Grandad's Tree

Title: Grandad's Tree
Compiled by: Jill Bennett

Illustrator: Julia Cairns

Publisher and date of Publication: Barefoot Books, 2003

Genre: Poetry, Picture Book
Age Range: K-2nd Grade

Summary: This is a picture book of poetry for young children about different families. The poems are written by different authors but compiled by Jill Bennett. Most, if not all, of the poems rhyme. The poems talk about what a family is; they're about moms, dads, grandparents, sisters, and hobbies that families do together.

Response: I really enjoyed these poems for younger elementary students. The illustrations are bright but look sort of like children drew them. The shapes are blunt and jagged but I still enjoy them. I like that the poems rhyme and I think children will like that too. I remember that when I was young, poems that didn't rhyme were scary. I still enjoy poems that rhyme better. I think that this book will show children that families can come in any shape or size. The way families are now, children grow up in all sorts of situations and I think that children will feel more comfortable about their family after listening to some of these poems. They may also hear a poem, and think "hey, my mom/dad does that!"

Teaching Connections: I think this collection of poems would be wonderful to read to a k-2 classroom and talk about the different types of families. Lower elementary social studies study families and this would be a great way to intergrate the two subjects. Middle to upper elementary students may also write a poem about their family.

Happy Birthday

Title: Happy Birthday
Poems Selected By: Lee Bennett Hopkins
Illustrated by: Hilary Knight
Publisher and date of Publication: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1991
Genre: Poetry, Picture Book
Age Range: K-2nd grade

Summary: This is a variety of different poems about birthdays and how exciting they are. Each poem has a different author. At the beginning, a little boy wakes up and it's his birthday and the whole book is a day long. It's all poems and they start at the beginning of the day and end at bedtime that night.

Respomse: I like this small book to use in lower elementary schools. There's not a lot to say about short poems like these but I think children would love to read them, especially on their birthday. The illustrations are bright and happy. All the poems rhyme, which is what I like and what small children are used to.

Teaching Ideas: I think it would be wonderful to use this book during the whole school year and read one poem on each student's birthday and maybe have each student write the poem and draw a picture. The birthday student could keep all the drawings. You could also revisit poetry each time you read a poem to review.

Ginger and Petunia

Title: Ginger and Petunia
Author and Illustrator: Patricia Polacco
Publisher and date of Publication: The Penguin Group, 2007
Genre: Juvenile Fiction, Picture Book
Age Range: K-3rd Grade

Summary: This is a story about Ginger and her pet pig, Petunia. Ginger dresses in fancy clothes, has a fancy car, and attended fancy meetings. Her motto is, "you are what you wear." She also teaches piano lessons all day. She treats her pig, Petunia like her daughter and had a mud hole
put in her backyard with a gazebo over it. Ginger got invited to a meeting in London and called someone to come take over her responsibilities at home. After Ginger left for London, the lady called and said she couldn't come so Petunia took over Ginger's responsilibilities. She even
dressed like her. She did very well but got anty for her mud bath after a while. When Ginger got back, she already knew all about it and they had a mud bath together.

Response: I really enjoyed this book. I think younger elementary students would love this story. It's an animal fantasy story because no pig can really dress up like a human and do everything
we can. Pigs also can't walk on two hoofs like humans can. Children would love hearing a story about a walking pig that knows what humans say. The illustrations are also wonderful. It looks
like she drew the pictures and colored it in with colored pencils. The book says that the pictures are rendered in pencils and markers. Many children have pets so they could identify with Ginger's fondness of her pet pig. I really like the picture of Petunia driving Ginger's sports car. Children will think this is so funny. It's amazing how much Ginger and Petunia look alike with the same outfits on. I wanted to read one of Polacco's works because during the author
study on her, they said that her books had closed endings and I like to know how everything ended. I think pictures of Polacco look like one of the Cosby kids on The
Cosby Show.

