Purplicious

Purplicious by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann

Pre K – 2^nd grade

4 stars

            Pinkalicious loves the color pink, but her classmates think pink is for babies.  She starts to believe they are right, but then she finds a friend who loves purple.

            This book is a follow up to Pinkalicious.  Usually a sequel or a continuation of a book is not as enjoyable as the first one.   But I really enjoyed it because it has value and teaches the kids that it is not a bad thing to be unique.  Growing up a little part of me, felt that I was different but I never cared what others thought so I can relate to Pinkalicious.  One page that I really enjoyed was when she has four pages of her diary showing and it starts off nice with “I am who I am and I like pink.”  Then the fourth page says, “Pink has no purpose.”  This was a nice way to show how her thoughts and ideas of pink changed because of the children at school.

            If I had Pinkalicious in my classroom, I would definitely have Purplicious in my classroom.  The pages are fun to look at and it has an important lesson to teach.  You could have the students write about their favorite color on paper of their favorite color.  They could write about anything, make a list of things in that color, write a new story with a similar title (blualicious), or even write a new story about purple. 

Bear Feels Sick

Bear Feels Sick by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman

Pre K to 2^nd Grade

4 stars

            It is that time of year, and Bear is sick.  His friends help him out with tea and warm blankets.  Once Bear gets better, all of his friends are sick now.

            Wilson has written five books about Bear, and they all have the same rhyming theme and Bear’s friends are always there too.  My two-year old students at the daycare I work at love Bear Wants More.  The rhyming is catchy and they always shout “and Bear wants more!”  So of course I checked out this book and brought it to work.  It fit perfectly for this time of year as well.  We talked about the trees in the book and compared them to the trees outside now. 

            This was fun to read and if it is read aloud be sure to enhance “And Bear feels sick.” This would be a great lesson for students when teaching them the importance of covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing, and why we should wash our hands often.  Bear Feels Sick is a fun way to show students how to treat their friends who are sick. 

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig

2^nd to 4^th grade

Three stars

            Sylvester finds a magic pebble that can make wishes come true.  But when a lion frightens him on his way home, Sylvester scrambles and wishes he were a rock.  Now he is unable to wish himself back to normal.  His parents are worried and have no idea where Sylvester is.  In the end his parents go for a picnic at the rock that is Sylvester, not knowing it was him.  They find the pebble and set it on the rock, now Sylvester can wish himself back to normal.

            I chose this book because it was in the Caldecott section, and I kind of remember reading this when I was younger.  This book was written in 1969 and is still a very popular book.  For my first time reading this book, I didn’t really care for Sylvester turning into a rock.  It brings such a horrible turn in the book.  The parents are worried, they ask neighbors, and police for help and no one can find Sylvester.  A whole year passes before he is found and reunited with his parents.  I was very grateful this book had a happy ending. 

            This book would provide students to recognize their feelings during the reading of the book, and be a good book for readers who are getting ready to move from basic picture books.  Here is a decent website listing a wide range of activities to do with this book that are cross curricular.

Tuesday

Tuesday by David Wiesner

Ages 5 and up

4 stars

            It is dark and time for bed.  That is when the frogs from a nearby pond start to fly on their lily pads.  The frogs scare the birds, watch TV in your house, and even fly away from dogs.  When the sun comes up all the lily pads flop to the ground and the frogs hop on back to the pond.  Next Tuesday pigs fly. 

            I chose to read this book, because it has come up in class quite often and I enjoy David Wiesner’s work.  Once again, David amazes me with his detailed drawings.  I really enjoyed this book because the frogs on the pages looked so frumpy and happy I couldn’t help myself. 

            This book would be great for student’s to write a story too, or maybe continue the story with the flying pigs.  I love hearing students’ different versions of the story.  Wordless books are a great resource for young children how are possibly struggling to read or even students who are learning how to write a story.

Flotsam

Flotsam by David Wiesner

Ages 5 & up

5 stars

            A young boy discovers an underwater camera that floated onto the beach.  He develops the film and finds out that this camera has been to a lot of places over a long period of time. 

            I absolutely loved this book.  The pictures are so vivid, and you are left starring at them for a really long time.  One of my favorite pages is the page showing the second photograph.  It is of octopuses reading in armchairs, fish listening on the couch, and there is even a coffee table, a fishbowl, and lamps.  The best part of this page is in the background you see an upside down truck that is crumpled a little, and on the side of it, it says Bob’s Moving and Storage.  So one can infer that all this furniture got to the bottom of the sea by a moving truck crashing. After finishing the book, I notice on the cover of the book, in the glare of the fishes eye you can see the camera.  Little details like this can be found on every page of this book.

