Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Doreen Rappaport

Non-fiction

http://voicethread.com/#u277452.b417527.i2208076

Creepy Crawlies by Hans Post and Irene Goede

Non-fiction

http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/698331/Creepy_Crawlies_by_Hans_Post_and_Irene_Goede

Music: An A-Z Guide by Nicola Barber

Non-fiction

http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/691090/Music%3A_An_A-Z_Guide_by_Nicola_Barber

Coral Reefs: Fact, Stories, and Activities by Jenny Wood

Non-fiction

http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/691107/Coral_Reefs%3A_Fact%2C_Stories%2C_and_Activities_by_Jenny_Wood

The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles

This non-fiction book details the story of an extraordinary girl! Ruby Bridges was born in Tylertown, Mississippi. Her father worked on a farm picking cotton. However, when the farmer invested in machines to pick the cotton, Ruby’s father lost his job. Her family relocated to New Orleans. There, white children and black children went to separate schools. But one day, a judge selected several black children to attend some of the white schools in the community. Ruby Bridges was one of the children the judge selected to take place in this historical event. Everyday, Ruby Bridges faced discrimination and prejudice. However, she found it in her heart to forgive people for the mean things they said and prayed that God would forgive them one day as well. I believe this book could be used in a lesson to integrate Social Studies and Reading instruction. This book would help give students an understanding of communities and schools in the past. I also believe that this book could be used to share with students the importance of forgiveness.

The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids: Aliens Don’t Wear Braces by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones

In this modern fantasy chapter book, Mrs. Jeeper’s students at Bailey Elementary School are interrupted during their science test by a flickering of the lights accompanied by a strange humming noise. They soon discover that their art teacher has mysteriously disappeared. However, about this same time, a woman with white hair and shiny braces walks into the office and offers to fill in for the missing art teacher. After Mrs. Zora was hired as the new art teacher, the students at Bailey Elementary started to notice that the school was beginning to lose its color, from the paintings in the hallway to the flowers outside. It seemed that Mrs. Zora was even taking the color off of student’s shirts and hair! The students began to wonder whether or not Mrs. Zora was an alien that came there to steal all of their colors. Some of the students decided that they were going to follow Mrs. Zora home one evening to see for themselves if she was indeed an alien or not. Much to their surprise, the students found what looked like an alien space craft hidden in her garage! A couple of students went back to Mrs. Zora’s house later on to try and get the colors back that she had been stealing from Bailey Elementary. But when Mrs. Zora suddenly appears, the students panic and hit a button that made what looked like a space craft explode. When they returned to school the following day, the students were informed that Mrs. Zora would no longer be teaching at Bailey Elementary, because she had so much damage to her house from the explosion of her kiln (her heater that she used to make pottery). Like the other Bailey School Kids book, I believe students can relate to this book, in that they probably have all had a teacher that they believed seemed a little strange. In addition, I found this book to be very interesting. The story line kept me engaged and wanting to read more!

The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids: Zombies Don’t Play Soccer by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones

In this modern fantasy chapter book, the Bailey Boomers soccer team receives a new coach after one player, named Eddie, drove their last coach away. Their new soccer coach is a woman that knows her soccer! She makes them practice hard for hours until they are completely worn-out. One day, during soccer practice a mysterious old woman appears and begins yelling at their new soccer coach. The old lady warns the coach that she “will be sorry” if she stays in Bailey City to coach. After that day, the kids on the soccer team started to notice that their coach was acting funny. She did not seem interested in the game of soccer anymore; she simply stared off into space during practice. Trying to understand what was going on with their coach, several players started naming possible issues. One player suggested that the old lady turned her into a zombie. Convinced that their coach was indeed a zombie, the players try numerous things, including tickling their coach and getting her to eat salt, which they thought would help her get out of this zombie state. Despite their effort, none of these things seemed to work. But on the night the Bailey Boomers were playing their rival team, the players remembered that their new coach always instilled the importance of teamwork among them. Although they were losing the game at the first half, the Bailey Boomers pulled it together and won the game. It was at that moment that their coach came out of her zombie state and was back to her normal self. I believe this book would be fun for students to read, because I feel that they could relate to playing soccer or some other sport. In my opinion, being able to relate themselves to the story would help increase their comprehension. Finally, I love that this book instills the value of teamwork. This is such an important concept for students to learn and I could not think of a better way to incorporate it than through a book!