Teaching Ideas: Children would love to just hear this book. They might write
a story about what their pet might do if they left. You might also bring in
dress-up clothes for the children to dress up in and act out parts of the story.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Title: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Author: Bill Martin Jr, John Archambault
Illustrator: Lois Ehlert
Publisher and date of Publication: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1989
Genre: Alphabet Book, Picture Book
Age Range: K-1st grade

Summary: This is a cute story of the letters of the alphabet personafied. There's a coconut tree and the letters are trying to all get to the top. When the end of the alphabet gets up there, the tree falls over and they all fall out. Their parents, the capital letters, come to comfort them and bangage their boo-boos. All the letters have somekind of boo-boo and at the end "a" wakes up first and dares someone to catch him at the top of the coconut tree.

Response: I think this is such a wonderful book for kindergarteners and maybe first-graders. It's a older book (1989) compared to others but still such a good book for children. The age range on the book is 2-6 so you could even read this book to younger children. Children learning their alphabet would enjoy this book, in trying to figure out which letter comes next. The pages are so bright and colorful. It looks plain and bright but it's still so good. The letters are so bold. I really like the page with their parents. The parents are capital letters and the children are lower-case. I also think the bangages on the letters when they fall out of the tree is
really cute. I think that the title of the book fits well with the coconut tree.
It just wouldn't be the same if it was an oak tree or something.

Teaching Ideas: I think this book would be good to read in a kindergarten
classroom.Children may even be different letters of the alphabet and act out
the book. Children may use paint and alphabet sponge letters to put the letters
all over the page. Older children may decide to make their name or something
else. You may make a laminated coconut tree and alphabet letters and have
children take turns moving the letters as you read. Scholastic.com has a neat lesson plan for this book.
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3747842&FullBreadCrumb=%3Ca+href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww2.scholastic.com%2Fbrowse%2Fsearch%2F%3FNtt%3Dchicka%2Bchicka%2Bboom%2Bboom%26query%3Dchicka%2Bchicka%2Bboom%2Bboom%26Ntk%3DSCHL30_SI%26Nr%3DOR%2528Resource_Type%253ALesson%2BPlan%252CResource_Type%253AInformal%2BLesson%2BArticle%252CResource_Type%253AUnit%2BPlan%2529%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchallpartial%26N%3D0%26Nty%3D1%22+class%3D%22endecaAll%22%3EAll+Results%3C%2Fa%3E

Just the Two of Us

Title: Just the Two of Us
Author: Will Smith
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Publisher and date of Publication: Scholastic Press, 2001
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Picture Book
Age Range: K-2

Summary: This is a story written by Will Smith about becoming a father.
He talks about how much he loved his son when he was born and how he promised himself that he would be the best dad ever. With each page, the son gets
older and Smith stills talks about how he is trying to be the best dad and
how he would always be there for him.

Response: This book about made me cry. I didn't realize that the author was the famous Will
Smith. I loved seeing how scared he was when his son was born and how he
just loved him so much and how he would always be there for him. There's a
picture of Will Smith and his family on the back of the book but it was quite
a few years ago when it was taken. I didn't really know what this book was about when I checked it out but I loved it. I'm sure that his son loves reading
this book, knowing it was written to him. The illustrations are by Kadir Nelson and they're wonderful. Some words are bigger and emphasized to show how important
they are.

Teaching Ideas: This book does really have a lot of teaching ideas but I think children would love to hear it. Children could write what their parents say to
them or things that them and their parents do together. This book is sort of
a long poem so maybe the children could write their own poem about them and their parents. They may also pretend to be a parent to
their pet and write a poem to them. This would be a good discussion book for class. This may also be good for children in which their parents spilt up to understand that they still love them.

