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. 

Chapter Book #1 The Red Rose Box (Coretta Scott-King Award)

Author: Brenda Woods

Title: The Red Rose Box

Illustrator: N/a

Readability: 5.1

Genre: Chapter Book

Subgenre: Historical Fiction

Theme: Perseverance and Pushing through all trials and diversity

Primary and Secondary Characters: Leah Jean, Ruth, Momma, Daddy, Gramma, Elijah, Aunt Olivia, Uncle Bill, Miss Lutherine, Mrs. Redcotton, Miss Lilly, Sister Goodnight, Gilbert Martinez, Mrs. Pittman
Award(s) and Publication date: Coretta Scott - King Honor, Judy Lopez Memorial Award; 2002

Publishing Company: Penguin Young Readers Group

ISBN number: 0-14-250151-4

Summary and how the book will be used with students:
 The Red Rose Box is about a young girl name Leah Jean who lives in Sulphur, Louisiana in 1953. On her tenth birthday her Aunt Olivia, who lived in Los Angeles, California, sent her a red rose box that included a lock and key. Inside this red rose box, a suitcase, were satin slippers, silk robe, fashion jewelry, and other items that were not seen in the south, especially for young girls like Leah. Inside this box was also a letter to Leah's mother. The letter included four train tickets to California and an apology, later Leah finds out that her mother no longer talks to her sister anymore over a man and vows that a man would never come between her and her sister. Leah's mother accepted the train tickets to California and her, Leah, Ruth, and Gramma all went to the free state of California. While in California Ruth and Leah were able to experience how it felt to not live under the Jim Crow laws. Aunt Olivia was very well off, her and her husband, and lived in a very nice house and even had a maid. The girls were able to receive whatever they like and wanted and enjoyed every moment of it. After returning back to Louisiana Leah could not help but tell people about here experiences. Leah's friend then thought that she was trying to " not be black" and stop talking to her for a while. One day her mother received a note from her sister saying that she wanted the girl to come visit in New York during the summer. When the girls went to New York they stayed in nice hotel, bought nice clothes, even got a new swim suit. While in New York Aunt Olivia receives word that another hurricane had hit Sulphur and Leah and Ruth's parents were died. Leah and Ruth then move to California to stay with their Aunt and Uncle. The girls were able to start a new life and live in the land of free and live with the best like their parents wanted. Leah even received her first love note. The story ends with Leah dressing up in everything that was sent to her in the red box like her mother saw her, the first time she received it.

The Red Rose Box  could be used in many ways in the classroom. A few cool ways that it could be used in the classroom is the students in my classroom could create the own box. Decorate the box then take magazine pictures of what they would like to find in their box. I could also ask my students to think of places they would like to visit with a family member and write a story about it.

Chapter Book #4 Ruby Lu, Brave, and True

Author: Lenore Look

Title: Ruby Lu, Brave, and True

Illustrator:Anne Wilsdorf

Readability: Grade 3 through 5

Genre: Children's Chapter Book

Subgenre: Realistic Fiction

Theme: Friendship and everyone is a star in their own way.

Primary and Secondary Characters: Ruby Lu, Sam, Oscar, Christina, Emma, GungGung, PohPoh
Award(s) and date of Publication: AlA notable award

Publishing Company:Simon & Schuster

ISBN number:0-689-84907-9

Summary and how the book will be used with students:
 Ruby Lu, Brave and Tru is a book about Asian - American, eight year old girl who loved everything about her life. She had the cutest great baby brother in the world name Oscar. Although another girl that lived on 20th Avenue South named Emma thought her baby brother Sam was better. Ruby did magic tricks outside her house in the afternoon and everyone loved them, they would cheer and applaud her for being such a great magician. Ruby parents tried to get Ruby to go to Chinese school to learn Chinese like her GungGung and PohPoh but she refused and cried when the subject came up. One day a new girl arrived to 20th Avenue South named Christina. Christina moved there from California one winter. She did not believe in wearing cold weather clothes and would talk about every ones  sweater that Ruby's father made. This made Ruby very angry, a few weeks later Christina was in the hospital with pneumonia, this made Ruby feel good that bully was gone. After she returned from the hospital she joined the rest of the gang on 20th Avenue South.  After visiting  her GungGung and PohPoh she decided that she was going to make a herself a drivers licenses like the one her GungGung had. The next day Ruby found out that driving was not a magic trick.  One day she drove to Chinese school, later she found that it was not the best idea. The story comes to an end when her cousin comes from China to live with her.  At first she was not happy about but was excited about a new job.


