughout the book. For example on one page there a picture of a dinosaur and it looks like it is painted, a couple of pages later there is an illustration of a collage of different words. This definitely keeps the book interesting as I continue throughout the book. The title of the book gives the reader a hint of what is going to be about, science! This is really interesting since science and poetry do not seem like they would go together. Each poem pertains to a different area of science. There are poems on the scientific method, skeletal system, matter, and planets. All of these poems have some funny twist to them this would be a fun book that could be used to help introduce a new science unit. Let’s say that a classroom teacher was starting a unit on matter then they could refer to this book and find a poem about matter ad read the poem to their students. By doing this the students might have some idea of what they will be learning and entertain them at the same time.
Speak to Me (And I will read between the lines) By Karen English Illustrated by Amy June Bates
The poem s written in this book seems to be written by children. In the front flap of the book there are the names of the children whose poems appear in the book and then it says, “One school day in the city, six distinct voices. Be sure to read between the lines.” This was attention getting and made me want to be more careful when read. I went through each poem and they pertained to some aspect of school life, friends, teacher’s homework, and recess. By the end of the book I did not understand what, “Be sure to read between the lines” meant. Despite that I thought that the poems were insightful , sharing with us hoe the children felt about certain activities they had to door wanted to do during their day, The illustrations were very straightforward, they basically showed what the text said, and not especially interesting.

Love that Dog by Sharon Creech

I loved this book! It is a great read aloud book. Love that Dog is a collection of poetry done by a student in Mrs.Stretchberry's class who does not consider himself a poet. He writes in his notebook all about his process of writing and reading poetry. As the reader you can tell that he does not consider this writing to be poetry but as the reader it is easy to see that it is, in fact, poetry. This book is a good example to remind or inform us that poetry doesn’t have to rhyme or be set up in a certain way. Poetry can look any way or sound any way the writer would like. The reason that it would make a great read aloud book is because it would give the class an understanding of what poetry is and what it does not have to be.

The Misfits part 2

The first part of the Misfits went very slowly and it was hard to get into. This half of the book was a little faster paced but not much. In the second half of the book the misfits create the No Name party. Their platform is no name calling and they created posters with names they had been called and red slashes through them. DuShawn decides not head this party and that leaves Addie as the candidate for the No Name party. In the end they end up losing the election but on the upside Addie and DuShawn become a couple, Bobby finds a girl, and Joe finds a boy. So the book ends with the group pretty much all coupled up and they are not called names anymore.
I did not like how there was a happy ending where everything was nicely tied up, it’s just not realistic. When I was beginning to read the book I thought that kids could really relate to these characters since they seem like actual people but happy endings like in the Misfits doesn’t happen often. For a book that emphasizes not fitting in it is ironic that this book fits to the fairy tale, unrealistic mode of fiction- everyone gets their happy ending.

The Misfits by James Howe

The book starts with a group of misfits, there is one chubby boy, a tall girl, a punk rocker, and a possibly homosexual boy and together they are the misfits, a group of kids who do not fit in with their peers. Instead of seeing what other see on them these friends see the good qualities about each other, the qualities people sometimes don’t see because they can’t get past the appearance. The story is told from the point of view of Bobby, the chubby one. He is best friends with Addie, who is the leader of the group. One day Addie comes up with the idea of having the misfits chose a candidate to run for class president so they chose DuShawn, one of the few African American students in the school. She wanted to give a voice to those who didn’t really have one.
I was told that this book was a controversial book and in the first couple of chapters I could understand why it might be considered controversial. Some of the characters in the book I could see parents and administrators having a problem with, especially Joe the potentially homosexual one. In the chapters I read it did not say that Joe was homosexual but it might be inferred from the way he talks and activities he does like getting his nails painted. Of course these assumptions are based off of stereotypes people have about homosexual men but parents might be uncomfortable with their children reading about these characters. I would say to this concern that these are only characters in a book and there are many different people in the world that their children will be exposed to at one time or another so why not expose them to the different characters in this book? Besides its potentially controversial characters I thought that this text was really slow and it was hard to get into. Hopefully the pace of the text will pick up as the book continues.

So Far From the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins

This is a story about a Japanese girl named Yoko who lives in North Korea. At the time it was becoming dangerous for Japanese people to be living there so Yoko and her family decided to move back to Japan. Yoko’s brother Hideyo gets separated from the family and forced to work in an ammunition factory. The Journey from Seoul to Japan is a dangerous one, when Yoko, her mother, and sister reach Japan their mother leaves to find Yoko’s grandparent, who they discover are dead. Shortly after Yoko’s mother dies. Yoko and her sister Ko wait for their brother who, through a turn of events, eventually finds them
This story tugged at my heart because these girls lost pretty much their entire family. They had a great life to begin with and then it was ruined when they had to return to Japan. This personal account depicts how war tears families up. It can so easily destroy all someone hold dear. Yoko and her brother and sister were innocent children how did nothing to deserve the events they had to experience. Their lives and the lives of people around them were affected by the decisions of others. Once I thought about it this way it made war and conflict such as this especially unfair.
This book provokes an emotional response for me and it did for me, a 20 year college student, then it definitely would affect a 4th – 6th grader. This is a good book to teach to a class but I would not recommend it as a read aloud. To introduce the book I would give them some background knowledge so they can have this information as they begin the book. I would have the students read the book individually because it would be more powerful if the students were able to see the text and in their own mind formulate responses to what they read. Then I would have them discuss the content, but since this is such an emotional book be prepared to address the emotions the students might be feeling.

The Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi

Its 1945 and ten year old Sookan abd her family are at the hands of Japanese military who are occupying Korea. Her father is part of the resistance movement, her brother is at a labor camp, and her mother is forced to work/ supervise a sock factory. Sookan must attend a Japanese school where she cannot speak Korean instead she is forced to speak Japanese. Teh book describes what it was like to leave Korea for South Korea, it was a hard journey and on the way Sookan's fmaily was seperated. Eventually they are reunited.
It was sad to read a bout the effec that the war had on her fmaily. In our class this book is paried up with, So Far From the Bamboo Grove, which is a story about a Japanese girl livign in Korea and her terrifying escape from Korea to Japan. By reading these two texts one after teh other teh stduents can see that it doesn't matter what side you are on war effects everyone. In this case it tore up a family and it did as well in So Far From the Bamboo Grove. This would be a good text set to read when studying a war in social studies. These books provide good prespective on how war effects people and helps to make it real, not some glamrouized, long ago event.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do You See? By Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle

I remember reading this book when I was younger and I picked it up because I remembered that it rhymed. Going through it again I was visualizing the entire book as a big poem. It flows so easily and each page ties into the following page. The sentences are simple and short so this would be a good book to read to younger children or have them read by themselves. Due to the amount of animals that are mentioned in the book would also make it a good book to use in a science unit when studying animals.
The illustrations were done by Eric Carle so they look amazing. The illustrations are bright and colorful. With the way the illustrations seem to be created with paint strokes. By having the paint strokes in the illustrations it almost seemed to give them texture. Overall this is a fun book to share with a class, it gives them an idea of what poetry is like, exposes them to a wide variety of animals, and is eye catching with it's bring illustrations.

Darcy and Gran don't Like Babies by Jane Cutler Illustrated by Susannah Ryan

Having a new baby in the house can be a very scary time in the life of a child and this book addresses the feelings that children might encounter when there is new addition to their family. In this book Darcy has a new baby in the family and she hates babies. Her grandmother comes to visit and Darcy tells her that she hates babies. Gran asks Darcy what she doesn't like about babies and then Darcy realizes that she deep down she likes the baby after all.

The illustrations in the book I though were kind of boring. The colors were kind of dull and there was little interesting detail in the book. I have been reading these fun books with interesting and different illustrations. To read a book that doesn't have illustrations like that is a little disappointing and boring. By looking at this book and thinking back to the books I have liked more made me realize that through blogging I have determined what kind of books I like and what kind of books I want to avoid. Unfortunately this is a book I want to avoid.

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka Illustrated by Lane Smith

This book is one of my favorites because it is such a fun text! The cover introduces the newspaper theme that is carried out through the book. The book is a spin on the the classic three little pigs story. In this version the wolf claims that he did not do anything wrong but he was framed by reporters who wanted a better story. I liked the newspaper feel that the book had. The illustrations were kind of dark, lots of browns and blacks were used which added to the darkness of this tale. The three little pigs is pretty dark considering that the pigs were eaten. There was almost a collage feel to the illustrations and that makes the illustrations almost three dimensional.

Hearing from the wolf's point of view was a different, and it made it fun to read. Alexander T. Wolf is a fun character because he is convinced that he did nothing wrong in eating the two pigs. Also some of the dialogue from the pigs is kind of funny, the author made the pigs seem like they had an attitude. Kids would find the sassy dialogue fun to read and they would get a laugh out of it. This book is good to read to a read aloud as well as incorporate into the curriculum. This book can open the discussion to right and wrong, point of view, and the role of media in what we hear. This book is a fun read and can open up opportunities to discuss important topics.

Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis

This book is simple and to the point but soooooo great! This is a book about the different and imaginative uses for a stick. The illustrations show what the stick could be and within the imaginative figure the stick is visible. By doing this the children can see how someone would imagine the stick being used in that way. The cover even looks like a piece of wood!
The reason I really liked this book was the idea behind it. The idea that we can think outside of the box and not be constrained by what others perceive as being right or correct. I liked this book so much that I used it in a brainstorming activity for a class. I read the book and then had the student I was working with do the same thing that the character in the book did, think of different uses for everyday , ordinary objects. When I have my own classroom I would read this book to a class when brainstorming ideas for a new writing project.

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Patridge By Mem Fox Illustrated by Julie Vivas

I was suggested this book by my mother who happens to teach a kindergarten class. She said that this was a beautiful story about memories and it was so touching to her that it made her cry. I had high expectations for this story before I read it, I mean it had to be good in order to evoke such an emotional response from my mother. I began to read it and the first thing that stood out to me was the amount of repetition in the book. Mem Fox used repetition when describing the people that lived in the nursing home next to Wilfrid Gordon. Repetition can be very useful when doing choral reading or involving the students when reading the text.

My mother was right this is a beautiful story about memories. Wilfrid Gordon's friend, Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt is losing her memory and Wilfrid is tries to help her by showing her things that bring back memories for him. By doing this Miss Nancy is able to remember memories that are associated with the items that Wilfrid Gordon brought. This would be a great book to share with children, especially young children who might not know what a memory is. Through this book they could learn what memories are and why they are so important.

The illustrations that are done in this book are quite interesting. There is pretty much no background to the illustrations, just a white page. I think this is done to draw attention to the characters and story instead of being distracted by other detail in the background. The characters drawn are very detailed in their clothing and look very soft. The colors that are used are soft, pastel, and almost looked washed out. This look adds to the peaceful and sweet feel of the book. I was definitely touched by this book and would recommend it to others.

A Chair for my Mother by Vera B. Williams

This is a very sweet story about a mother and daughter who are saving money to buy a chair. Their old chair was burnt in a house fire along with their other belongings they are forced to start over. The community around them pulls together to help them start over, however, they still don't have a chair. In order to buy a new chair the mother begins saving tips from her waitressing job so that they would someday be able to purchase a new chair. This is a story of persistence and hard work. This book is definitely a one I would share with a class. Through this story kids are able to see and understand that if they want something they might have to work and save for it. Patience and persistence pays off and the end result is worth everything that went into it.

The one thing that I loved about this book was it's vivid illustrations. Each page was filled with bright colors and details. Each illustration takes up the entire page and looks like a beautiful painting since there are visible brush strokes each illustration looks soft and blended. The illustrations and colors seem to capture the bright, cultural, urban environment in which the story takes place. I feel that the hopeful and positive tone of the book is reflected in the illustrations. That should be the point of illustrations to support the book and the tone that the author wanted to portray.

The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop and Kurt Wiese

The Five Chinese Brothers is a clever tale but it is controversial for a reason. The one issue that I had when reading this book was the stereotype that this book portrayed of Chinese people. In the beginning of the book it said that the brothers all looked alike. I think that looking similar is a stereotype people have about people from China or other Asian countries. This is not true and I would be offended if people believed that all the people from the country I came from looked the same.

