Starting School

A: Starting School
B: Franzeska Ewart
C: Leonie Shearing
D:Parragon Publishing
E: Realistic Fiction/Picture Book
F: preK-K, maybe 1st

This is a story about a little girl, Sadie, and a little boy, Sam, who are just now starting school. Sadie is very excited but Sam is pretty nervous about the whole school thing. They get there and have to say their first goodbyes to their parents and go inside the classroom, they put their stuff away and do puzzles and paintings, etc. They get introduced to the class pet, a gerbil named George, Sadie is very excited about having a class pet. They get to play on a playground, which was just fantastic because it was huge and had lots of games for the kids to play. They do music and movement exercises, learn to write simple words and write numbers and at the end of the week one of the children get to take George home. Sadie is so excited, she hopes that she will be the one that gets to take him home, and it turns out that she is the lucky one to take him home first. On Friday while the children line up to go home Sadie tells Sam that she likes school and he agrees with her.

This book is one that is not really for sheer entertainment, it talks about something that every child goes through, separation anxiety and the fear of new things as well as excitement. Most children are afraid on their first day of school and this book shows them that other children are as well and that it is very likely that they are going to have a great experience at school, even though it might seem very scary. I think this would be a great book for a parent to read to their children before they have to go to school for the first time. I would not consider this a great book by any means, it is more of one that I would suggest to parents to read to their children before they come to school and not really one I would keep in my classroom. This was a book that my mom let me borrow so it is nothing that I have ever heard of before. The book was alright, it was not outstanding by any means but it was still informative and it would be worth a read to a five year old who is about to go to school for the first time. ( I also could not find any illustrations from this book when I searched on Google.)

Feathers and Fools

A: Feathers and Fools
B: Mem Fox
C: Nicholas Wilton
D: Harcourt Brace & Company
E: Picture Book, Animal Fiction, Fable

F: 2-3

This was a story about two different types of birds and how they were afraid of each. They allow themselves to become afraid of each other because of the differences that they saw. In the end these fears ended up killing the birds. They started to make weapons because they were afraid and it ended up destroying all of them. After the peacocks and the swans had died from a battle there was a peacock born and also a swan. When they walked into each other they were very curious about each other and discovered that the only difference that they had was the color of their feathers, they both had two eyes, feathers, two legs, and a head. they became friends and went off in peace and they were not afraid.

I loved the meaning behind this book, there was an excellent message that everyone can appreciate and should take to heart. The lesson of equality and not being judgmental. The illustrations were breath taking and could not have had anymore expression just within themselves. The pictures added so much to the story, just the way that the were done and were more than just paintings, they were very symbolic. Even if a child could not fully understand what was going on in the illustrations, since they are a bit abstract, the text would explain everything easily so that one could understand.  The medium that is used for this extraordinary picture book is acrylic on illustration board.  It is always amazing to me to see how people can make such beautiful works of art, I know that it must be very difficult, something I could never do but wish that I could.  The illustrations in this book are one page type, although both pages are illustrated.  The right page is always the main painting but on the left there is always just a little extra, more details added if you will.  I love how Wilton did this with the pages that are on the left, I think it just shows how much work he put into doing this book and in my opinion it makes it seem like he really enjoyed this book since he did do those little extras on the left hand page.  I think children and art lovers alike would be able to appreciate this picture book!

I would suggest to any teacher that the reading and showing of this story would be an excellent idea. It could be used at any time especially when talking about inequalities. It teaches a good lesson and is a fresh spin on an old principal, this is the kind of story that is timeless. With the children you could get them to talk about why the peacocks and the swans were afraid of each other, and then talk about if it is fair or not and what could be done to make this problem not happen in the future.  I believe that it is important for children to understand how prejudice is something that is wrong and something that no one wants to experience.

The Straight Line Wonder

A: The Straight Line Wonder
B: Mem Fox
C: Marc Rosenthal
D:MONDO Publishing
E: Picture Book, fiction
F: K-1

This is a book that is about three straight lines, one day one of the lines gets tired of always being straight. So this line starts to do all kinds of crazy things, he bends and twists. The other two lines do not like the fact that the one line is doing all kinds of crazy things, they yell at him and tell him to stop doing that, that he will be embarrassed and people will stare at him. But the line does not care and he keeps on doing those silly things and in the end it is a good thing. One day the line is spotted by a famous film director and the director thinks is he fabulous. The director makes him into a famous star. The other lines are not jealous but they do tell everyone they meet that they are his friends.

If I were a child I would absolutely love this book! It is amazing, I love the illustrations and how the line does all kinds of crazy things. I think it is fantastic. The text of the story has such a great message that I think everyone could appreciate! The drawings were everywhere on the page and it was never predictable where they were going to be on the next page, it kept my attention so well, I do not know how a child would not be entranced by this book. Aside from the Divine Wombat this is one of my favorite Mem Fox books, that I have read thus far.