This book would be great to talk about friendship and different cultures. I would ask to put themselves in Ruby situations and ask them how they will handle it.

Chapter Book #3 Mr. Putter & Tabby Wite the Book

Author: Cynthia Rylant

Title: Mr. Putter & Tabby Write the Book

Illustrator:Arthur Howard

Readability: Kindergarten through Second

Genre: Chapter Book

Subgenre: Realisitic Fiction

Theme: Achieving Goals, Anyone can be an author of a great story

Primary and Secondary Characters: Mr. Putter, Tabby, Mrs. Teaberry, Zeke

Publishing Company: Harcourt
Award(s) and Publication year: 2004

ISBN number: 0-15-200241-3

Summary and how the book will be used with students:

Mr. Putter and his cat are sitting in the house on a snowy winter day and decided that they were going to write a book, a mystery novel. Mystery novels were Mr. Putter's favorite books to read when he was younger. The next day Mr. Putter decided that he was going to finally begin writing his book. He started by heading a paper Chapter 1 but soon was distracted by cooking, eating, then took a bath and was tired from all the days activities. On the third day Mr. Putter woke up ate breakfast  and then started to think about how he was begin his book. Once Mr. Putter started thinking he began thinking about the good things and decided to write those down. After writing the good things down, Mr. Putter visited his neighbor Mrs. Teaberry and Zeke, her dog. They ate a snack together and then Mr. Putter read her The Good Things. Mrs. Teaberry said she loved it and even called it enchanting. Mr. Putter told her that he wanted to write a mystery novel but ate too much. She told him not to worry because they were not many writers of good stories. Mr. Putter felt better and treated them all to vanilla malts. After arriving back home Mr. Putter could not wait until the next big snow to write again.


I would use this book in the classroom to introduce younger children to chapter books. This chapter book is only three chapters long for about forty pages. I could teach children that chapter books does not have to be very long to be a good book. We could also use this book to talk about weather and explore what they would do on their snow days.

Picture Book #1 The Red Book (Caldecott Honor Award)

Author: Barbara Lehman

Title: The Red Book

Illustrator: Barbara Lehman

Readability Score: K through 3rd

Genre:Picture Book

Theme: The adventures you can go on when you allow your imagination to take control.


Primary and Secondary Characters: A young girl, young boy, and a red book.


Award(s) date of publication: 2005 Caldecott Honor Book, published in 2004

Publishing Company: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

ISBN number: 0-618-42858-5

Summary and How this book could be used with students:
The Red Book is a wordless picture book that unites a young girl and boy together. On cold winter morning as the young girl is walking to school she discovers a red book lying in the snow. She picks it up and sticks in her backpack until she gets to school. After her arrival to school, she opens the book and it shows pictures of the continents, the next page then reveals a young boy looking at her from what looks like an island. In the boys book you can see him looking at her in school with the snow falling and her looking at him with the sun shinning. After school is done for the day the girl sticks the book in her bag for later. After school the girl pays a balloon man for a bouquet of balloons, the balloons then takes the girl airborne. Once the girl is airborne she looses the book and it falls back to the ground wide open. Since the book was left open the girl's new found free becomes cold from the snow fall. Later the girl arrives beach side with the her new friend as another person who is riding his bike picks up the book and looks back suspiciously.  


This book could be used in many ways in the classroom. For younger children it could teach them how to "read" a book, how you have to read from left to write. For higher grade levels it could be used to introduce a writing activity, such as, students could give their own narration the story. This book could as be used to talk about sequencing and flow of a book.