I found this book on a list of controversial books at Blisstree .com http://www.blisstree.com/articles/the-15-most-controversial-picture-books-366/. According to this website this book was banned from libraries around the country for how it portrayed Chinese people. According to the Blisstree websites parents at the Salem Library claimed the book was demeaning to Chinese people, which I would have to agree with. The other issue that parents had with the book was the violent plot that it contained. In the book the brothers are to be executed but they are able to escape their execution. I was disturbed by this aspect of the plot and I could see how children could be upset by this, however, I think that the stereotypes this book portrays is more of an issue then the violence. This is a classic children's' book but I would not want to read this aloud to students in my classroom. I felt that if I were to read it to my class then I would be promoting the stereotypes in the text. Children receive enough messages regarding stereotypes from other sources like TV, magazines, movies, and peers I don't want my classroom to be one of them.

Daddy's Wedding By Micheal Willhoite

A person picking this book up can see by the illustration on the cover that this book is different, there are two grooms on the cover instead of a bride and a groom. I could tell that this book deals with the issue of same sex relationship and same sex marriage . The main character, a little boy, has a mother and a father who are divorced. The little boy's mom remarried another man while the little boy's father was in a relationship with a man. One day the little boy's father and his partner inform the boy they are going to have a commitment ceremony to celebrate their love and relationship. The little boys gets to attend the ceremony and witness the love between his father and his partner.

This book is so controversial because same sex marriage is such a hot topic these days and people feel very strongly on both sides of the issue. in the book there is a kiss between the two men and even though this is just an illustration I can see parents getting pretty fired up about their kids seeing this. Personally I would shy away from sharing this book in class because I think that the potential problems that might be created would take away from the lesson that would incorporate this book. If you feel this book is absolutely necessary to share with your class I would send a note home describing the book and it's content. This is such a heated topic that it would be good to cover all bases so that not to offend parents.

The Semester so far.......

I have been blogging about children's books for 8 weeks or so. That is a lot of children's books read and reviewed! So far this blogging experience has been a growing process. When the assignment was first explained I had no idea what to say about children's books, previously I referred to children's books as cute and fun. Children's books were something fun for kids to read when they were bored and some books contained a lesson that would teach children to not talk to strangers or listen to their mom or dad. It wasn't until I started my language arts, reading course and this course, reading and responding to children's literature, that I learned children's books can be a powerful tool in the classroom. By reading a certain book a teacher is informing students of issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, families, class, and the list can go on. Students will get ideas from the material read in class on how to approach these issues. Being aware of what we read and how it could effect our students is called critical literacy. Teachers have to be aware of this when deciding what books to read aloud or what books should be read in a guided reading group. As teachers we want each of our students to feel valued and if we read a book that doesn't include diversity or read stories only with characters that have two, heterosexual, married parents that might make the children, whose lives don't mimic the characters in the book , feel as though they are weird and different. I don't want any student in my class to have experience the discomfort and awkwardness of thinking they are different, and all these feelings could have been avoided had I been more critical of the texts we read.

Being a critical reader of children's books has been a significant part of the course but I have also enjoyed learning about the components of children's books as well. Noticing illustrations and commenting on them was and will be a big part of my blogs. Illustrations are so key in children's books and adult readers, who focus mainly on the text, the illustrations are pointless. TO children illustrations help them to follow along with the story and to help make sense of what is happening. How well the illustrations are done makes a difference as well as the amount of details included in the pictures. I have learned through different interactions with children and picture books the more detail in the pictures the more engaging it will be for children. They love pointing out fun little details in the pictures and talking about them. By looking at the illustrations and the detail of the illustrations. I have found books where I am absolutely blown away by the illustrations and sought out books illustrated by the same illustrator.

By blogging and looking through various books I have gained a good idea of what to look for in a children's book. I have a better understanding of what the text and illustrations are implying to my students and how that might effect them. I also have a better understanding of illustrations and their importance to the text. I have gained an idea of what authors whose work I really enjoy and which authors I don't enjoy so much. I can then take all of this knowledge with me when I enter the classroom and hopefully it will enhance the reading experience for my students.

The Story of Babar by Jean De Brunhoff

I read Babar when I was younger and loved it. I was very surprised to see it on the list of controversial books. It was hard for me to imagine Babar being controversial so I went through it and looked at the text from a critical eye. At first I did not see anything that I would consider controversial by any means but when I began to look at the illustrations I started to understand why this classic children's book could subject to such criticism.


In the book Babar runs away from home, which resembles a a certain warm, tropical continent, to a town, that seems to resemble a certain city in Europe, and there he becomes sophisticated. Through a series of events Babar returns to his home where he is crowned king. At first I thought that this book could address classicism and because when Babar returns from his adventure in the city he is very sophisticated and well groomed. Eventually he get voted king of the elephants. This is what I though until I looked at the website, Blisstree.com (http://www.blisstree.com/articles/the-15-most-controversial-picture-books-366/). On this website I read that the reason for Babar being controversial is because it advocated for colonialism of the African countries by the French. This political message could be offensive to some and proves that even timeless children's books, which are meant for the enjoyment of children, are not free from political messages

Nappy Hair by Carolivia Herron Illustrated by Joe Cepeda

I did not know what to expect when I got this book. When I began reading I was confused by the format of the text. The text is set up so that there is a narrator and then another voice that responds to the narrator so it is like a conversation that is occurring within the text. This is a very interesting idea but as the reader at times it can get confusing because I don't know necessarily who is all in the conversation. It can also be hard to make sense of the text because it jumps around a lot and at times doesn't seem to make sense. The reason for this could be due to the use of grammatically incorrect words, like hisself and chile. The text is written how people would speak it which can cause children to believe it is okay to use those words when talking or writing. The use of grammatically incorrect words could be one of the reasons that this book might be considered controversial. Some parents would be upset if their child came home speaking like this because of a book they read in school. another reason that it is controversial is because it addresses the subject of nappy hair, which is a hair type that some people, especially in the African American community, have. I think that anything that has to deal with race in anyway can be considered controversial by some, especially since race and racism is still prevalent in our society. I would say that this book is not controversial and I would read it to my class. I think by choosing not to read a book like this you are choosing not to acknowledge racial an cultural differences between your students. By not acknowledging differences it makes the students ignorant and uniformed and can lead to teasing of the students that are "different."

