Picture Book #8 Seven Blind Mice (Caldecott Award Winner)

Author: Ed Young

Title: Seven Blind Mice

Illustrator: Ed Young 

Readability: 3.3

Genre: Picture Book

SubGenre: Traditional

Theme: Everyone has a piece of the big picture, you just have to figure out what piece you have.

Primary & Secondary Characters: Seven mice (red, yellow, blue, purple, green,  orange, and white) an Elephant

Award(s) and date of Publication: Caldecott Winner, 1992

Publishing company: Philomel Books

ISBN: 0-399-2261-8

Summary and How I would use it in the classroom.

This book is like an old Indian Fable retold and Illustrated by Ed Young. These seven mice discovers that their is something in their pond and set out to figure out what this something. The first mouse says that it was a pillar in the pond, the second mouse said it was a snake, the third mouse said it was spear, the fourth mouse said it was a cliff, the fifth mouse said it was a fan, and the sixth mouth said it was a rope. On the seventh day the last mouse, the white mouse, put it all together on the last day. He went back and forth, side to side, and found out that the something was an elephant.

This book would be great to use in Kindergarten and first grade classroom. Every time a mouse goes to find out what the something is it on a particular day and a different color mouse. It would be a great idea for students to make something and place it in a box and have students touch the creation and write a sentence for each guess. Students could also write about time they had to work with someone else to find a solution to a problem.

Picture Book #7 Hondo & Fabian (Caldecott Award Winner)

 

 

Author: Paul McCarty

Title: Hondo & Fabian

Illustrator: Paul McCarty

Readability: 1.4 Interest Level PreK

Genre: Picture Book

Subgenre: Fiction

Theme: 

Primary and Secondary Characters: Hondo, Fabian, Fred
Award(s) and publication date: Caldecott Honor Book 2003, 2002

Publishing Company:

ISBN number: 9780312367473  

Summary and how the book will be used with students:

 Hondo and Fabian is a very simple picture book. It tells the story of a dog and a cat and what they do during the day. Fabian stays at home to play with the baby, while Hondo goes to the beach with his friend Fred. They both enjoy their day, eat, and then goes to sleep.

I would use this book in my classroom for my students to explore their imagination. I would ask them to give more detail about what went own during Hondo and Fabian's day. We could also use their activities as party of the math lessons for the week and use the simple sentence in the book during Language Arts class.

Picture Book #6 The Lemonade Club

 

Author: Patricia Polacco

Title:  The Lemonade Club

Illustrator:

Readability; Fifth Grade

Genre: Picture Book

Subgenre: Realistic Fiction

Theme: Friendship and courage.

Primary and Secondary Characters: Traci, Marilyn, and Miss Wichelman
Award(s) and year published:2007

Publishing Company: Philomel Books

ISBN number:978-0-399-24540-4

Summary and how the book will be used with students:

This story is about two best friends named Marilyn and Traci, who go to school together and then begins to realize that their close dear friend is becoming skinny, does not eat as much anymore, and begins to wear a head scarf to school each day. Before this was found out Traci and Marilyn always hung out together, Traci loved to hear Marilyn play the piano. Traci did not know what she wanted to do but she new she wanted to help people.  They were both in the fifth grade together in Miss Wichelman's class. Miss Wichelman always taught them when life gives you a lemon or two just add water and sugar and you will have lemonade. 

A few weeks later Traci was informed by Mairlyn's mom that she had leukemia. Miss Wichelman informed the class the next day, the class sat back and stared because they did not what to say or do. Traci visited Mairlyn everyday, she was there when she started chemo and her hair began to fall. One day Miss Wichelman stopped by to check on Mairlyn, she was really down in spirit thinking she would never playy piano again. Miss Wichelman told Mairlyn she had to get better so she could attend her wedding and she wanted her to wear yellow dress and they were going to make lemonade out of lemons. Just when she thought she was depressed andalone she found out not just her friends was there to help her fight her battle with leuikema but her whole fifth grade class. When she retuned back to class everyone had on hats just like her. Most importantly they shaved their heads just like her. Even Miss Wichelman shaved her head. Later that day Miss Wichelman told Mairlyn that she too knew how she felt because she had breast cancer. A few months later she was married and there the girls were in their yellow dress ready to make some delicious lemonade


This would be a great book to use in the classroom to introduce sickness and how to deal with it in the classroom. This book could also be used to help talk about strong friendship bounds or be used while talking about different character traits. I think it would be great to use lemons and lemonade as the center of a math lesson as well. I could also take lemons and write different adjectives own it and make lemonade with good adjectives and bad showing that it all taste the same, just depends on how you look at it.