The Talking Eggs

Title: The Talking Eggs
Author: Robert D. San Souci
Illustrator: Jerry Pinkney
Publisher and date of Publication: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1989
Genre: Folktale, Traditional Literature, Picture Book
Age Range: K-4th grade
Awards: Caldecott Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Award

Summary: This is a Cinderella version in which Blanche is the sister treated badly and Rose is the spoiled sister. Blanche has to do everything but one day she meets an old lady. She promises the lady that she'll do what she asked and won't make fun of her. Because Blanche followed through, the lady tells her to go out back and pick the eggs that say "take me." She through them over her shoudler like she was asked and they turned into jewels and wonderful dresses. Her jealous sister tries the same thing but doesn't follow orders and ends up with snakes and flying insects.

Response: I didn'r recognize this story when I checked it out from the library but when I started reading it, I realized that I had heard this story before. I think it's wonderful that Blanche got the good stuff and Rose didn't. This would be good to read to children with the moral that if you do that right thing and do what you are asked, you will be rewarded. This story makes you happy that it ended up the way it should because at the beginning, you feel sorry for poor Blanche.

Teaching Ideas: This story has so many ideas to teach with. This could be incoporated in for older children studying the different versions of folktales, mainly Cinderella. At Easter, you may even read this and put "good" and "bad" things in the eggs and give children directions what which eggs to pick to see what they would do. Dress up the "bad" eggs and make the ugly eggs have the "good" things. I would do this before you read the story, so they don't know what you are doing. Children could write what they would have done or a time when they didn't make a good decision.

Rosa

Title: Rosa
Author: Nikki Giovanni
Illustrator: Bryan Collier
Publisher and date of Publication: Scholastic Inc., 2005
Genre: Biography, Picture Book
Age Range: 1st-5th grade
Awards: Caldecott Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Award

Summary: This is a different take on the Rosa Parks story. It starts with Rosa, working as a seamstress, sewing everyone's Christmas outfits. She leaves work and thinks about making her husband, Raymond, a meatloaf for supper, which is his favorite. She sits in the neutral section of the bus but the bus driver tries to make her get up for a white person to sit down and when she refuses, he calls the police. She gets arrested and the last part of the book talks about how that one statement made by Rosa Parks started a movement to stop segregation. Blacks start walking instead of riding the bus and the book ends by saying that it had been a year and blacks were still walking, to prove a point.

Response: I like this book, although I think it would be better for mid to upper elementary students because of the story. Younger elementary might not follow that this is Rosa Parks. I think that illustrations are wonderful. They look so life-like and dark to show the distress and frustration in Rosa's heart. I like the different point of view that this book shows, that most students have never heard before. I've heard the Rosa Parks story but never from her point of view. This lets you see how frustrating it was to be a black person and what they went through. This book would be good for children to hear to understand the story from something besides a history book.

Teaching Ideas: Scholastic.com has all kinds of lesson plans to use with the Rosa Parks story. Older children could pretend they are newspaper reporters and they have to report this story. How would they present the information? Younger students may just talk about what it must have been like to be Rosa Parks and what the world might be like if she didn't do what she did. Children could learn that you must stand up for what you believe. Children could talk about a time when they stood up for what they believed in.

What Do You Do When Something Wants To Eat You?

Title: What Do You Do When Something Wants To Eat You?
Author and Illustrator: Steve Jenkins
Publisher and date of Publication: Houghton Mifflin, 1997
Genre: Informative Text, Picture Book
Age Range: K-3rd Grade

Summary: This book shows unusual animals and how they defend themselves. The illustrations are wonderful and you feel like you are there, with the animal shown. The right side of the page shows the animal and names it and when you turn the page, it shows and tells you how they defend themselves. At the end, it asks the reader, "what would you do if something wanted to eat you?"

Response: This book was interesting. I think young children would love to see
the unusual animals because I'm sure most children have never even heard of some
of those animals in the book, because I haven't. Children will be entertained while learning a lof of interesting facts. Most children are used to the common animals and the common ways to defend themselves but the animals in here run across water, blows up like a prickly ball, and a snake's tail breaks off if something in biting it. This would be a good book to incorporate into science class or a science fair. The pictures are wonderful and because they use the whole page, it makes you feel as if you are right there with it. Young children would enjoy the illustrations and older children would learn interesting facts.