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

I found this book on a controversial book list and recognized the author as the same author who wrote Where the Wild Things Are. I was intrigued so I picked this book out. About two pages into the book I could clearly understand why this book made it on controversial book lists. In the book a little boy, Mickey, is having a dream and in this dream he loses his pajamas. Since Mickey loses his pajamas he is naked and his male genitalia is visible in the illustrations. The illustrations are, in my opinion, questionable and based on that I would not be comfortable reading this book to the class or even having it in my classroom. I feel like having this book around would bring about concern and questions from parents who don't want their children seeing male genitalia in picture books. Besides the illustrations this is a really fun book about Mickey's dream, he ends up in a kitchen where he is incorporated into the food. Parents might love the story and feel comfortable reading this to their children at home and that is great, but I think this story has no place in an elementary classroom.

The Giver
By Lois Lowery
This is a classic book that many preteens read in English classes in middle school. I personally had never read the book so I was excited to read this novel. This book is about a boy named Jonas and he lives in a utopian society. Everything is perfect and everyone seems to be happy. All the children in this society receive jobs and Jonas’ job is receiver of the memory. Jonas is trained under a man he calls the Giver and people go to the Giver when they have a memory that they want to get rid of. This memory could be anything that would effect their lives and the world in which they live. Jonas realizes that the world he lives in is not very happy at all, people are giving up their freedoms and memories to live in a “perfect world.” Jonas has enough of this and decides to run away with Gabriel, a baby that was living in Jonas family unit. Boht of them run away and that is when the story ends. The ending is very abrupt and the reader did not receive any closure. Did they die or live? What will happen to Jonas and Gabriel? I enjoyed this book about a utopian society and thought that it brought up a good point, nothing can be perfect even if people are trying to make it so. The major problem that I had with the book is the way it ended. As a reader I like to have an ending where I can feel good about and this ending left me wanting more. I think that Lowery left the reader hanging because then it forces the reader to use their imagination to make up their own ending to the story. That way the reader can end it the way they see necessary. I find this frustrating and would like the author write the ending, I just feel like there is more closure when the author puts in place the ending they desire. I just feel uneasy when there is no written ending.

Miss Maggie
Cynthia Rylant
This is a story about an old woman named Maggie Ziegler. She lives by herself at the edge of the Crawford’s pasture. Nat Crawford brings her food and accompanies her to the grocery store. Nat never talks to Miss Maggie and does not want anything to do with her until one day he realizes that Miss Maggie might be in trouble so he goes to check on her. He realizes that she is not a strange old lady that he previously thought she was. After Nat helps Miss Maggie they become friends.
This is a very simple book, the illustrations were pencil drawn and there was no color. When I was reading it I was not focused on the illustrations I was too focused on the plot of the book. I thought the plot of the book was so touching. When I was reading I had such an emotional connection to the text because I could relate to Nat. I began to recall the specific times in my life where I had misjudged people. It is classified as a children’s picture book but I think Miss Maggie is a book that everyone should read and have in their personal library. It is not the most colorful, creative, or exciting book ever but the power of the message it hold surpasses all of those qualities.

All the Places to Love
By Patricia MacLachlan and paintings by Mike Wimmer
When I opened the first page of this particular book I was absolutely blown away by the illustrations. I thought that they were incredibly life like; it almost looked like I was looking at a photograph. I went through each page and looked at the illustrations before I looked at any of the text. Each illustration held a lot of detail which made the illustration come alive. It really added to the book because it gave the reader a good visual about how these places might look.
When I did finally look at the text I was surprised about how descriptive the text is. Since the text is so detailed this might be a good book to use a lesson for visualizing or creating visual pictures. Children would be able to create beautiful pictures from how the text describes a certain scene. Children would have to listen to the story and have to use how the author described the scene from the book to make their picture. All the Places to Love is a very versitle book, it can be used to read for enjoyment or be used in a reading lesson to make visual pictures.

How Many Days to America?
By Eve Bunting and illustrated by Beth Peck
This is a story about a family that is escaping a war in their home country and their goal is to get to America. The journey they take is long and hard and there were some points in the book where the people traveling to America ran into some problems. They made it to America ready to start a new life. I liked how this book addresses what it is like for immigrants to enter our country today. I think that there are many books out there about immigration but those books take place in the mid 1700’s to 1920. This book gives younger children an idea of what immigration looks like today. This might be especially important if there are students that are entering the class from different countries, it might give the American students a better idea of what their peers might have experienced when coming to America.
As for the illustrations in this book I liked how they were drawn and that there were lots of colors used. One thing I did not like is that there was no expression on the people’s faces. The illustrator didn’t add any detail to the faces of the characters. I think that it is a shame. I would think that there would be lots of expression coming from their faces as they left the country they were born in to go to a new scary, unfamiliar country. I wish there was more of the emotion portrayed in the illustrations

Why do You Love Me?
Martin Baynton
This is a really simple book for beginning readers. Each page contains one sentence and each sentence is about the many reasons a father loves his son despite all the trouble that the son can cause. The pictures depict a father a son going outside to a park to play with their dog. The pictures are very simple just like the text. The colors that the author chose to use for the illustrations were very light, which helped to give the book a more cheerful and smoothing tone. The book is for children ages three and up so I might read this to a kindergarten classroom but I think that older children would quickly lose interest in this text so I would get something a little more exciting and colorful for them.

The Rough Faced Girl

by Refe Martin and David Shannon
This is an Algonquin Cinderella story and the tone of the book is very serious, not the usual happy Cinderella story. The dark colors of the illustrations helped to create this serious, almost haunting tone. What helps to make the book so haunting is how cruelly the rough faced girl is treated by her sisters. The rough faced girl is a simple servant girl who wants to try to marry the invisible being who is powerful, rich, and handsome. The invisible being can only be seen by his sister and the girl who he wants to marry. After her two beautiful sister try to marry the invisible being the rough faced girl goes to try. The invisible being sees her good heart and finds her beautiful despite her appearance. I think this is an amazing story, much better than the Disney Cinderella we are all used to. Children can actually learn that they you look does not matter there are more to people than we see. This story stays with you long after you read it. I don’t know if it is how cruelly she is treated or transformation at the end of the book. It made a lasting impression on me and hopefully it would have the same impact on children.