This book would open up an excellent conversation or lesson plan on individuality and how important it can be. You could open up the floor for the students to tell you about how they interpret what individuality means and what it is to them. Also getting them to make a list of everything that they think that makes them an individual.

Sophie

A: Sophie
B: Mem Fox
C: Brenda Lynn Robinson
D:Ian Drakeford Publishing Pty. Ltd.
E: Picture book, Multicultural
F: K-1

This is a very simple book with no more than 14 words per page. It is all about a little girl named Sophie and she loves her grandpa very much. As he grows older her grandpa grows smaller and slower. In the end her grandpa dies and she is sad until she has a child of her own.

This book, honestly was not a favorite of mine. There was not much context to the book, no real meat to the story. And I was not very fond of the ending, it just said that she was sad after her grandpa died but then as soon as she had her own child "sweetness filled the world, once again". I suppose the point was just to talk about the cycle of life but it made death seem like something that can be solved with having a child. Aside from the text I was intrigued by the illustrations they were so unique and like nothing I had ever seen in a children's book. They were made using acrylics, dyes and house paint on rag cloth. I have never heard of paintings being done like this and I thought it was a great thing to do for a children's book.

The only way that I can think to use this book would be to talk about the cycle of life. Also you could talk about how the illustrations are so abstract and exaggerated and see if the children could do paintings like the ones that are in the book.

Baseball Saved Us

A: Baseball Saved Us
B: Ken Mochizuki
C: Dom Lee E:Lee & Low books
F: Historical Fiction, Multicultural, Picture Book
G: K-3

This was a book, written for the perspective of a child, that was about how the Japanese were forced to live in internment camps after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. In the book he describes how life was before they went to the camp, which was not good at all, and then how it was in the camp and it ended talking about what life was like after they had returned from the camps. The only source of entertainment they had was a baseball field that the boys father built.

I was doubtful at first when i picked up the book, but I had no idea what it was about. It reminded me a lot of what we have read of Weedflower. The similarities in the two is striking, the details are almost exactly the same. It also reminded me of Aleutian Sparrow, although they were a different race and ethnicity the same thing happened to both of these people, they were persecuted for things that were not true and totally unfair. Once I started to read the book I really enjoyed it, even though the topic is a bit on the depressing side. I really liked how the father had the idea to build the baseball field so that everyone could have something to enjoy and occupy their time. The boy seemed to be as optimistic as possible which I thought was a really good character trait. The majority of the pictures were single page including the panel type illustrations. I read on the copyright pay how the illustrations were done and it blew my mind. It from beeswax that was scratch out and the oil.

One connection that could be made is to talk to the students about fairness and treating others like equals. It would be perfect the use when talking about Japan and the Japanese people, it could follow, or proceed, reading Weedflower. They complement each other well, for younger children they probably would not be able to understand all of Weedflower but they would be able to grasp the concepts of Baseball Saved Us. You could talk about how there is a difference is sides of everything that happens, including World War 2. Another thing that would work well is trying to simulate what happened to the Japanese in the classroom, could be interesting.

Wombat Divine

A: Wombat Divine
B: Mem fox
C: Kerry Argent
D: Harcourt Brace & Company
E: Fiction, Animal Fiction,Picture Book
F: K-2.5

This is one of THE most adorable books I have read in a really long time!!


Wombat Divine is all about a little Wombat in Australia who just wants to be a part of the Nativity play. Christmas is his favorite holiday and now he is finally old enough to go and join his friends and be a part of the play. So he hurries over to audition to be in the play. All of his friends are there and he is so eager to get a part in the play. He tries many different parts but is either too big, to heavy, to short, to sleepy, too clumsy, to shortsighted and finally there were no parts that appeared to be available. He was really upset that he was not able to get a part in the play and was almost in tears when someone remembered that no one had been given the part of baby Jesus, so this was given to Wombat and he "was so dizzy with pride"!

I am not sure as to what the medium used in this book is but I talked to my roommate who is an art major and she said that it looked like mostly water color with maybe some guach(No clue how to spell it). For me the illustrations are what really makes this book pop for me. I suppose it is really the text with the illustrations that make it so wonderful. The majority of the book is single page style with each page showing a different scene that goes along with the text. I love the one when Wombat is trying to be Gabriel and they are hoisting him up, or trying, and it just won't work, the expressing on Wombats face is to die for(I tried to get a picture of it off the web but still have not found one). I love stories where the characters are animals and in this book that is all that is seen and they were painted to where they look exactly like they do in real life, despite the fact that they are putting on a play and wearing costumes.