            I also enjoyed when he found the picture of the girl, and uses his microscope to see the picture within the picture.  I found myself flipping back to see the original, and how much I could see.  This book was so enjoyable for me, I wanted to spread the word by having a couple of my friends (who are not elementary teachers) look at the book.  And one of my friends said they could relate to the little boy in the book because when they were young they were very curious about nature and had a sort of nerdy attitude. 

            I feel that this book would be useful resource in the classroom.  Just this semester I have found a new awareness of wordless books and how powerful they can be.  For a post activity to reading the book, you could have the students brainstorm about what flotsam might be, and even what the cover of the book is.  To be honest, before I read the book I thought the cover, at a glance, looked like the robot light, HAL, from 2001 Space Odyssey.  Then after you read the book, discuss with students how they might change their meaning/definition of flotsam and share with them the true definition. 

The House You Pass on the Way

The House You Pass on the Way by Jacqueline Woodson

Ages 12 & up

3 stars

            This is a story about a fourteen-year-old girl named Staggerlee who comes from an interracial family.  She is a quiet girl who loves to play the harmonica and is dealing with her emerging and confusing feelings for her uncle’s adopted daughter Trout. 

            The House You Pass on the Way is short but sweet story.  It brings up some potential controversial topics through a wonderful story.  I thought this book was ok.  I really enjoyed the beginning of the book.  Woodson does a wonderful job setting up the story and introducing us to Staggerlee.  I really connected with Staggerlee when she wonders why can’t everyone just get along and be friends.  She doesn’t really have a lot of friends at school, and her classmates make fun of her and call her stuck up.  When I was younger, I had always wondered why are some of my classmates so mean to others?  I never understood why everyone wasn’t a friend with everyone else. 

            The part I disliked about this book is how Woodson brought the story to an end.  Staggerlee’s new friend Trout leaves at the end of summer, Woodson doesn’t even include the scene where they say goodbye to each other.  Then all of a sudden its October, two months after Trout leaves and she tells of the girls talking on the phone with each other.  In the next chapter it is winter, and Staggerlee hasn’t heard from Trout in a long time.  I felt, that compared to the rest of the book the timeline just sped up in the last twenty pages.  And that major scenes, like saying goodbye to each other, could have made this story a lot better.  

            Using this book in the classroom might cause some controversy with the parents/guardians.  But if you are able to defend yourself effectively you shouldn’t have a problem.  I’m not sure if I would use it.  If I chose not to use it, it would be because I am not particularly fond of Woodson’s writing style.  It would be a good book for a student to independently read, especially for a student who could possibly relate to Staggerlee. 

The Giver

The Giver by Lois Lowry

A novel for middle school kids

5 stars

            A twelve-year old boy, Jonas gets assigned the most important job in the community, the Receiver of Memory.  He finds out what the past was like and why they community is the way it is now. 

            I read this book when I was in middle school on my own, and I wish we had read it in school.  Reading this book with my college classmates brought forth an amazing discussion that I never got to experience until now.  When reading it for the second time, I could not remember what happened when members of the community were to be released.  Part of me wanted to believe that they went to a different community to live the rest of their days.  I didn’t want it to be a bad thing.  Another interesting part of the book was the baby boy; Gabriel that Jonas’ family took in at nighttime.  I felt that Gabe was an important part of the story and possibly a metaphor for something.  Maybe he represents what the future of the community will look like after Jonas runs away.  I wish we had more time to discuss this in the class. Lois Lowry is a fantastic writer, and I would suggest this book to anyone.

            The ending of the book was confusing to me.  I wasn’t sure how to take or what really happened in the end.  It was a happy ending, but I am still unsure whether Jonas dies or not.  This is where the sci-fi part of the book confuses me.  I think that I wanted to know more how the community was changed, and what would happen to Gabriel. 

            The Giver, at first appears to be a utopia but we find out through Jonas’ story that it is really a dystopia.  There are so many connections and literary elements throughout this book.  The possible activities you can perform in the classroom are endless.  You could have a small group book talk; have a debate over Sameness versus today’s society, a no-color activity, and memory treasure box. 

Black and White

Black and White by David Macaulay

Picture book for Grades

5 stars

                Black and White, at first appears to be four separate stories, but you soon come to the realization that they are all connected.  There is a story about a boy on a train, commuters waiting impatiently, some strange parents, and Holstein cows, that when they get out of the field they are almost impossible to find.