Pickles to Pittsburgh
Written and colored by Judi Barrett and drawn by Ron Barrett
I happened to really enjoy Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs but unfortunately it was checked out when I went to the library so I grabbed the sequel to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The reason I enjoy these books is because I enjoy food and this book is about flying food! This book is very imaginative and kids would love reading about something like this. This book brings to life something that we might have dreamed up but could never quite visualize. The pictures in this book are so detailed. The lines on the food create texture and make the food look more realistic. There was even a lot of expression in the faces of the people watching the food. As I continued reading I just could not get over the amount of detail in each illustration, I know that kids won’t notice or care but I enjoy and appreciate it. This book has so much to offer great illustrations and a fun imaginative storyline; however, I would have to say that Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is still my favorite.

The Busy Spider
By Eric Carle
Eric Carle is famous for his illustrations. He used many different techniques when creating his illustrations. The texture, lines, and colors all, make the illustrations interesting to look at. When I was reading the book it was hard to look away from the illustrations. My favorite page is the night scene at the end of the book. . I like how the background is dark blue and it looks water stained. The stars are sliver and that make them stand out against the dark background. The spider web is silver and stands out as well. .
The text in the book is very simple and the story very straightforward. The spider is not distracted by other animals asking her to do something else instead of spinning her web. In the end she catches a fly. I would classify this book as informational because the reader learns about what spiders do with their webs. There is more to spiders than this but if teaching a unit on insects to a younger group of children I feel that this would be an appropriate book to use.

Where the Wild Things Are
Maurice Sendak
I was watching television the other day and I saw a preview for this movie so I had to go to the library to get this book. This is the story of Max, a little boy who uses his imagination to visit the place where the wild things are. He confronts the monsters that live there but shows no fear of them. Max ends up befriending the monsters, which is not expected when the reader first reads of his arrival to the place where the wild things are. I think that children would love fearless Max since children love heroes and Max is definitely a hero in this book.
The monsters in the book are possibly the most interesting part of the illustrations. I remember reading this book when I was younger and being terrified of the monsters. They looked so scary especially with their teeth and the mixture of different body parts that made up the monsters’ bodies. Now I can appreciate how creative the monsters are and how the author used his imagination when creating these monsters. Besides the monsters the picture of the monsters the author used pencil to draw the illustrations and the pencil strokes make the illustrations look textured. This is not a detail that children will notice but as an older reader I appreciate.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
By Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault. Illustrated by Lois Ehlert
This is a classic ABC children’s book. The basic plot of the book is that letters A through Z are all trying to fit in a coconut tree, but it’s a challenge. I love the bold letters and bright colors in the book. The illustrations are big which is good and indicates that the focus is definitely on the illustrations. I feel that books with the focus on illustrations are more for a younger audience because children would be more focused on the illustrations rather than the text. The text rhymes so that makes the book fun to read aloud and the children might have reading along with the person reading aloud. This book is definitely a book any primary classroom should have. It’s a fun book to read aloud and children would love to look at the pictures. It is a great book and a lot of fun!

The Winter of the Red Snow
By Kristiana Gregory
The Dear America books are books written like journals during different periods of American history. These journals are written from the perspective of preteen girls who are witnessing the events of this time period. This book is particular book is written by Abigail Jane Stewert during the Revolutionary War in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania in the year 1777.
The one thing that I liked about these books is that it is not overwhelming to the reader. The journal entries vary in length, some entries are short and some are two to three pages long. The varying length might make it more manageable for children who have trouble reading pages and pages of just text. I had one initial reservation about reading this book I was worried that the words used would be hard for readers to understand since it was written 1777. When I read it I found out that the words were easy to understand. I love history and this book gives the reader insight into what life would be like during the particular time period. At the end of the book there is information and artifacts from the time period. This provides more information to the reader that can increase their interest in the time period.

Mama does the Mambo
By Katherine Leiner and Illustrated by Edel Rodriguez
I have to start off by saying that I loved this story, everything about it. It had a beautiful a heartwarming plot, a girl’s father dies and her mother has no one to dance with anymore. This little girl wants her mother to dance again so she goes about trying to find her a suitable dance partner and the best partner ends up being the little girl. I thought that it was very touching that despite this girl’s sadness she wanted her mother to be happy again. The language used in the book is also very descriptive. There are vivid descriptions of how her parents the way her parents move when they danced, how they looked at each other, and the way their clothes moved when they danced. By being so descriptive it helps the reader create a visual image in their minds. This would be a great book to use when teaching a lesson on visualization.
Besides the text the illustrations were also great. The colors used for the illustration were very bright and rich, lots of reds, yellows, and oranges. By using these colors the author made the illustrations warm and tropical. This indicated to the reader that this story was taking place somewhere near the equator, where the weather was warm. I think that it is great when the reader can get clues about where the story takes place without reading the text. Later in the book I found out that this story actually takes place in Cuba so the illustrator did a great job conveying the tropical environment.

Regards to the Man in the Moon
By Ezra Jack KeatsThis is a story about a little boy and how he turns a pile of junk into a spaceship by using his imagination and then takes a trip to outer space. This book is written by the author of The Snowy Day so I was very surprised when I was reading it because the illustrations were very different. The illustrations in the book are much more vivid, each illustration looks like a painting. When reading this book I felt that the illustrations should be hanging in the museum. It looks like the author used a splatter technique for the background of the pictures and that the point that drew my eyes in every illustration

David Goes to School
By David Shannon
This book is the book following, No David!, and this time David goes to school where he continues to cause trouble. At the end of the day though the reader discovers that despite his mischievous streak David is a sweet boy. The text in the book is very simple; there is only one sentence on each page. Since the text is some simple the book would have been pretty boring had it not been for the illustrations.
The character David looks as though he was drawn by a child. In fact David is based off of the authors, David Shannon, childhood writings. The illustrations were very big, definitely the primary focus of the book, and bright primary colors are used. The illustrations add to the humor and fun of the book. Since the main character is drawn kind of funny it gives the book a less serious tone and will make children enjoy the book more. This is a book that children can defiantly have fun with the book, it looks like the author did!