One teaching connection would be to talk about how eagerly Wombat wanted to have a part in the play and it seemed that he was not fit to do anything in the play, but he kept trying and trying to do the best he could. You could point out how he kept trying and talk to the children about perseverance and to keep trying even if it seems like nothing will work out, something always works out you just need to keep trying and one day it will come.

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge

A: Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge

B: Mem Fox

C: Julie Vivas

D:(Originally by Omnibus Books in 1984)

E: Fiction and life/Picture Book

F:  Younger Elementary School

This is such a fetching little book.  It is all about a small boy named Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge.  He has four names and his favorite person in the world is an old lady who just happens to have four names as well, Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt.  He lived next to the "old persons home" and so he was always over there and he knew every last one of them. There are many different types of older people in the home and they all do different things with Wilfrid Gordon but in accordance with above Miss Nancy is his favorite and he tells her all of his secrets.  One day his parents are talking about Miss Nancy and said that she was losing her memory, well Wilfrid Gordon did not understand the concept of memory so he set off to find out what it meant.  He talked to all of the people at the home and each person gave a different answer on what they thought was memory.  So then Wilfrid Gordon goes home and he starts looking for memories of his own to give to Miss Nancy, he gets sea shells, a puppet, a medal from his grandfather, his football, and a warm egg from under a hen.  He brings Miss Nancy his basket of memories and she starts to remember some of her own and then she remembers all of the secrets that she and Wilfrid Gordon had told each other. It ends here on a happy note, "Miss Nancy's memory had be found again".

The illustrations in this book mirror and follow the text very well.  I am not quite sure what the medium that was used is but I think that there has to be some watercolors in there with maybe pen or pencil.  The majority of the book had single page images while there were a couple of double page spreads.  Even without the pictures I think that the text of this book could hold your attention fairly well, it is just a cute little story about a small boy and his friend who happens to be much older than him.  The Images in this book are very realistic and charming.  the only thing about the pictures that would be false is some of the proportions of the older people.  Which I thought was really cute because that is probably how he felt when he was standing next to those tall men and women.

This could be used to help talk to children about older people and how we should treat them just the same as everyone else.  To be respectful to those who are older than us.  Also talking about curiosity would be something to discussed and I bet it would find some interesting conversations with in that context.  You could ask the students to think or maybe write down something that they are curious about and then you could talk about them in class and see if the answers could be found, which could integrate the internet into a class activity.  A safety talk could be appropriate there if it had not been done yet or in a while.  You could possibly talk about how you need to be careful of strangers and it is generally not ok to just go into the home and start talking with the residences. Those are just a few of what could be done with this book.

The Fortune Tellers

A: The Fortune Teller

B: Lloyd Alexander

C: Trina Schart Hyman

D: Dutton Children's Books (Division of Penguin Books USA Inc.)

E: Picture Book, Fiction

F. 2nd - 4th (?)

This was a story about a young carpenter, his name is never revealed, who lives in the country of Cameroon. He was very unhappy with the trade he was in and wondered if this is what he would do the rest of his life. He caught wind of a fortune teller that was coming to the town next to his, so he set off immediately to go and talk with the man and see if he could get his questions about his life figured out. The first thing that the fortune teller says is a prediction that the carpenter will become rich, "On one condition: that you earn large sums of money". After the fortune teller said that he had the carpenter hooked and he gladly paid the man. The carpenter asked all kinds of question, about being famous, getting married, and living a long life. With every question asked the fortune teller told him good news but always with one condition to it. He started to walk away after his initial questions had been answered but stopped and decided that he had more questions to ask so, he turned around and ran back to where the carpenter was. Once he got there he found the room empty and the cloth merchant's wife came in (the owned the room that the fortune teller was using) and thought it was a miracle that the fortune teller had preformed. She thought that he had turned himself from an old man into a young and handsome man. She would not believe anything the carpenter said so she made him tell the family their fortunes. Pretty quickly people kept coming and giving him money and so he decided that he would give up being a carpenter and pretend to be a fortune teller since the money was so easy. He ended up getting everything he wanted; fame, riches, a wife, and he lived a long time. Then we come to find out what really happened to the original fortune teller, he had fallen from the balcony, fell into a cart with a running bull carrying him into the savanna, was chased by a lion up a tree, broken a hornet's nest, got carried off by a GIANT eagle, and finally dropped into a river and was never seen again. The carpenter thought fondly of the fortune teller but he lived a long and happy life in his new profession.

This was a WONDERFUL picture book, quite humorous and entertaining to say the least. I think that it would easily keep the attention of any child while either reading, listening or even just looking at the illustrations.