                When I first selected this book after reading the title, I thought it was going to be a book about discrimination of races.  Boy was I wrong.  This book is absolutely incredible.  So much is going on in this book that you have to reread it to catch all the things you missed.  Each page has the four stories, split up into quadrants.  The first page of the book even has titles for each story.  Even though we normally read left to right and top to bottom, I caught myself reading the story that was in the bottom right corner before the top left one.  And one of the stories has words every few pages, so I would look back and compare the pictures. It was also a lot of fun to see the connection between all the stories.  With the Holstein cows escaping and causing the train the little boy is on to stop and the commuters having to wait longer because the train was delayed.  But the part that I loved the most about the connections was how some characters were in more than one story.

                There are endless teaching opportunities to derive from this book, and I think that might be why I love it so much.  So many discussions about different perspectives when writing, why is the title Black and White, finding details, connecting text to illustrations, etc.  There are a lot of literary elements being covered in each individual story, but also the book as a whole too.

Come Along, Daisy

  Come Along, Daisy by Jane Simmons

Picture book PreK-2^nd

5 stars

            “Come along, Daisy,” says Mama Duck.  But Daisy the duckling does not.  She is too busy chasing dragonflies and bouncing on lily pads.  Then, when she looks around, Mama Duck isn’t there anymore and Daisy is all alone.

             I love this book because it reminds me of my two-year olds that I watch at the daycare I work at.  I am always keeping an eye on them; to make sure they are following instructions and staying near me.  Also, the first time I read this book, I read it with my nephew who is about 18 months.  He has read it before and could point to Daisy and say her name.  This was phenomenal to me, and looking back on it, it reminds me of Mem Fox and her theory of reading aloud to children.  The illustrations are a wonderful form of acrylic painting and are fun to look at.  One of my favorite pictures is when it is a view of a tiny Daisy in the marshland weeds and the hawk is huge compared to Daisy.  Then you catch a glimpse of Daisy’s mother on the river right next to Daisy.  As the reader you are thinking, “Daisy is so close to her mother and she doesn’t even know it!”

            This book is a wonderful and gentle cautionary tale for children to stay near their parents when out and about.  As I said before, children love this book.  It is great for students who are just beginning to recognize words and the sentence structure.  I even had my nephew “read” me the story because he said, “I can’t read.” and tossed me the book.  I made him tell me what happened on each page before I read it to him. 

Frog in a Bog

Frog in a Bog by John Himmelman

Picture book for Grades K-3

Three stars

                Himmelman leads children through natural events that occur on a typical day in a bog, beginning with a frog hopping into some moss.

                This book shows how everything in nature and in a bog is connected.  I found this book to be informative of different types of plants, insects, and animals.  Instead of simply saying, “a turtle, a fern, a flower,” Himmelman said specifics.  It was kind of boring, in the sense that it is not really about a frog and there is not a plot/story.  I do love the complete circle that Himmelman makes with starting about a frog hopping onto some moss and ending with the frog again. 

                 This would be perfect for a science class though.  I brought it to read to 6^th graders while they were on their School of the Wild field trip, and they loved it.  It made them think about what they have learned this week and about things that they never really thought about before.  Himmelman has made a number of nature related picture books, and you can check out his website too.

The Wall

The Wall by Eve Bunting

Controversial Picture book

Grades K-5

Four stars

                A young boy and his father travel to Washington D.C. to visit his “grandfather’s wall.”  Bunting never says that it is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial during the story; only at the end does she give a little description of it.

                I found this book to be nowhere near controversial.  It may discuss a somewhat controversial topic, but Eve Bunting covers it well to make it accessible to young children.  I found the muted watercolor instructions a perfect fit for the story.  And, it shows how war affects everyone.  When the father says, “He was just my age when he was killed,” makes your heart go out to those with family members who died at war.  The little boy was having a hard time connecting to this person who he never met.

                I would use this book in my classroom with no question.  The Wall, does a nice job covering the impact war can have on us and its consequences that we deal with.  It might be a touchy topic, but to ignore such a thing would be insane.  It is a great book to read on Veterans Day or Memorial Day, and also when you would be discussing Vietnam War and its aftermath.  It might be hard or more challenging if there was a student in your class that has lost a relative or a loved one in war, but as the teacher we should not ignore it.   

The Un-Wedding

The Un-Wedding by Babette Cole

Controversial picture book

Ages 6-12

Two stars

            Mr. and Mrs. Ogglebutt hated each other, and their children started to think they were the ones who caused them to hate each other.  They asked their pastor for help and he suggested an un-wedding.  Un-wedding invitations were sent out, an un-wedding cake was ordered, they said “I Don’t”, and they even had their own un-wedding honeymoons.  The children had two houses built for each parent and everyone lived happily ever after apart.