My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks
By Hanoch Piven
This is a story about a family from a child’s point of view and the child gives a description of each family member. The text is simple and there are only a couple of sentences on each page, however, there are some very great comparisons within the text. One example of a comparison made is, “My Daddy is as jumpy as a spring.”This would be a great book to use when making having a discussion on making comparisons.
What drew me to this book were the illustrations. They were not drawn like many children’s books. Instead of there were pictures of actual objects. For example for the text, “My Daddy is as jumpy as spring” there was a picture of a spring. For pictures of family members the pictures consist of objects for facial features. I thought that this technique was very interesting and it is good for children to see different kinds of illustrations than the ones they are used to seeing. By seeing different kinds of illustrations children might be inspired to think out of the box. This might open their idea of what art is and encourage them to take risks with their artwork. The reason I picked this book is because I want children to expand what they believe art to be.

Pigling
By Dan Jolley and Anne Timmons
This book is a Korean Cinderella story so there are some variations on the events in the book but the main idea is similar to the American version of the Cinderella story. This is not your average picture book; it is actually a graphic novel. Graphic novels are books that consist of multiple illustrations on one page with the text included in the illustrations. When I was reading it I felt as though I was reading an entire book of comic strips from a newspaper. The illustrations were very much like a comic book as well. The illustrations were drawn with a pencil and there was a lot of detail in the pictures, in the background and in the characters’ faces.
After looking at books with all text it was nice to be able to look at the pictures and understand what is going on without necessarily looking at the text. I think these books would be great when teaching children to read because the pictures can help the reader understand what is happening in the story as well as make sense of the text. The book does not have numbered chapters but it is broken into sections so it makes the children seem like they are reading a chapter books.

The Art Lesson
By Tomie dePaola
This book is about a little boy named Tommy who loves to draw and he draws all the time. He is excited to take art lessons at school but when he gets to school he discovers that he does not get to be as creative as he wants to be. Eventually Tommy and his art teacher come to an agreement; if he gets his homework done then he can have time to draw. By expressing himself and getting to be creative Tommy continued to pursue his passion and make a career out of it. This is a really inspiring story about perseverance through difficult or frustrating situations. I think this story mirrors Tomie dePaola’s life somewhat.
I also happen to love dePaola’s illustrations. I love how the illustrations are not especially bright. Whenever I look at dePaola’s illustrations though they make me happy, and I don’t know if I can explain it. Maybe it is the happy expressions that are on many of his characters’ faces or maybe it is the smoothing watercolors that he chooses to use for his illustrations. Whatever it is reading dePaola’s work always puts me in a good mood and it is definitely a first choice when I reading to younger children.

Walk Two Moons
By Sharon Creech
This book is about a thirteen year old girl named Salmanca Tree Hiddle or Sal for short. The book starts out with Sal taking a road trip with her eccentric grandparents from Ohio to Idaho. To entertain her grandparents on this long trip Sal tells them a story about a girl named Phoebe Winterbottom, whose mother disappeared after Phoebe’s encounter with a potential lunatic. Sal’s story mirrors her own life; Sal’s mother ran way to Idaho. The purpose of the trip, in Sal’s mind, is to get her mother to come back with them
This is a good book so good in fact that it won a Newberry Medal. This medal is awarded to books by the America Library Association distinguished American literature for children. One thing that I loved about this book was that are complex characters. Sometimes I think that children’s books are “dumbed” down for children. These stories contain simple characters and a simple plot. There are children that are dealing with or have experienced a parent leaving. This is a real issue and some children might relate to Sal’s situation and feelings. At the beginning of the book Sal does not come out and inform reader that her mother left instead she reveals this through her story of Phoebe Winterbottom. The flipping between the story of Sal and Phoebe could potentially be confusing for the reader but Sharon Creech does a good job of making it clear at the beginning of the chapter which characters’ story we are reading. This book is both entertaining and touching as Sal makes this trip to see her estranged mother; it definitely provoked some emotion from me which, in my opinion, is a sign of a good book.

The Witches
By Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl is a favorite in children’s literature and the Witches, in my opinion, is one of his best books. I love how Dahl makes the fantasy world of witches seem like it could be part of our world. In the opening chapters the main character hears from his grandmother how to spot a witch. This is particularly important since witches are a real and living among us. Witches also smell children and to a witch a child is an awful stench. Witches hate the smell of children so much that they will do terrible things to them, like make them disappear or turn them into a mouse. The boy does have an interaction with a witch and the result causes him to take action against the witches that did this to him.
This book is entertaining and had me on the edge of my seat as I read it. My favorite part of the book is at the beginning when the grandmother is describing the witches to the little boy. This exchange is very conversational and sets up the entire book. I also liked how Dahl described the witches. He described them as something children should fear and the things they do to children as odd but I do not think that children will be scared by the description. I think that Dahl could have taken the description to a scary place but instead made the witches kid friendly. Dahl does that throughout the book, there are many opportunities for Dahl to make the plot scary but he never takes the plot there. There are illustrations within the book. They are really simple drawings and help supplement the text. In my opinion the drawings are not needed, I think Dahl provides enough description for the reader to create a picture in their imagination. I love this book I would recommend it for any reader who is interested in Roald Dahl or enjoys fiction.

Ouch!
A Tale from Grimm retold by Natalie Babbitt
Illustrated by Fred Marcellino
I was looking for something different that is why I initially picked this book. One of the things about this book that I thought was interesting is that the title is on the back of the book and the front is a picture that indicates what the story is about. When I began flipping through the book the illustrations caught my attention. The illustrations looked like they were colored with watercolors and are bright but not too distracting. I really enjoyed the expression on the faces of the characters. This little detail helped to make the illustrations humorous and reinforced what the text was saying. Another thing that I liked about the illustrations are that they were quite large, sometimes taking up an entire page. The reason I am so fond of this is that large illustrations are easier for students to see when reading the book aloud.
When it comes to the plot of this book it is not the bright tale that the illustrations might indicate. The basic plot is that a king does not want his daughter to marry a certain man so he demands that this man go to hell and get three hairs from the devil’s head. This is not your normal fairy, it is pretty dark. The author did a good job of trying to make the story not as dark but the fact that it involves the devil and hell, two things greatly associated with evil, automatically make the story dark. This book is recommended for all ages but I would read it to older children and refrain from reading it to children in primary grade, ages 5 -8. The reason being that I am not sure whether or not children at these ages would know what hell or the devil is. Older children would probably have background knowledge of hell and who the devil is so they could make sense of the tale more than younger kids would. This story is a good example of what fairytales from the Brothers Grimm might be like but in a little more kid friendly format.