Teaching Ideas: As I said before, this book would be good to use during science class. Children could pick an animal and draw/tell how the defend themselves. Also, they could pretend they are being eaten, and how they would defend themselves. Children could play the book out and pretend they are the animals in the book and pretend to eat each other.

If A Bus Could Talk

Title: If A Bus Could Talk
Author and Illustrator: Faith Ringgold
Publisher and date of Publication: Scholastic Inc., 1999
Genre: Biography, Picture Book
Age Range: K-4th grade

Summary: This story starts with a young girl waiting on the bus for school. When it gets there, she notices it doesn't look like her usual bus. Then it starts talking. It tells her the whole story of Rosa Parks and the girl finds out that the bus is the actual bus that Rosa rode on. By the time the girl gets to school, she knows everything about Rosa Parks.

Response: I think this book is wonderful to read to young children that don't know anything about Rosa Park or anyone in the civil rights movement. I learned so much from reading this book and because it is a picture book, young children will be able to hold their attention more. Children will also like that the bus talks. They will learn alot and not even realize it because they are amazed that the bus is telling them all of the information. It also starts with a little girl getting on the bus. Most children have rode the bus to or from school so they would be able to identify with it. The illustrations are also so bright and colorful children will love them. I would love to read this book to my class one day to introduce people that have changed the world. You could also read this to older children because it has so much good and useful information.

Teaching Ideas: The ideas are endless with this book. It would be wonderful to read at the beginning of the civil rights unit. Since Scholastic published this book, their website, scholastic.com, has lesson plans for it. You could have older children write a biography of themselves from the point-of-view of the bus or another form of transportaion. You could also make
the classroom into a "bus" and pretend someone is the bus driver and tell
everyone about Rosa Parks or anyone you are studying in class.

Little Gold Star

Title: Little Gold Star
Author: Joe Hayes
Illustrators: Gloria Osuna Perez and Lucia Angela Perez
Publisher and date of Publication; Cinco Puntos Press, 2000
Genre: Multicultural, Picture Book
Age Range: 1st-4th grade

Summary: This is a Cinderella story that is written in english and spanish. Each page has english and spanish on it. Arcia convinced her dad to marry their neighbor because she was so nice to her. After they got married, Arcia's step-mom changed and made Arcia do all the chores. Arcia is doing chores and meets a big hawk. She follows his directions and is blessed with jewels. The step sisters do the same thing but they don't follow the hawk's directions and end up with a donkey ear and a green cow horn.

Response: This was one of the Cinderella versions that I read for class and really enjoyed it. I really like that it had english and spanish because children can see how it is in spanish and spanish students can read the same story. It's an interesting different take on cinderella. I like that she got a little gold star on her head. A lot of children can identify with the story because they are from step families. I really liked that Arcia got married at the end.

Teaching Ideas: This would be so good because children could see the english and spanish. We could read this book with the spanish teacher or read it when studying fairytales and incorporate spanish into it. Children could get little gold star stickers and put on their foreheads to get "into" the story. This has so much you could do with this story!

Knuffle Bunny Too

Title: Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity
Author and Illustrator: Mo Willems
Publisher and date of Publication: Hyperion Books for children, 2007
Genre: Picture Book, Realistic Fiction
Age Range: K-1

Summary: Trixie's dad is taking her to preschool and she is excited to be bringing Knuffle Bunny with her to show and tell. When she gets to school, another girl, Sonja, has the same Knuffle Bunny. The teacher takes tham both away because they can't get along but returns them to the wrong girl. At 2:30 in the morning the girls realize they have the wrong bunny and, with their dads, rush across town to return the bunnys. At school the next day, Trixie and Sonja are friends and let each other play with their bunny.

