Jayce A's Book Review 2

Ewart, Claire. The Giant. New York: Walker Publishing Company, 2003. Print.

                The Giant is the story of a young farm girl who just lost her mother. Before she died her mother told her that she would always have a giant watching out for her. As she works the farm with her dad, who is also trying to come to grips with losing his wife, the girl discovers that the giant she has been searching for is her father who always takes care of her when she’s in need. There aren’t many picture books I can think of off the top of my head that deal with death. I’m sure that there are some out there, but I’ve never read one before that I can think of. I think this book dealt with the subject in a way that kids in a similar situation could connect with, and I think it would be a great book for a child who lost their mother to read. Especially I think it would be a great book for the dad to read with his kids. Another thing I found interesting was the vocabulary used in this book. I think it would be very difficult for kids in an urban, or even a suburban setting to understand parts of this book as a lot of the words are very specific to farming. Terms such as: gosling, hitching horses, rafters, hayloft, mending harnesses, cattails, reins, and sack of feed. If however, a teacher was doing a lesson on farms, then maybe this would be a good book to teach or reinforce some of those concepts, as well as being a good book to  

Freedman, Claire. Where’s Your Smile, Crocodile? Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers, 2001. Print.

                Where’s Your Smile, Crocodile? Tells the story of a young crocodile who lost his smile. His mother tells him to go play and maybe he’ll find it. While walking around the young croc meets several animals who try to cheer him up, including a parrot who makes funny noises, a monkey who makes funny faces, and an elephant who blows big bubbles in the water, but none of it helps. Finally the croc finds a little lion cub whose lost and can’t find his home, so the crocodile helps him, and when they find the cubs’ home, the crocodile finds his smile. If I were reading this book to a class of students, I think there are some great lessons that could go along with it. One thing I would do is ask all the kids to think about what they do when they lose their smile (i.e. when they are having a bad day), what cheers them up again? We could make a list as a class of all the things that cheer us up, a hug, playing with friends, listening to our favorite music, or watching a favorite show. I would also ask the kids to think about why it was after they found the lions’ home that crocodile was able to smile again? Hoping that we could come to the conclusion that sometimes when we are sad, helping someone else in need is the best way to smile again. Through these activities I would help my students to connect with the text in a more intimate way, and lead them into higher order thinking about what they are reading.

Freeman, Don. Corduroy. New York: The Viking Press, 1968. Print.

                Corduroy is the story of a small teddy bear in a huge department store who is missing a button on his shoulder. A young girl wants him, but her mother says no, pointing out his missing button. Corduroy, embarrassed, is determined to find the button that night, but does not succeed. However, the next morning the girl returns to bring him home causing Corduroy to rejoice at finally having a home and a friend. I like Corduroy because in a simple childlike fashion Mr. Freeman captures how small we can feel when someone points out a problem they have with us, in Corduroy’s case his missing button. Yet, Corduroy does not give up, rather he takes resolve to seek out his button. Further, I love how Corduroy finds out what it means to find a true home and a true friend. I think this book could be used to open up conversations with children about all three of these very important subjects: How does it make you feel when someone points out something they think is wrong with you? How did Corduroy know he had found  a true home? And How did Corduroy know he had found a true friend?

Fagan, Cary. My New Shirt. Toronto: Tundra Books, 2007. Print.

                My New Shirt describes the story of how on his birthday a young boy, for the billionth time in a row, gets a new button down collared white shirt from his grandma, Bubbie. This year, however, he “accidentally” throws it out the window and his dog Pupik takes off with it. It’s a funny story describing the dire of a young boy being forced to where a white-collared shirt. What I found most fascinating though were the illustrations by Dušan Petričić. Every page has the same tannish background, and each picture is a snapshot photograph taken from the perspective of David, the young boy telling the story, and is taped onto the page like a scrapbook. Because of this, some pages have 5 or 6 small photographs, some have just 1 larger photograph etc… Since each snapshot shows David’s perspective on the story the text tells, some are very realistic, while others are very unrealistic, or at least very biased. For example one page shows David’s neck shrinking as the tight collar constricts around it and he gasps for breathe, another photo shows all of David’s past birthday shirts flying around like ghosts, haunting him. It was one of the most uniquely illustrated books I have ever read.