Twilight
By Stephenie Meyer
I first read the Twilight series of books in college and when I was in a fourth grade classroom recently I discovered that some of the fourth grade students were reading this material. This was interesting to me because I thought that this book was geared toward an older audience. Apparently even children find the plot fun an exciting and have started to enjoy this series. The plot is a little intense, a vampire and human fall in love and his immortal and her mortal status cause problems for the couple. There were a couple of times that the relationship between the main characters got a little racy at one point in the book. There were some parts, like the big fight scene at the end of the book, that were mildly scary. I would say they are scary because there are some violence and bloodshed.
If I were a teacher or parent I would be very intentional in recommending this book to children. The child’s maturity level defiantly needs to be taken into account; if the student is not mature enough then this content might overwhelm them. Besides some mature content the writing was very straightforward, there were not many words that I think would be challenging to readers in the upper elementary grades. The writing is very descriptive and I sometimes found it very lengthy so it might be too long for some readers. Despite the lengthy descriptions I really enjoyed Twilight as well as the other books in the series. I found them all to be quite engrossing, which is probably why the books in this series have been best sellers. Meyer has a way of making the reader really care about the characters and their love story. By becoming invested in this way it has caused many people, who have read the books, say that once they finished the first book they had to finish the entire series. It is fun and exciting to escape from reality into this fantasy world of two star crossed lovers. This plot provides the perfect escape for children or adults who want to read for enjoyment and don’t want material that is content heavy and hard to follow. Twilight is a great book that is enticing and will leave the reader wanting to know more about what happened.

The City Kid and the Suburb Kid
By Deb Pilutti and Illustrated by Linda Bleck
This book addresses the difference between life in the city and life in the suburbs. This would be good to read to show that there is a difference and that one way of life is not superior to the other. The one problem I had with book was that there is no diversity shown in the book. I would think that there would be diversity, especially when discussing city life. I feel like diversity and the city are two items go hand in hand. I think that there should have been more diversity in the book because it does not give an accurate depiction of city life. If discussing the difference between city and suburban life I would pick a book that more accurately demonstrates what life would be like in those two places.
Besides the lack of diversity I really enjoyed the illustrations, I thought that they had a very vintage look to them. The illustrations looked vintage because of the colors used, they were subdued, and they way the illustrator drew the people and environment was reminiscent of vintage posters I have seen. One of the most interesting things about the book was the way it was an upside down book. On one side of the cover is a boy in a city scene and if the book is turned over and flipped upside down there is a scene of a boy in the suburbs. It makes the book seem like it is two different books. Both sides of the story connect and the book can be read either from the suburb kid side and the city kid side and it will make sense. Sometimes upside down books can be kind of confusing since it is hard to know where to start. I found that to be very clever on the author’s part and less confusing to the reader.

Run Far and Run Fast
By Timothy Decker
I was captivated by the cover of this book, it is black and there are a bunch of pictures in a comic book format. It definitely does not look a normal children’s book. When I opened the book I was in complete surprise and had to check it to look at it further. The illustrations of the book were pencil drawn and put in a comic book format. There are a bunch of little pictures together in a rectangle shape. These pictures related to what was occurring during a specific part of the story but were not explicitly stated in the text. I think that the comic book format is an interesting choice for this book since the plot is about a plague that hits medieval Europe. Comic books and the medieval time period are not usually two things that go together. When I first looked at the book I had no idea what it was about, and I defiantly did not think that it was about the plague. Honestly the first time I read it I did not understand what was going on but when I reread I was able to identify that the girl in the story was in fact running away from a plague. Since this girl is running from this deathly plague I have to say the overall tone of the book is slightly depressing and the pencil drawn black and gray illustrations did not help to make it less so. Due to the fact that this book addresses a slightly depressing topic and that it is far from the norm of children’s books I would recommend an older audience. This is also not a book to read in class I think that it would be hard to follow and that students would not be able to see all of the illustrations. Overall this is an interesting book that but unfortunately it was not necessarily a book that appealed to me. I would approach this book with caution, it is not for everyone.

If
By Sarah Perry
I want to start by talking about the illustrations in this book. There is not much text in the book so the focus is mostly on the illustrations. The premise of the book is “what if” statements. An example from the book is, “what if toes were teeth?” The corresponding illustration was of a girl smiling and instead of teeth there are toes in her mouth! The illustrations are very vivid and very interesting to look at. These illustrations are of things that we do not think about or visualize, like mice for hair and caterpillars for toothpaste. By having these different and interesting illustrations it made it hard to tear my eyes away from this book. Some of the illustrations are so vivid that they made me cringe and I had to look away because they were so life like. The mice for hair illustration was slightly disgusting but the fish as leaves Illustration was beautiful and eye catching.
The illustration definitely made this book. I loved how the illustrations and the “what if” statements open the flood gates of imagination. The “what if” statements are far fetched, like what if music could be held, but that what makes it fun and shows children that they can think outside of the box. This would be a great book to read when you want to inspire imagination and creativity.