            This book makes divorces sound like a happy affair.  And the kids benefit from it because they get two of everything now.  Cole never says “divorce” in the book, but it is definitely implied.   This solution would work metaphorically, but I feel that Cole is ignoring the confusion and worry that can sometimes tag along with a separation of parents.  Also, a pastor would never agree to host an un-wedding.  The water colored pictures are light and funny.

            I feel that this would go well with the younger kids who are going through divorce because they need to understand that it is for the better and that they aren’t the only ones going through it.  There is a part in the book where the kids post a sign at school saying there will be a meeting after school for kids with problem parents, and a lot of students show up.  It would be a good starting point for a discussion with a student about a divorce. 

 

The Magic Tapestry

The Magic Tapestry Retold and illustrated by Demi

Grades K-3

Three stars

            Long ago there lived a poor weaver and her three sons.  One day, she was inspired and started working on a new tapestry that took her three years to make.  After she finished it she laid it out and it blew away in the wind.  She asked her three sons to retrieve it for her, and the youngest one went through terrifying obstacles to win back his mother’s tapestry stolen by fairies.

            This book was not one of my favorites because the two older sons were not loyal to their mother.  When they went to retrieve the tapestry they took the box of jewels instead of going through fire and ice to get to the tapestry.  It was disappointing to me.  I also did not care for the ending.  The young son catches the eye of one of the fairies, and when he takes it to his mother the fairy is on/in the tapestry.  Then the tapestry came to life and the son and the mother were also in the tapestry.  It was an odd ending to the story.  But I did like the setup of the book with the text in the bottom left or right corner and the pictures outlined with a solid background and always one little item coming out of the border.  It is simple yet beautiful. 

            The culture of the Chinese really comes out in this book.  The author tells on the back of the book that she stumbled upon the story when she was researching Chinese fabrics and the looms they were woven on.  “The Chinese, who invented the loom, believed that the weaving of two threads symbolized the weaving of heaven and earth,” Demi explains.  And this story reflects the significance of that metaphor in the Chinese culture.  This book would be essential in a lesson on Ancient Chinese cultures in Social Studies.  It could also be used in an art class and they were going to make tapestries. 

Higher Power of Lucky

Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

Ages 9-11

Five stars

            Jacob and I were on our way to Des Moines for the weekend, which is a two-hour drive.  I brought along Higher Power of Lucky to read, but I felt bad leaving Jacob to a boring drive, so I asked him if I could read aloud to him in hopes practicing reading a chapter book aloud (which I’ve never done before).  Surprisingly he agreed.  We got about a third of the way through the book, and I never finished reading it for him.   When I did finish it he asked me what happened, and I felt that I had to tell him almost everything that happened to Lucky otherwise he wouldn’t get the full experience like he did in the beginning. 

            I really enjoyed our discussion on the symbols and metaphors of the book.  Discussing a book is probably one of my favorite things to do after reading it.  One thing that I noted while reading this book is the writing style of Susan Patron.  We entered into Lucky’s point of view from the first sentence of the book, “Lucky Trimble crouched in a wedge of shade behind the Dumpster.”  Why is dumpster capitalized? Since I was reading it aloud, I questioned it even more.  I didn’t know what it meant and why it was capitalized.  You later find out that this is a common area/place to Lucky and would be considered a proper noun.  I think this would be a very interesting conversation to have with children.

            The few pictures speak a thousand words in this book.  I didn’t realize till I was completely finished with the book what the cover really resembled.  I knew it was Lucky but I didn’t know that she had her mother’s urn in her other hand and that she was wearing Bridgette’s red dress.

Two of Everything

Two of Everything: A Chinese Folktale

Retold and illustrated by Lily Toy Hong

Grades K-2

Three Stars

            An old, poor, Chinese couple found a pot, in the field they were plowing, that doubles everything you put in it.  One day, the wife was startled and fell into the pot, so there was two of her!  Then the husband tripped over the pot and there were two of him!   They decided that everyone could live happily since there were two couples.

            The first time I read this story I was a little concerned when the lady feel into the pot because she is essentially cloning herself.  How did they know which one was the ‘real’ one and did they have the same personality?  Also, it seems very weird to have the same couple live right next to each other and all of their possessions the same too.  Overall it was a nice story, but not one of my favorites.

            In the classroom, this would offer some culture diversity through literature, since it is a Chinese folktale.  I might also use it for predictions by pausing the book and discussing with their neighbor what they might do if there were two of you.  I think this would offer students to be really creative.  Or what they would do with a pot that made two of everything.  It would be a great writing tool.  Two of Everything could also be a great intro to a mathematics course on function machines with input and output.  The pot doubles everything you put in it.