Dunbar, Joyce and Debi Gliori. Tell Me What It’s Like to Be Big. San Diego: Harcourt, 2001. Print.

                Tell Me What It’s Like to Be Big is the story of a very small rabbit, Willa, who gets up early one morning to make breakfast, but is too small to reach anything. So, she goes to wake up her older brother Willoughby, who gets up to help. Willa is amazed by her all the things her older brother can do since he is so big, and asks him to tell her what she’ll be able to do when she gets big. I think there is a lot of potential in these books to open up various discussions with students. One of the primary problems Willa faces is the concept in her mind that she is not big enough. Every one of us has gone through at one time or another the struggle of not “being [something] enough”, not strong enough, not smart enough, not good-looking enough etc…  Because this is a common struggle, I think students would be able to connect on a deep level with Willa. The other main character, her older brother, Willoughby can give students who are older siblings a character to relate to. We could ask questions like, “When Willa asked for help, as an older sibling what was Willoughby’s response? Did he make fun of his little sister for not being big enough to reach the bread and honey?” “Just like Willoughby looked out for his little sister, and helped her, and taught her, what are ways that you could help your little brother or sister?” I guess the overall theme I’m getting at is that this book provides two great characters for children to relate to. On the one hand the ability to relate to Willa for not feeling big enough to do something, and on the other hand the ability to relate to Willoughby for taking responsibility to look out for and help his younger sibling.

Jessica H

De Saint-Exupery, Antoine. The Little Prince. English Translation ed. Harcourt, 2000. Print.

                The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) is about a pilot who crash lands in the Sarah Desert, during his time in the desert he encounters a little print from another planet. The little prince teaches the pilot many life lessons while the prince searches for the secret of what is important in life.

                I absolutely love The Little Prince because the book emphasizes the innocence of childhood. The book is sold in children’s sections, being that it is short, written in simple text, and contains many pictures, this is understandable. However, I think that the deeper meaning of the book will only be understood by adults; it is very philosophical.

                To me, The Little Prince tackles many social issues that were prevalent at the time in which the book was originally written (1971) and are still seen today. His flower is vain, and causes him to leave. The ‘adults’ he encounters are only concerned with themselves; one is only worried about those who come to admire him, another with numbers and things he owns, and yet another is a drunkard. This is pretty intense stuff to cover in a children’s book! I think it is also pretty brave of Saint-Exupery to call out adults for only being concerned with themselves and their possessions, rather than what is really important in life. The even deeper issue in the book is that the prince, with a little help, realizes that he must return home to his rose and take care of her because he loves her. This is a very important message, you must take care of that which you love, and make painful sacrifices.

                I truly believe that everyone should read The Little Prince, this is the second time I have read the book (the first being in French) and I am still in love with it. The book is heart-wrenching and honestly made me cry, not only because of the prince’s innocence but also because of his undying love for his flower and his willingness to sacrifice everything.

                I would like to end my review with a quote, probably the most well known quote from the book:

“ Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

« Voici mon secret. Il est très simple : on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essential est invisible pour les yeux. »

Lindsey C - first book review

Shannon, David. Alice the Fairy. Sterling Heights: The Blue Sky Press, 2004. Print.

This is an adorable book about a little girl named Alice who pretends she is just a temporary fairy. She has a huge imagination that shows us all of her magic tricks. Although some of her tricks may not always work (because she is not a permanent fairy of course), she continues to use her imagination and do the best tricks she knows how. This book was a great read and I really enjoyed it because it shows children how to use their imagination. The book incorporated Alice’s parents, inanimate objects, and outdoor objects. For example, who wouldn’t want to turn bath time into a tub full of jell-o? Or how about changing your father into a horse? She mentions at the end that she thinks she will be a temporary fairy forever, which I think is a good message for children showing that they can always use their imagination and should not be afraid to use it! I think that a fun class activity to use with this book could be to ask the class to share what they do with their imagination and maybe even do a show and tell!