Response: I really like this story. We read the first story in class but I have never read the second book about the Knuffle Bunny. I think this is such an updated, fun book. I really like the photographs in the book and the way that the photographs are real and in black and white. The people are drawn and in color. It makes the people stand out. I like the picture of the inside of the school, because it looks just like a classroom with a calendar and artwork. I also like the barber shop picture. This little girl reminds me of my three year old niece a lot because she has a dog that she can't sleep without.

Teaching Ideas: I think this book would be good to read to kindergartners about show-and-tell. This could show young children that they can have the same prized toy as someone else but it is no reason to fuss about it and not get along. If older children read this, they may enjoy the bright drawings and the black and white photos. This story doesn't have a lot of ideas to teach a lesson on. It's more of a story to just read and discuss with young students. Scholastic.com has a creative idea for this book.
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3747842&FullBreadCrumb=%3Ca+href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww2.scholastic.com%2Fbrowse%2Fsearch%2F%3FNtt%3Dchicka%2Bchicka%2Bboom%2Bboom%26query%3Dchicka%2Bchicka%2Bboom%2Bboom%26Ntk%3DSCHL30_SI%26Nr%3DOR%2528Resource_Type%253ALesson%2BPlan%252CResource_Type%253AInformal%2BLesson%2BArticle%252CResource_Type%253AUnit%2BPlan%2529%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchallpartial%26N%3D0%26Nty%3D1%22+class%3D%22endecaAll%22%3EAll+Results%3C%2Fa%3E

Little Red Riding Hood: A Newfangled Prairie Tale

Title: Little Red Riding Hood: A Newfangled Prairie Tale
Author and Illustrator: Lisa Campbell Ernst
Publisher and date of Publication: Scholastic Inc., 1995
Genre: Traditional Literature, Picture Book
Age Range: K-2nd Grade

Summary: This story is about the little red riding hood story, just a new, updated version. In this story, Little Red Riding Hood lives on a prairie and decides to take wheat berry muffins and lemonade to her grandma. On the way, she runs into the wolf and tells the wolf where she is going. The wolf beats little red riding hood to grandma's house because the wolf was going to trick grandma and pretend to be grandma so he could get the muffins. When the wolf got to grandma's, she wasn't in the house but there was someone out on a tractor in the field. The wolf went to ask the tractor person where grandma was and it turns out grandma is on the tractor and she beats him up. Grandma and little red riding hood eat the muffins and lemonade and grandma opens a muffin shop with the recipe and hires the wolf to help her. Little red riding hood delievered the muffins that grandma and the wolf made.

Response: I really enjoy reading the revised version of traditional tales. This one is no different. I think this is a cute story for children to hear another side a of a story they are probably familiar with. The illustrations make Little Red Riding Hood look like a boy but with the hood up, you can't tell. I like the way the words are all on one page and have a white background to make it easier to read and the picture is easier to see since there isn't any words in the way. Of course you can make the connection to the traditional Little Red Riding Hood story from this one. The wolf also looks smaller and less scary in this story than the traditional story.

Teaching Ideas: With older children, you could use the venn diagram like we made this week. Younger children could also make up their own story from just the pictures. Also you could read the traditional story and this version, and have children make their own version of the story. I think many children would enjoy this story because it is familiar but has a different twist.

Goldilocks and The Three Bears

Title: Goldilocks and The Three Bears
Retold and Illustrated by: James Marshall
Publisher and date of Publication: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1988
Genre: Traditional Literature, Picture Book
Age Range: K-2nd Grade
Award: Caldecott Honor Book 1989

Summary: This was the traditional story of Goldilocks and the three bears. Goldilocks was sent by her mother to get muffins, but took a shortcut through the woods and ended up at the three bears house. She let herself in because the bears were out for a bike ride. She ate all their porridge, broke baby bear's chair, and fell asleep in baby bear's bed. When the bear's arrive home they find Goldilocks and when she awakes, she runs away in fright.