Now the illustrations were one of my favorite parts of this book. Trina Schart Hyman did an excellent job. They were so vivid and realistic, it was so easy to visualize what the carpenter would see on his journey. I loved how whenever the fortune teller would speak of a prediction for the carpenters life there would be an illustration that had a little different of a hue to it, like it was what he would imagine it to look like if it did indeed come true. The colors were magnificent! I am pretty sure that most of the illustrations would be considered double page because most of the time the pictures flowed from the left page to the right page of visa versa. I love how the book does this it just makes the story flow so smoothly. At one point there was even a page turn effect, when the fortune teller was having to deal with all his problems that lead to his disappearance. The medium that was used was comprised of four different eliminates all of varying kind: ink, acrylic, and crayon and it is done on Arches watercolor board. I believe that the art alone would be interesting enough for a very young child just to look at, the colors are just so bright and vivid!

Over all I thought that this was a really cute story and the illustrations were beautiful. I tried to pick something other than an ordinary picture book and saw on the list that he was considered to be a writer of fantasy, even though the majority of the books i found by him were chapter books.

Me

I come from unknowns
Blood unknown
From things never said
I come from love
Loss and broken home
I come from beliefs no longer believed
I am grilled cheese and "Stack-A-Meal"
Extravagant Holidays
Become a world traveler, to continue
I am music and art
Bad habits and Bad attitudes
I am the life I have become
"Adult" yet a child,
Lover of all things living
Striving to understand those things that evade me
I STAND STRONG DESPITE DEFEAT

Response to the picture book "Moses"

A. Moses:When Harriet Tubman Led Her People To Freedom
B. Weatherford, Carole Boston
C. Nelson, Kadir
D. Hyperion Books for Children
E. Picture Book, Realistic Fiction
F. Ages 4-6


I was simply blown away by the illustrations that were in this book. They were breath taking! I believe that it was done with oil paints, which make for such a rich illustration and it can appear very realistic. The illustrations make the book, not that the text was not inspiring but the painting...
Another thing that I loved about this book was how the text would flow across the page. I like how when God talked to Harriet that the text was different and it would always offer advice to her and help her on her journey to a free land.
I believe that the text alone would hold the readers attention especially since the way the text would flow around the pages and even encircling Harriet on the one page. The text, on a more adult level is very inspiring, the book says that its for 5-8 year olds but I am not sure if they would be able to get all the truths out the story. It is a pretty heavy topic for kids to grasp and understand but I think they would be able to get a lot of good information out of the story! I think that they would really be able to appreciate the pictures and see them for what they are worth even though they might not fully understand what is being said in the story.
The art in the story is extremely accessible and very interesting, at the very least! I think that children would appreciate the art work but I am not sure that they would fully understand and appreciate the art work. If the children did not fully understand the story I think that they would be able understand more through the pictures and be able to know what it is talking about, perhaps.
I think that the medium that was used was the best one that would have been chosen for this book. It is a heavy topic that is something that is very realistic in our history and I do not think that using something other than a realistic medium would be able to convey was well as what was done.
I did not really dislike anything about this book, the only thing that I would have liked to have seen would have perhaps been the pictures being a bit lighter so that you could enjoy the details of the paintings. I do understand that it is a heavy topic and the pictures being darker makes it more realistic for what is happening in the text.
Over all I loved this book and absolutely thought it deserved all of the recognition and awards it got!

Response to "What Do You Do..."

A. What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?
B: Page, Robin
C. Steven Jenkins
D. Houghton Mifflin Company Boston
E. Picture Book, Realistic Fiction
F Age group k-3


I love how the book has further descriptions of the animals in the back of the book! I love when small picture books can be so educational to children, even though they just think that they are reading a cool, funny book.
I think one of my favorite illustrations in the book was the one of the skunk! It was so cute and it look so life like with the tail done the way that it was. Also the Bush Baby was really really cute!
I loved how at first glance you did not necessarily know what the animal was until you turned the page and then it told something about the animal so that they can guess what animal it was before looking at what it actually was. I think the text goes so well along with the illustrations and keeps the reader very engaged. It gives just a tidbit of information of the animal a look at the body part that is going to be described and then it is revealed on the next page along with an interesting fact about the animal and how they use that part of the body.
I loved how it uses cut-paper collage to illustrate the animals it gives it it a more rich image of the animals in a unique way. I think it can make them look more realistic vs using just water color or oil paints. I also really enjoyed how the animals were just placed all over the page and not just put in a line or in a very stoic placement. It would keep the children engaged because its not very predictable as to where the animals are going to be placed on the page. I think this book is very appropriate for the age group that it targets and would keep their attention very easily. Its very easy to see how it was a awarded the Caldecott Honor!
For me there was nothing about the book/illustrations that I did not like. I thought it was wonderful, as it would appear from what I wrote above. It was very engaging and the illustrations were fantastic!
This is a fantastic picture book and I would never hesitate to use it in my classroom!