The Biggest Birthday Cake in the World by Elizabeth Spurr

This fiction book reveals the value of sharing and friendship, while entertaining students with its pictures and captivating story line. The Richest-and-Fattest Man in the World likes everything over-the-top. It is no surprise that as his 40th birthday approaches, he asks his assistants to bake him the world’s biggest birthday cake. The Richest-and-Fattest Man in the World soon realizes he is unable to reach the top of his cake without the help of his townspeople. He plans on eating the entire birthday cake all by himself; however, a sudden incident forces him to change his plans. In the end, the Richest-and-Fattest Man in the World shares his birthday cake with others and becomes the Happiest Man in the World. I used this book in my classroom to provide a problem for my students to solve using technology. In groups, the students had to design a mechanism to help the Richest-and-Fattest Man in the World reach the top of his cake. My students really enjoyed this assignment! In addition, I believe this book can help remind students of the importance of sharing and valuing friendship.

Fantasy Rock by Joy Cowley

This modern fantasy/science fiction chapter book is relatively short, but is packed with adventure! In this book, Conrad joins his mother, who is the captain of a space craft called, The Phoebus, on a mission to collect a load of flash rock from Chiron and bring it back to Mars. This mission proves to be intense for several reasons. First, flash rock is “the most dangerous ore in the universe”. In fact, flash rock is very unstable and must be kept at the right temperature or it will explode. Second, one member of the crew did not want Conrad to be on the space craft at all. But, when the computer controls fail and temperatures start to rise in the wagon filled with flash rock, Conrad is the only person on the space craft who can squeeze through the tiny hole in an attempt to fix their problems. Conrad manages to solve the space crafts technical problems in the nick-of-time and saves the mission from disaster. This book really kept me on the edge of my seat! I can only imagine how elementary students would react to such an amazing story. I feel that this book would be great to use as an example of fantasy during a Reading lesson on different genres. In addition, I believe this book can show students how sometimes we need to use our imaginations to understand/write a story.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves: Why Commas Really Do Make A Difference by Lynne Truss

I absolutely love books that can help me teach concepts to my students! As the title hints to, this non-fiction book is a great way to inform students on the correct usage of commas and how they can change the meaning of the sentence. For example, the author begins by sharing a story of a panda who walks into the library, eats his sandwich, shoots a bow-an-arrow, and then leaves. Before he exists, the librarian asks the panda what he was doing. The panda replies by saying, “I’m a panda…that’s what it says we do”. The panda refers the librarian to a page that describes a panda as a “large black-and-white bear like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots, and leaves. The author then provides several more examples of how commas can drastically change the meaning of a sentence. The back of the book also provides explanations for the meaning of the sentences. I believe commas are an extremely hard concept to understand. In fact, the author even points out that, “the comma is the most used and misused” of all punctuation marks. So, as I stated earlier, I believe this book would be great to use as a supplemental material to teach the usage of commas.

Molly’s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen

This realistic/historical fiction book reveals issues regarding family and cultural diversity in school. When Molly’s family moves from Goraduk to rural America, Molly is forced to start a new school. One day, Molly’s teacher asks her to read a story to the class. But, when Molly has difficulty pronouncing and understanding the word “Thanksgiving,” she is laughed at by the other students. After explaining the term to Molly and the rest of the class, the teacher assigns them the task of building Pilgrim dolls for homework. Molly asks for help from her mother, who makes a Pilgrim doll that looked like her. The next day, Molly shares her Pilgrim doll with the class. She is again laughed at by her classmates, but her teacher intervenes this time to explain that Molly’s doll represents a modern day Pilgrim. Although this book is relatively short, I believe it brings up several important issues that people face regarding diversity. For example, the story points out the difficulty of learning and speaking the English language. In addition, as a future educator, I found this book to be enlightening on how I can introduce Thanksgiving and still acknowledge different cultures in my classroom.

The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco

This multicultural and international literature picture book reveals issues regarding family and culture. The narrator’s great-grandmother travels to America from her home country of Russia. Once in America, the great-grandmother is faced with difficulties speaking English and fitting-in with the rest of the world. Despite this, she had her dress and her babushka to remind her of her home in Russia. However, she soon outgrew her dress. Her family decided to turn the dress and babushka into a quilt. This quilt was used during special events, such as weddings and births. The quilt was passed down from generation to generation to use at these special events. The author, Patricia Polacco, reveals that it was her great-grandmother who arrived in America from Russia and started the family traditions associated with the quilt. In fact, Patricia Polacco intends on passing the quilt down to her own daughter someday. In our Social Studies Method’s course, we had a project in which we had to reveal an artifact that represented our family’s history. I believe this book would be great to use during a Social Studies lesson on family history and introduce a similar project. In addition, I believe this book is eye-opening to students about the difficulties that some immigrants go through once arriving in America.