Shannon, David. Good Boy, Fergus!. New York: The Blue Sky Press, 2006. Print.

Good Boy, Fergus! is a fantastic book about the love and hassles a pet puppy can present in a home. Fergus did not listen for the majority of the time, but puppies usually are just so cute and cuddly that they win your heart anyway. I feel that this is a great story for children to read and see the pros and cons for having a pet. If they do not already have a pet then they get to visualize the responsibilities that they may have when getting a pet such as walking, feeding, cleaning, and training the animal. If a child does have a pet, then this book can be a great way for a child to compare stories and relate to. In a classroom, a good class activity could be to read this book and have the children share stories about their own pet, or if they do not have one, then have them share a pet they would like to have and what they would name it.




Shannon, David. No, David!. Sterling Heights: The Blue Sky Press, 1998. Print.

David was a bit of a rebellious child who never listened when his mother said “no”. He was sad after receiving his punishment for being bad, but after his mother hugged him and reassured her love for him he felt much better. David, like many children, do not know when enough is enough. They tend to try and push the limits as far as their parents allow them until they get punished. This book is a great way to show that although you may be sent to your room or put in the corner, your parents still love you and are just looking out for your best interest. Also, if you do what you are told the first time, such as not playing ball in the house, then it will be less likely that you would get punished. Therefore, this book is great for teaching children to listen and obey their parents and to stay out of trouble. To communicate with the students in a classroom, you can show them pictures of certain scenarios of children behaving good and badly and have them discuss the differences as well as the positive aspects of doing good things.




Shannon, David. The Rain Came Down. Sterling Heights: The Blue Sky Press, 2000. Print.

This book shows a fantastic example of a pyramid effect on a bad, rainy day. Once one thing went bad it affected not only that person, but the rest of the neighborhood as well. Things kept falling a part until all of a sudden… a beautiful rainbow shines in the sky and people finally realize that things are not so bad after all. I believe that this book could be a great example of how if you are having a bad day or are not in a good mood, then it can greatly affect other people as well. Children should know that although something may not be going as planned, that they can still be optimistic and find the “rainbow” in any situation. For a classroom activity, a teacher could have the students draw pictures showing a bad day that they have had. Next, the teacher could allow the students to share their pictures and tell their own story of their own bad day and how it could have turned good.



Shannon, David. Too Many Toys. New York: The Blue Sky Press, 2008. Print.

Poor Spencer had to do one thing that many children have trouble with… giving away his toys! Not all of them of course, but he struggled and argued with his mom about each toy until he finally gave some up or else his mom threatened to take away his television privileges. Once he did give up some of his toys, he found one NEW toy that he just had to have which was the box that contained all his old toys (so naturally he left them on the floor). I feel that many children can relate to Spencer mostly because each child goes through a stage where they must give away certain things. Many children are not okay with throwing out old toys or getting rid of their blanky; however, when getting rid of the old things in life you generally can get something new or different from it (such as Spencer’s new box)! For this story, a teacher could have students do a show and tell with their favorite toy or even possibly tell them to create their own toy like Spencer did with his box.

Jill N.'s Book Reviews

Rohmann, E. (2002). My Friend Rabbit. Brookfield: Roaring Brook Press.

Summary:
In this story, Rabbit and Mouse go on adventures together. Everywhere Rabbit goes, there is some sort of trouble. This story demonstrates the silly things that happen as he tries to get out of trouble.

Review:
I enjoyed this book very much, because the illustrations are so vibrant and eye-catching. Each animal has a different personality, and it would be perfect for an early primary classroom to illustrate the importance of friendship with others, even if they are different. When Rabbit gets into trouble, Mouse sticks by him, even though he makes some mistakes. Using this book as part of a larger friendship unit would help children understand that friends stick together, even through difficult times. Since the book is so visually engaging, the students would probably be very interested in the story, and they could even write their own version after reading My Friend Rabbit.

Wiesner, D. (2001). The Three Pigs. New York: Clarion Books.

Summary:
This story begins like a traditional three little pigs story, but then it takes a surprising twist! The pigs escape the story and go on adventures of their own, only to come back to the story with a big surprise for the wolf!