Picture Book #2 The Blacker the Berry (Coretta Scott-King)

Author: Joyce Carol Thomas

Title; The Blacker the Berry

Illustrator: Floyd Cooper

Readabilty Score: Kindergarten through Second grade

Genre: Picture Book

Subgenre: Poems

Theme: Although ones skin can be different shades everyone has something that makes them precular and im portant

Primary and secondary characters: Young African American girls with different skin completions

Award(s) and date of publication: Corretta Scott-King Award Winner, New York Public Library's "Hundred Titles For Reading and Sharing", ALA Notable Children's Book, Kirkus Review Best Children's Book, Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice. Copyright 2008

Publishing company: HarperCollins

ISBN number: 978 0-06-025375

Summary and how it could be used in the classroom:
The Blacker the Berry is a poem book where young African American girls compare the color of their skin to different berries. The book is basically telling people that it really does not matter what color your skin is that your still African American and still as important as the darkest African American to the lightest. You do not have to be color struck just true to yourself because everyone is important.

This would be a great book to use to talk about how one feels about themselves in the world. Students could write a reflective poem on how the feel the world views them as well as how they view themselves.

Picture Book #5 Mr. George Baker

 

Author:Amy Hest

Title: Mr. George Baker

Illustrator:Jon J Muth

Readability: 2.7  Kindergarten

Genre: Picture Book

Subgenre: African American Literature

Theme: Your never too old to go back to school. Role Model. Friendship

Primary and Secondary Characters: Mr. George Baker, Harry, Mrs. Baker
Award(s) and date of publication: 2004

Publishing Company: Candlewick Press

ISBN number: 0-7636-1233-2

Summary and how the book will be used with students:

Mr. George Baker is an African American man who lives next door to a young boy named Harry. Every morning Mr. George yells for Harry to come and sit beside him as they wait for the yellow school bus to come to pick them up for school. Harry says that Mr. George Baker is a hundred years old. He wears baggy pants, a sweater with three buttons down the front, ties knots in shoes that never comes out. Mr. George and Harry even carry red backpacks a like. Mr. George Baker is married to Mrs. Baker and she makes Mr. George a lunch every day. When Mr. George Baker and Harry get on the bus in the morning time everyone wants Mr. George to sit beside them because Mr. George is a famous drummer. Although every morning Mr. George Baker sits next to Harry, Mr. George Baker class is even down the hall from Harry's. They are both learning how to read, Mr. George Baker says with the time and practice it will come easily.


I would use this book in my classroom to show my students that there are even some grown ups that do not know how to read and write. I would allow them to make up their own store about a grown up that have encourage them to do something that may have been hard from them. We could even use this book in math class, allowing the students to tell me how they would teach a lesson to someone who has never learned it.

Picture Book #3 Wake Up House: Rooms Full of Poems

 

Author: Dee Lillegard

Title: Wake Up House! Rooms Full of Poems

Illustrator:Don Carter

Readability: 2.9 Kindergarten through Second

Genre: Picture Book

Subgenre: Poetry

Theme: Everything works together for one great cause, no matter how different a person or thing may be.

Primary and Secondary Characters: House, Bedroom window, bathroom, mirror, sink, kitchen, stove, broom, refrigerator, broom, washer, dryer,stairs, doors, closet, vacuum cleaner, corners, feather duster,rocking chair, tape player, bookcase, the shadow, screen door, drapes, lamp, table, houseplants, television,clock, couch, tub, bed, night light.

 Award(s) and Publishing Date: 2000
Publishing Company:Alfred A. Knopf Inc.

ISBN number: 0-679-88351-7

Summary and how the book will be used with students:

Wake up House! Rooms Full of Poems is a wonderful story about a house and almost every appliance in the house has a poem telling what it does and its importance. Don Carter did a wonderful job with the illustration in this book, they pictures throughout this book look three dimensional and are done with bright colors. The pictures really do bring this poem to life and intrigues the reader to read the poem that goes along with the picture.

In the classroom, this book would be wonderful to use to introduce poetry to students, especially, while talking about personification. With younger grades it could help students name different parts of a house.

Chapter Book #2 Big Mouth

Author: Wendy Lore

Title: Big Mouth: A Tabitha Sarah Bigbee Book

Illustrator:N/A

Readability: First through Third Grade

Genre: Chapter Book

Subgenre: Realistic Fiction

Theme: Telling the truth is always best and sometimes it is best to be quite.

Primary and Secondary Characters: Tabitha, Grammy, Kirsten, Mom, Dad, Mrs. Goodman, Sara, Jason
Award(s) date of publication: 1994

Publishing Company: David C. Cook Publishing

ISBN number:0-7814-0084-8

Summary and how the book will be used with students:

This was a great chapter book that starred Tabitha. Tabitha was like most younger girls wanted to fit in with the rest of the "cool" kids and tried really hard  to make friends but just could not just Sara and Jason. One day she lied saying she had been arrested and that little lie turned in to huge talk people were talking about things she did not do and took the true story and twisted it so until Tabitha wished she was invisibial at school.

This is great story to use in the classroom to talk about bullying and also character building on why you should not lie.