Mercer Mayer’s: The Alien from Outer Space by Erica Farber and J.R. Sansevere

This book is a graphic novel adventure for sure! The story begins with the Critter kids looking forward to the weekend because a comet was supposed to pass over their town of Critterville. On the night the comet was supposed to pass overhead, all of LC’s friends came over to see the new telescope he received from his Uncle. While there, LC begins to tell his friends a story of how he pretended to be an alien during a blackout to save the real alien that landed in their town. The story ends with LC getting his sister to help trick his friends into thinking there was something outside of their tent. Although the word bubbles were hard to follow, I found that they helped add expression and meaning to the story at the bottom of the pages. This book also provides definitions and explanations of Science terms, such as “black hole,” to the reader. I found this aspect of the book to be wonderful, because it helped clarify the meaning of the story to the reader.

Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China by Ed Young

This multicultural and international literature picture book reveals a Chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood. In this particular version, it is the mother who leaves the home to visit the grandmother. She leaves her three daughters at home and tells them to keep the door locked and stay inside until she returns. Soon after their mother leaves, a wolf knocks at their door and disguises his voice to be that of their grandmother’s. Convinced that it is their grandmother, who they call “Po Po”, the three girls let the wolf in. Once inside, the wolf quickly does everything possible to avoid having the girls notice his real identity. Despite his effort, the girls pick up on their grandmother’s unusual attributes and cleverly make an effort to get him outside. The girls attracted the wolf to a gingko tree and tricked him into a basket, in which they repeatedly dropped and eventually caused his death. After clarifying his death, the girls went back to their house to wait for their mother to return. As you can see, this version of Little Red Riding Hood is drastically different. However, I believe both versions could be used during a Reading lesson to make comparisons among them. In addition, I like that this book could be used to introduce students into the Chinese culture and stories they have passed down orally.

Red Riding Hood by James Marshall

This folk literature picture book reveals the classic story of Little Red Riding Hood. In this version, Red Riding Hood is sent into the woods by her mother to deliver custard to her sick grandmother. As she is about to leave, her mother yells “Now whatever you do…go straight to Granny’s, do not tarry, do not speak to any stranger”. On the way to her grandmother’s house, Red Riding Hood comes in contact with a wolf. This wolf was very kind to her and Red Riding Hood begins to share with him information about where she is going. Soon, the wolf gets the idea to eat both Red Riding Hood and her grandmother. The wolf tricks Red Riding Hood to stay and pick sunflowers for her grandmother. Meanwhile, the wolf sets off to her grandmothers. Once there, the wolf convinces the grandmother that he is Red Riding Hood and she allows him to come in. After eating the grandmother, he tricks Red Riding Hood into believing that he is her grandmother and eats her too! After his big meal, the wolf decides to take a nap. A hunter walking past takes notice of the unusual snoring coming from the grandmother’s house and decides to go in. The hunter kills the sleeping wolf and rescues Red Riding Hood and her grandmother. To me, this version of Little Red Riding Hood seems to have more of a country influence. This can be seen through terms such as “Granny” and phrases such as “isn’t feeling up to snuff today”. In addition, unlike the Grimm Brother’s version of the story, the illustrations in this book seem to look more like cartoons. I also believe this book would be great to use during a Reading lesson, in which students compare different versions of the same story.

Little Red Riding Hood / Caperucita Roja by The Brothers Grimm

This book is one of my favorite folk literature books! In this version, Little Red Riding Hood is sent into the woods by her mother to deliver a jar of honey and a pie to her grandmother. Her mother warns her not to “dally along the way”. However, while walking to her grandmother’s house, Little Red Riding Hood meets a wolf. This wolf tricks Little Red Riding Hood into telling him where she is going with the food. The wolf decides that Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother would make a tasty meal and tricks Little Red Riding Hood into picking flowers so he can get away quickly to her grandmother’s house. Once there, the wolf tricks her grandmother into letting him into the house and eats her. After Little Red Riding Hood arrives, the wolf tricks her into believing that he is her grandmother and eats her too when she comes inside. The large meal makes the wolf sleepy and he soon falls asleep. Hearing unusual snoring, a hunter walks into the house and cuts open the wolf’s stomach to rescue Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother. As with all folk tales, there is a lesson to be learned from this story. I believe this story can teach students the importance of listening to their parents and not talking to strangers. However, what makes this book really special is that the text is written in both English and Spanish! This is great because it can help those students whose primary language is Spanish recognize English words. It may also help those learning Spanish as a second language as well.