Review:
I thought this story was fantastic! I really liked that Wiesner took a traditional story and put his own twist on it. It really demonstrates that it is great to use your imagination. I think this book would be fun to do as part of a fairy tale unit in the second or third grade with kids. It could be paired with The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and Cinder Edna, among other fairy tale spin-offs, and the students could choose their own fairy tale and write their own version. This could be presented as a lesson on individuality, and how it is great to use your imagination and creativity to create your own ending to a very traditional story. The students could not only write their own stories, but they could illustrate them as well, and the class could have a camp-in with sleeping bags where everyone shared their new stories.

Allsburg, C. V. (1981). Jumanji. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Summary:
Jumanji is a story about two children who discover a mysterious board game in the park near their house. When they begin to play, they realize that it is not a game at all, and unless they finish, they are in very big trouble.

Review:
This story could be great to use in a classroom unit on the jungle—as long as the students have not already seen the movie. I would love to use Jumanji to complement lessons about the environment, animals, climate, geography, and other aspects of the jungle. It would be really fun to create our own jungle in the classroom, as inspired by the game. We could put lions, monkeys, rhinos, volcanoes, monsoons, snakes, and other jungle components in our classroom and turn it into a jungle. We could learn about what purpose all of these animals and things serve in the jungle and how they all work together. It would be so fun, and it would work beautifully with the text. As an extension, we could journal about how our parents would react or how we would feel if there were a real jungle in our houses! I think this would be a fantastic opportunity for the students to express their creativity and imagination in the classroom.

Say, A. (1993). Grandfather's Journey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Summary:
Grandfather travels from his homeland of Japan to America, and he loves it. After a while, however, he misses his home and goes back. No matter where he goes, he misses the other place, and his grandson soon learns that he feels the same.

Review:
This book would be perfect as part of a larger unit on culture and traditions. The illustrations capture both countries beautifully, and it would be very easy to find similarities and differences between Japan and America. It would also be interesting to draw the students into a discussion of why Grandfather misses both Japan and America. After looking at the illustrations, we could learn about Japanese culture, especially the dress, the geography of the country, food, and family. This would be very enlightening to the students, and if we combined this with social studies and writing, it could be a great thematic unit to use in the classroom. Also, we could discuss the concept of home, and find out if any students have moved to make it more relatable for them. We could find what what the students think is necessary for a place to be a home, and then use that to compare homes in different cultures.

McCloskey, R. (1941). Make Way for Ducklings. New York: The Viking Press.

Summary:
Mr. and Mrs. Mallard need to find a place to build their nest. They look all over Boston before choosing an island in the middle of the Charles River. They make friends with the people around them, and then once their ducklings are born, the whole family goes on an adventure to another island!

Review:
This book would be a wonderful start to a science/nature unit in which we learn about habitats. The students could start by deciding what Mr. and Mrs. Mallard thought they would need for their nest. Then we could explore why they needed those things. We could then launch that into a larger discussion of what some other animals need for their habitats. It would be a great way to introduce something that might otherwise be a tedious subject. Also, we could use this story as part of a unit on family and why family is important. The children could decide what makes a family, as well as what a family does. We could talk about the kind of family that the ducks are part of, and then read other stories such as And Tango Makes Three to learn about other kinds of families.

Jayce A, Book Reviews

Ringgold, Faith. Tar Beach. New York: Crown Publishers, 1991. Print.

Tar Beach tells the delightful story of a young black girl who dreams big as she flies with her little brother over the skyscrapers of 1930’s New York City. Cassie Louise Lightfoot, the flying dreamer, and Be Be, her brother, fly from the roof of her building, her Tar Beach, past the Union building, her dad’s construction job, and to the ice cream factory she dreams of owning. One important theme undertoning this book is race. At one point as Cassie Louise flies over the union building she mentions that her dad is unable to join “because Grandpa wasn’t a member.” Her grandfather wasn’t a member because he was black. She continues by saying that it doesn’t matter because some day her dad is “going to own that building…Then it won’t matter that he’s...colored or a half-breed Indian, like they say.” The beautiful urban paintings, and the inspiring words of Cassie Louise to dream and fly, and overcome racism and what they say, are a few reasons why I found this to be a great children’s book.