Response: This is a story that I have heard many times before. I enjoy hearing traditional tales
because they remind me of when I was younger. The illustrations looked older, I guess because the book was published in 1988. Also, the colors in the story looked older and faded. I think young children will love this story, although most have probably already heard the story many times before. I liked the picture of Goldilocks in Baby Bear's bed with all of Baby Bear's stuff. His room
looks like a young boy's room with airplanes and toys. I liked this story but I think I like the new, updated version of the tales better.

Teaching Ideas: I think this book would be good to read to kindergartners. Although most children may have heard this story before, they may enjoy hearing it again. If all the students know the story well, you may cover the words and let them retell the story from the pictures. Also for older students, you could let them create the venn diagram like we created this week.

Goldilocks Returns

Title: Goldilocks Returns
Author and Illustrator: Lisa Campbell Ernst
Publisher and date of Publication: Scholastic Inc., 2000
Genre: Traditional Literature, Picture Book
Age Range: K-2nd Grade

Summary: This is a revised version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Goldilocks is older and now wears her hair up and changed her name to Goldi so people won't recognize her from the three bears incident. Her gulty heart overtakes her and she decides to go see the bears and make things right. She gets there and they are gone. She added locks to the door, throws out their porridge and replaced it with breakfast bears and celery juice, and fixes baby bear back from the rocking horse they had made it into. When the bears arrive home, Goldi tells the furious bears all about what she had done and leaves. They decide to go for another walk and see another young, curious girl walking toward their house.

Response: I really enjoyed reading this version of the tale. The traditional story has been told so many times and so this was a new way of hearing the story. I think children would love hearing this story because this is a story they are familiar with but have never heard this version. I really liked the pictures in this book because they were brighter and more modern than the traditional tale I read. The tool and key store she opened at the beginning of the book was cute. I really think that children would think that it was funny that Goldi was trying to help but the bears didn't see it that way.

Teaching Ideas: I think this book would be go to do the venn diagram like we did this week to compare and contrast the stories. Also. if the children were older they could write their own side of the tale. This book would also teach children that you should try to make things right, no matter how long ago it was. Children could tell about a time that they made things right or should have made things right.

Swamp Angel

Title: Swamp Angel
Author: Anne Isaacs
Illustrator: Paul O. Zelinsky
Publisher and date of Publication: Puffin Books, 2000
Genre: Traditional Literature, Picture Book
Age Range: 1st grade-3rd grade
Award: 1995 Caldecott Honor Book

Summary: This tall tale was about Angelica Longrider, a giant. She was taller than her mother when she was born, which isn't possible. There is also this giant bear that eats everything in their town, named Thundering Tarnation. There is a competition to see who can kill this bear first and Angelica signs up. She finds the bear and they wrestle and wrestle until they finally fall asleep. Their snores are so loud it makes trees in the forest fall. Angelica made a tree fall, and when it fell it hit the bear and killed them. Angelica was praised from the whole town.

Response: I think this story is a good tall tale that I had never heard before. It's a cute story but of course it's a tale because when Angelica was born, she was taller than her mother (which isn't humanly possible!). Also, no one would be wrestling around with a bear and fall asleep with it. By the end of the story, I kind of grow fond of the bear and I was sad when the tree fell on its head and killed it. I like the idea of the wonder woman that becomes swamp angel because she pulled a wagon out of the swamp that got stuck when she was only twelve. I think this book would help children, because in the upper elementary grades girls hit a growth spurt and pass the boys. This could help them become more comfortable with being taller and give them support that they can do anything.

Teaching Ideas: I would like to read this in like 4th or 5th grade because girls outgrow the boys and it would help the girls to become more comfortable with themselves. For younger children, I would let them describe what they think it would be like to be as big as Angelica was. We could make a mini town and see what it would be like to be a giant.