The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas

As the title may hint to, this folk literature picture book is similar to the story of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. After being warned by their mother of the big bad pig, the three little wolves decide to build a house together. The wolves use bricks that they bought from a kangaroo to build their first house. Soon, the big bad pig comes by and tries to blow their house down, but when he does not succeed, he goes and gets a sledgehammer to finish the job. The wolves build a second house made of concrete and a third out of iron bars, barbed wire, armor plates, and heavy metal padlocks. Despite what they thought to be tough materials, the big bad pig uses a pneumatic drill and dynamite, respectively, to destroy the houses. Finally, the three little wolves decide to build a house of flowers. However, unlike the other houses they built, the big bad pig did not destroy this house. Instead, this house started a friendship among the three little wolves and the big bad pig. I read this story to my students at Swift Creek Elementary during a guided reading lesson. They were learning about different perspectives and I believe this book does a great job of putting the well known story of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf into a new perspective. In addition, I feel that this book could be used to demonstrate to students that sometimes what we think is best in a situation may not be. Finally, I feel that this book could teach students that people/characters can indeed change (for the better or worse).

Snow Day! by Lester L. Laminack

This realistic fiction picture book is one of my favorites! As the weather man announces the possibility of a snow storm, the narrator begins to think about all that he/she can do if the school announces – “Snow Day!”. For instance, the narrator gets excited about snuggling under a blanket in his/her pajamas, building a fort out of snow, and sledding down hills. As the narrator goes to bed that night, he/she is sure that there will be a snow day tomorrow. However, the narrator wakes up to see children running to the bus with their book bags and realizes that they do have to go to school. Both the story line and the illustrations in the book lead the reader to believe that it is the children that are excited about having a possible snow day. Nevertheless, the end of the story reveals that it is the teacher all along who has been wishing for a snow day. I believe this would be a great book to read to students if the weather man was announcing the possibility of a snow storm. This book provides examples of activities that can be completed on a snow day. Finally, I think that this book helps students see that teachers like to have fun too!

My Name is Maria Isabel by Alma Flor Ada

This multicultural and international literature chapter book reveals issues regarding cultural diversity and teacher/student relationships. After her family decides to move from Puerto Rico to the Continental United States, Maria Isabel Salazar Lopez is forced to start a new school. Already two months into the school year, Maria Isabel’s new teacher has two Maria’s in her classroom and insists on calling Maria Isabel, Mary. However, Maria Isabel is extremely proud of her name and culture and therefore, has a hard time adjusting to her “new name”. This issue ultimately prevents Maria from participating in the school’s Winter Pageant. However, in an essay entitled, “My Greatest Wish,” Maria Isabel wishes for her teacher to call her by her given name and allow her to participate in the pageant. After reading her essay, Maria Isabel’s teacher decides to grant Maria her wishes. Although my story is slightly different, I can relate to Maria in a way, in that growing up everyone insisted on calling me Candace instead of Candi. I tried not to let it show, but this really bothered me at times. I believe the most important thing I will take away from this book is that it is imperative to acknowledge/respect all students and their cultures in the classroom.

The Watson’s Go to Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

This realistic/historical fiction chapter book reveals issues regarding family, friendship, and prejudices. Kenny Watson and his family, known as the “Weird Watsons,” live in Flint, Michigan. In the beginning of the book, the audience is introduced to the life of Kenny and the rest of the “Weird Watsons”. When Kenny’s father decides that the family is going to visit their grandmother in Birmingham, Alabama, Kenny knows he is in for a treat. However, after they arrive in Birmingham, the Watsons find themselves in a world of prejudice. In the end, Kenny not only learns the meaning of the word prejudice, but also the value of family and friendship. I believe this would be a great book to introduce upper elementary students to prejudices that people may hold. Similarly, I feel that this book could be used as a supplementary material to begin a discussion on the United States, prior to the civil rights movement. Finally, I believe I could use this book to discuss issues that arise in relationships among family and friends, as well as the proper way to handle them.