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.