Cows Can’t Fly
By David Milgrim
Books about animals I usually find to be funny, however, this was not the case for Cows Can’t Fly. The story starts out with a boy drawing a picture of flying cows and when his picture is blown away the boy uses his imagination to try to convince others around him that cows are actually flying. It is a cute story but honestly I thought that it was similar to other stories I have read about farm animals. I was also surprised by the text. The words used in the text were simple and not that imaginative. I was expecting a humorous text and what I got was a straight forward text that did not inspire.
The illustrations were not very inspiring either. There were bright colors used and the illustrations were big but there was nothing especially eye catching about them. There was little detail in the pictures, which is something that I think children really enjoy about picture books. They love to point out other things that are going on in the illustrations and talk about them, but with this book there is not much to talk about other than the main illustration.
I have read so many silly and imaginative children’s books with farm animals as the main characters, Click Clack Moo and When the Cows Came Home are some examples, that reading this straightforward book was sort of disappointing. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations going into it, not every book about farm animals will be as funny as Click, Clack, Moo, but I was disappointed none the less. I might recommend reading this book if you have a unit on farm animals or if your child is particularly fond of cows but other than that I would opt for a different book.

Bob’s Best ever Friend
By Simon Bartram
I initially picked this book based off of the cover. From looking at the cover I could tell this book had something to do with outer space, this peaked my interest so I picked it up. When I began reading the book I was instantly drawn to the illustrations on the page. The colors used are bright and bold, which contrasted against the dark background of the outer space illustrations. There is a lot of detail in the pictures. This could be very fun for children to see and point out the different things they see on each page.
The plot of the story is about Bob travels to space to entertain people who are taking tours of the moon. Bob’s friends were away Bob was very lonely. In order not to be lonely Bob decides that he needs to make a bester ever friend, and what would make a good best ever friend? A pet of course! So Bob goes on the search for the perfect pet and finally stumbles about one in outer space. The book is filled with lots of funny details. I think that this book is a lot of fun to read as a child or an adult. It would be a perfect book to read when discussing friendships or even just for fun.

The Solo
By Kathryn Lasky Illustrated by Bobette McCarthy
The book, “The Solo” was a book about a little girl named Grace who gets kicked of a group that was going to dance at the school talent show. Grace is determined to dance and this does not stop her from saying she is going to do a solo instead. She practices and practices for her solo but eventually gets asked to join the dance group again. This story is an example for children that they need to have determination to complete a task that is important to them. This lesson would be good to teach the children and relate if back to their lives by asking if they had ever had to work very hard on something, that way there can be a connection made between themselves and the text. The illustrations in the book were simple and light. The focus is clearly on the point of the story than flashy illustrations and detail.

Arthur’s TV Trouble
By Marc Brown
Who doesn’t love Arthur? Marc Brown’s Arthur character has been a literary favorite of children for many years. There are a collection of Arthur books that cover many different topics and in this particular story Arthur is persuaded to buy some item he saw advertised on TV, the Treat Timer. Arthur desperately wants the Treat Timer and his parents refuse to give him money to buy it so he decides to earn money and pay for it himself. Arthur finds a job helping his neighbor sort his old newspapers. Once paid Arthur rushes to the store to purchase the Treat Timer only to find that it does not work how the advertisers said it would. In the end Arthur learns that items on TV are not always what they are advertised to be.
I first picked this book out because I thought that the plot would be about Arthur watching too much TV and was surprised to find out that in fact it was advertising on TV. I think that since it does address TV advertising this book would be great to read at home to children but not necessarily in a classroom setting. I say this because it is mostly parents that hear their children ask for items they see on TV, not teachers. Arthur‘s TV Trouble contained a lesson that was easy to understand. The illustrations were that of a classic Arthur book, there was a lot of color and detail, sure to hold the attention and interest of children. Overall the book is enjoyable and fun, a classic Arthur book.

"Chicken Soup By Heart"
By Esther Hershenhorn and Illustrated by Rosanne Litzinger
This book is about a boy names Rudie Dinkins and on this particular day Rudie’s babysitter Mrs. Gittel is not feeling well. In order to help make her feel better Rudie decides that he is going to make Mrs. Gittel some chicken soup, just the way she makes it when Rudie is sick. First he starts with water and chicken then proceeds to add “Rudie Dinkins Surprise” to the soup. The “Rudie Dinkins Surprise” is items to the soup that like chocolate kisses, jelly beans, and peppermints, which are all associated with a memory of Mrs. Gittel. Rudie gives Mrs. Gittel the soup and the next day she is feeling much better but Rudie is feeling sick. Teh book concludes with Mrs. Gittel making some soup for Rudie.
My first thought is that this story is really heartwarming and sweet. The first time I read it, however, I did not like it. I was initially thrown off by the word the Mrs. Gittel used for Rudie, boychik, as well as the “Rudie Dinkins Surprise.” When I read the book for the second it made more sense, I realized that the illustrations indicated what the “Rudie Dinkins Surprise” was. The word boychik was used throughout the book and I assumed that it is some sort of pet name the Mrs. Gittel had for Rudie. Once I understood these terms and I was able to enjoy the book more.
I think that children would love to have this book read to them and it’s a fun book to read aloud. The illustrations are pretty simple but colorful. “Chicken Soup By Heart” is book with a sweet message and could be a good read for a classroom or even at home. At the end of the book there is even a recipe for Mrs. Gittel’s chicken soup.

Honey…Honey…LION!
By Jan Brett
The story is from Africa and is about a badger and a bird known as a honeyguide. The honeyguide follows bees to their hives and then the badger breaks open the hive with its strong claws and they would share the honey. One day badger decided to find a hive by himself and proceeded to eat all the honey without sharing with the honeyguide. The honeyguide thought this to be unfair and decided to teach the badger a lesson and one day the honeyguide flew by badger crying, “Honey, honey, honey!” Badger followed and the honeyguide led him all over until they reached a cave where a lion lived. This lion began to chase after the badger and eventually badger got safely back to his home. This taught the badger a lesson and from then on made a point to always share honey with the honeyguide.
The reason I picked this book is because I remember reading Jan Brett when I was younger. From what I remember Jan Brett had really vivid illustrations. When I started reading, “Honey…Honey…LION!” the illustrations were just how I remembered them. On some of the pages there was more than one picture. There was the picture in the center which displays what the text says, and then on both sides of the center picture are smaller pictures. These pictures are of African wildlife. On the outside of each illustration is a border of beads and feathers. I thought that doing this might give students an idea of what African art might be like. I liked the story I think that children can learn a valuable lesson from the badger, do not treat others unfairly or else you could almost be eaten by a lion.

This is my first blog. I am testing this program out!