Rodman, Mary Ann. First Grade Stinks!. Atlanta: PeachTree Publishers, 2006. Print.

                First Grade Stinks is the story of a very opinionated young girls’ first day of first grade. Haley and her good friend Ryan start the day excited that they are no longer little kindergarteners, but soon Haley finds herself missing Kindergarten and not liking first grade one bit. By the end of the day, Haley loves first grade, and is very glad to no longer be a little kid. The story, told from Haley’s point of view does a superb job of portraying all the mixed emotions of excited, fear, anxiety, pride, sadness, and joy that a young child feels on the first day of school, or at the start of anything new. I was thinking about how this would be a great book to read on the first day of school. Some activities I would do with the book to help my students try to reach higher level thinking, and feel a deeper connection with the book would be to ask my students to all share something that they liked and did not like about their previous school year, and something that they are excited about, and scared about/dreading about the new year. We would write all these ideas that they come up with on a poster board at the front of the class. Another activity I thought would be neat to do to help the students connect more deeply with the text would be to have them draw a picture of themselves in their class from last year, and then to draw another one for this year. Activities like these I think are very important because they challenge students to engage with the books they are reading.

Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Peter Rabbit. New York: SeaStar Books, 2001. Print.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit is an old classic tale first published in England in 1902. Peter, as the author Beatrix Potter puts it, is “a naughty rabbit”, who does not listen to his mother but goes into farmer McGregor’s garden where he is given quite a scare, and despite escaping gets very ill after he returns home, and is not able to enjoy the meal of bread, milk, and blackberries that his other more obedient siblings get that night. This book reminds me a lot of the Hans Christian Anderson tales we read the first week of class. The story centers around the animal world, and the characters teach a moral lesson. In the case of Peter Rabbit the lesson is to listen to your mother, when Peter disobeys her he is scared, put in danger, and eventually gets sick and misses out on the yummy dinner his other siblings get to eat. Instead, he is in bed with nothing but tea. I find it very interesting how Michael Hughes’ illustrations reinforce this idea. On page 3 Peter and his siblings are pictured with their mother. Peter has his clothes unbuttoned, and is off to the side by himself, while his three siblings are all very well dressed, very proper and neat and orderly. Again, a few of the illustrations in the garden show Peter with his clothes unbuttoned, and a somewhat mischievous look on his face.

Parr, Todd. We Belong Together. New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2007. Print

In his book, We Belong Together, Todd Parr shares what he thinks it means for a family to belong together. In his own description he says it is “a book about Adoption and Families”. Mr. Parr in a simple, childlike way describes how the needs of a child can be met by the care of parents. What I love about the book is how the illustrations work together with the text in a pattern. The pattern is first there will be a picture of the child alone, and the parents saying to the child, “We belong together because…” of some need the child has, the next page shows the parents without the child saying, basically, “(We can meet that need)”, and the following pages show parents and child together and the text saying “Now, (we can do this together).” For example: “We belong together because you wanted to learn,/ and we had lots to teach you./ Now we can discover new places together.” I think this book would be great for orphanages, children in foster homes, and any couple considering adoption. My wife and I love this book, and yes, we hope to adopt someday. Mr. Parr teaches that a family does not have to look alike, or even be related, they just have to love each other, and live life together.

Numeroff, Laura Joffe. If You Give a Moose a Muffin. New York: Harper Collins Publisher, 1991. Print.

If You Give a Moose a Muffin, is the fun sequel to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. In the book a little boy shares a muffin with a moose, who then asks for jam, who then asks for more muffins, who then asks that they make more, who then asks to borrow a sweater, who then asks to sew, who then asks for old socks to make puppets, who then asks… One very interesting thing about this book is that while it was published in the same year as Tar Beach, it is quite the opposite kind of family. While Tar Beach was about a black family in an urban setting, the family in Moose is white, blonde haired, and lives in a house by the woods. While Tar Beach and Moose were both published in 1991, one displaying an all-black family, and the other all-white, in contrast the two books I have published in the 2000’s, First Grade Stinks and We Belong Together both have multi-racial characters. In First Grade, the main character is black, her best friend is white, and their teacher is Asian, while in Belong Together the characters are all different colors, blue, white, green, orange, yellow, black, purple etc. I wonder if this is a trend that is true on a large scale for children’s literature, that is the presence of more interracial characters in books in the 2000’s? It seems to me that that is what has happened in television cartoons for kids, where there are minority characters like Dora the Explorer who have gained a lot of popularity over the last decade.