Lon Po Po

Title: Lon Po Po

Author and Illustrator: Ed Young

Publisher and date of Publication: Penguin Putnam Books, 1996

Genre: Traditional Literature, Picture Book

Age Range: 2nd grade-5th grade

Awards: 1990 Randolph Caldecott Medal for Most Distinguished Picture Book

Summary: This is the Chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood. It's the story of 3 sisters that stay home alone while their mother goes to visit their grandmother, or Po Po. The bad wolf tries to act like their grandmother and got in the house but then one of the sisters realizes that it's not really their grandmother but a bad wolf. They finally get the wolf out of the house by telling the wolf about gingko nuts that are "so good," that grow at the top of the tree. They convince the wolf to climb up the tree to get the nuts and they would help "her." But then they keep lifting her up and dropping her and finally, on the third try, when she hit the ground the wolf died. The mother returns from visiting the grandmother and the children told their mother about what had happened.

Response: I have never read anything like Lon Po Po before but I enjoyed reading a different story from a traditional tale. Everyone has read or hear Little Red Riding Hood before but I'm sure not a lot of people have read a Chinese version of it. The illustrations remind me of China for some reason. The children look Chinese and the way the pictures are drawn, it just looks Chinese. I really enjoyed reading another version of a classic tale. I never realized how many different versions of fairy tales there is. The wolf on the front doesn't look like a traditional little red riding hood wolf but more like a wild wolf. When I first seen this book we were reading, It didn't look very interesting to me because it looked like a "wild animal" story, which I don't enjoy very much. But as I realized that it was just another version of a fairy tale, I really enjoyed it.

Teaching Ideas: I would really like to use this book in my classroom, as a first grade teacher, but I'm not sure how. Children this age really enjoy reading fairy tales and I think that children would enjoy hearing another version. Older children could compare and contrast the two versions. Children could also rewrite their version of another classic fairytale. Younger children would just enjoy hearing the story.

The Family Book

Title: The Family Book
Author and Illustrator: Todd Parr
Publisher and date of Publication: Little, Brown and Company, 2003
Genre: Fiction, Picture Book
Age Range: K-2nd Grade

Summary: This book is about families! It talks about different kinds of families that children may have. It says that some families are big, some are small, some may have two moms or two dads, but all families are alike in some way and special. It uses bright, bold pictures to show different kinds of families.

Response: This was the second book that I have read by Todd Parr. After reading his books, I began to look around on his website and became interested in Todd Parr. I really enjoyed reading these books because they are bright and simple and make children feel better about themselves.
I really like that Todd Parr writes a short letter to the reader in the back of his book. It makes children feel connected to and friends with Todd. In the back of this book Todd writes, "There are lots of different ways to be a family. Your family is special no matter what kind it is. Love, Todd." When Todd writes, he writes on children's level so that it's like he is talking to them.
This book talks about all different kinds of families that you may have. Most of the pictures use animals, like skunks or fish to show different families. Families today are just so different and children are passed around between parents. One page in this book mentions families with adopted children. Lots of children have have little or no self esteem and I believe that this book would be such an inspiration for young children to know that family isn't one set thing, it's whoever you have around you that love and take care of you!

Teaching Ideas: I think that this book would be be good for children to read that are having a difficult time at home. I think that after reading this book, children could write a book about their family and draw a picture of them. Parr's website has neat activites and ideas on his website.
http://www.toddparr.com/fun/

It's Okay to Be Different

Title: It's Okay to Be Different
Author and Illustrator: Todd Parr
Publisher and date of Publication: Little, Brown and Co., 2001
Genre: Fiction, Picture Book
Age Range: K-2nd Grade

Summary: This brightly illustrated picture book talked about differences that people have. They talk about how it's okay to be adopted, or to have no hair, or to eat mac and cheese in the bathtub! It has few words on a page so it would be good for younger elementary. It's designed to make children feel better about themselves and the differences they may have.