Jessie Treadway's Reviews

Aardema, Verna. Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain: a Nandi tale. New York City: Dial for Young Readers, 1981. Print.

This story comes from the heart of Kenya telling of how a boy saved the day by bringing the rain when grass was dry and his animals were sick. The first thing I loved about this book was the way the tale is written. It is written as a poem that builds with another four lines added with each page giving the story a sing-song voice that is both delightful to read and to hear. The repetition of parts is also helpful for young children both to remember what is happening in the story as well as engaging them in the story since they are able to repeat remembered lines. The second thing I loved about the book was the pictures. I felt they really captured African scenery and animals which are things most American children have never seen before so through these pictures they are able to broaden their perspectives of the world. This is a great book to read aloud for all young children when talking about geography and different types of lands around the world.

Heine, Theresa. Elephant Dance: Memories of India. Cambridge: Barefoot, 2004. Print.

This story comes from a grandfather relating his memories of India to his grandchildren with such descriptive similes and analogies the reader feels like they are in India too. The illustrations in the story appear as though the children are coloring along with their grandfather’s story with such detail that the pictures could tell the story on their own. But the deeper message that this story conveys is about family and tradition. The way the family works together making dinner and dancing and shopping together shows how close each member of the family is with one another and although the children have never been to India, they have a connection to their culture through their grandfather and the stories he tells as well as their food. This would be a great story when talking about different cultures and students’ backgrounds. Discussions could be led on what kind of traditional food their family eats or what kinds of stories their parents or grandparents tell. Demonstrating that despite different cultures, we all have families and traditions we continue.

McDermott, Gerald. Anansi the Spider: a tale from the Ashanti. New York City: Henry Holt and Company, 1972. Print.

This story is from the ancient culture of the Ashanti in the country of Ghana which tells the tale of a father spider and his six sons that each uses their unique talents to save their father from danger and the special reward they receive for their help. I love this book for the message of teamwork it sends to children but mainly for the beautiful illustrations. McDermott’s use of bright colors, distinct patterns and shapes gives a child of any age the ability to enjoy this book. This book would be perfect for an art lesson or a geometry lesson because of all the different shapes and uses for those shapes. Children could use geometric cut outs and make their own story or they could go through the book and label all the shapes used. Even if the story is just a read aloud, attention must be paid to each page.

Millen, C.M. Blue Bowl Down. Cambridge: Candlewick, 2004. Print.

This sweet lullaby comes from the Appalachian highlands relating a daily ritual of a mother and baby baking bread together in a fun rhythm from which even a toddler could get pleasure. The repetition and gentle water colored pictures make this a soothing book great for nap time. Also the step-by-step process of making bread could be used for a lesson or discussion on working in the kitchen and the different utensils and methods of cooking. Another lesson from the book is one that possibly only older children could pick up on which is the history. The pictures detail life in a log cabin using lanterns for light, wells for water, and bread coming not from a store but from the work of a mother and child.





Mora, Pat. Sweet Dreams Dulces Suenos. HarperCollins, 2008. Print.

This bilingual bedtime story is wonderful for both English and Spanish speaking children and families. It goes through a grandmother tucking in her grandchildren telling them about all the different kinds of animals that are sleeping with each line written first in English then in Spanish. Every day the Spanish population in the United States is growing and so many children are starting school with little or no knowledge of the English language. It's terrifying enough to start school but to start and not be able to understand what your classmates or your teacher is saying as well only increases the sense of frustration, confusion, and isolation. This book would be a helpful addition to any early childhood classroom because it sends the message that children of all languages are welcome as well as teaching the children a little of both languages thus connecting classmates