Response: I really enjoyed this book. The colors are so bright! Each page is a different color and the people in the book are almost stick figures. Lots of pictures has animals describing the sentence instead of humans. On the last page the author, Todd Parr, writes a note to the reader that says, "It's okay to be different. You are special and important just because of being who you are. Love, Todd." I think that is so sweet of the author to include this note because the young reader will feel like they are friends with Todd. On the back cover it has a picture of Todd Parr and his dog, Bully. It also tells the reader that they live in Berkeley, Cali.
I think that this book would have helped me when I was young and in that "awkward" stage. Children are so mean to each other and this book would help them to feel better about themselves because it shows funny differences that people have. This is such a bright cute book!

Teaching Ideas: I think this book would be good for young children that are having self-esteem problems at school. I'm not sure if I would read this book to the whole class although it is a good book for children to read. I would recommend this book to children that are "unsure" of themselves. I think it would good to have children read this book and write a story about their differences.

Circles and Squares Everywhere!

Title: Circles and Squares Everywhere!
Author and Illustrator: Max Grover
Publisher and date of Publication: Harcourt Brace and Co., 1996
Genre: Picture Book, Concept Book
Age Range: K-1st Grade

Summary:
This book is about circles and squares! It shows how circles and squares show up in everyday life.
It has very few words on each page and I think this is so young beginning readers can read a book by themselves. One page says, "circle" and then shows different things in the world that are shaped like circles. Then it shows "square," and does the same thing. It has big bold colors and pictures that show different shapes in the world. The illustrations are made of acrylics.

Response:
I think this book is very basic but it would be good for kindergardners that want to read. Children could identify the sound of a shape, such as "circle" with the actual word. I noticed how large the words on the page were and how few words were on each page. On one side of the page it says the shape or object that is shaped like a circle or square and shows it, and on the other it shows a picture of different scenes with the shapes in it.
I think young children would be proud to say that they read a book by themselves. The children could pick out the shapes in the pictures on each page because all the pictures are made of basic shapes that children could reconize. This book is very basic but young children would learn a lot from the shapes on each page.

Teaching Ideas:
I think that if I was teaching kindergarten, I would read this book aloud to the class before introducing or reviewing shapes. Most kindergartners know their shapes but for the children that are struggling, this book would help, and it would be a good review for others. As I read each page, the children could point out shapes in the picture they see. For more advanced children, they may even try to make their own book with shapes and a story in it.

Less Than Zero

Title: Less Than Zero
Author: Stuart J. Murphy
Illustrator: Frank Remkiewicz
Publisher and date of Publication: Harper Collins Publishers, 2003
Genre: Picture Book, Concept Book
Age Range: 2nd-3rd grade
Summary:
This picture book is about a little peguin named Perry. Perry wants an ice scooter and it costs 9 clams but Perry doesn't have any.
Through the book, Perry does odd jobs to get clams but also gets pressured into spending his clams. Through his journey Perry helps readers to understand negative numbers buy spending more clams than he has. In the end Perry gets enough clams to buy the ice scooter he wanted.

Response:
I think that this book is wonderful for young children struggling with adding and subtracting when you are left with negative numbers. Perry uses a graph in the story to show visually how many clams he has. The graph helps children who needs to see things visually to understand what a negative
number is. The illustrations in the book were made with bold colors that I loved and I know children would love as well. At one part in the story Perry uses his clams to buy a fishy float, which is like buying ice cream off the ice cream truck. I loved seeing the visual of
what a fishy float was. This book could also help children who don't understand how to make a line graph. When I was in school, I understood negative numbers pretty well but a lot of children can't understand that there can be numbers below zero. The illustrations in the book are so bright and lively. It feels as if you are there, on the ice, with the little peguin. Children would love this story with the illustrations, and learn at the same time.

Teaching Ideas:
This book would be so good for second or third graders that are introduced to negative numbers. The story could help them understand by having a story to associate it with. I would read this story maybe even before introducing negative numbers during story time and have a children take turns listening to the story and drawing a line on the line graph from what I read in the story, like Perry did.