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Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad By: Ellen Levine

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Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad By: Ellen Levine

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This story is about the life of Henry, a slave in America. He was born into slavery and worked in the South most of his life. He was separated from his mother as a small child, and later on in life separated from his wife and children. Henry decides the best thing he can do is to escape to a free state. With the help of some friends, Henry travels inside a box to Philadelphia. This book is great for teaching children about slavery and how terrible it was, but still in a way that is mindful of the audience; children.
I can use this book with Serravallo's 4.3 strategy, "Use a "This Is Interesting" voice". This strategy suggests reading with a teacher voice, and making the text sound interesting. It goes great with non-fiction books like this one.

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Cells: An Owner's Handbook By: Carolyn Fisher

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Cells: An Owner's Handbook By: Carolyn Fisher

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This book is about a skin cell named Ellie, who lives on the backside of a dog. Ellie takes the reader on a tour of the body, and teaches about all the different types of cells. She talks about how different cells have different functions, how cells have organelles, and how cells divide through mitosis and meiosis. This book is very colorful and funny, but also very informative. This would be a great book for a student that is interested in science, and more specifically biology.
I can use this book with Serravallo's strategy 5.1, "Lean on the Pictures". In this book the pictures help understand what Ellie the cell is saying. This strategy can help students who are hearing these scientific terms for the first time by connecting them to the pictures.

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The Sandwich Swap By: Queen Rania of Jordan and Kelly DiPucchio

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The Sandwich Swap By: Queen Rania of Jordan and Kelly DiPucchio

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Salma and Lily are best friends. Everyday Salma eats a hummus sandwich and Lily eats a PB&J. They both think the others’ sandwich is weird and get into a fight. A big food fight erupts as the whole class gets involved in whose sandwich is better. The girls feel ashamed and get in trouble. The next day the girls offer their sandwiches to each other, and they both learn that the other’s sandwich is really good too! It is a story about girls from different cultures learning that their differences are good. I would suggest this book to students who are friends with other students from a different culture to promote understanding and acceptance of each other's differences.
I can use this book with Serravallo's strategy 5.2, "Title Power". The title is "The Sandwich Swap". Students can keep this in mind to make predictions about what will happen in the story.

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This book is about Suki, a little girl starting the first grade. For her first day of school she decides to wear her kimono, because it reminded her of her grandma and all the fun they had over the summer. When she got to school students laughed and made fun of her outfit. In class her teacher asked Suki to introduce herself to the class. She did and talked about how fun her summer was with her grandma, and even showed the class how she danced at the festival. The teacher and the class gave Suki a round of applause at the end and it made Suki very happy. This book teaches the importance of being true to yourself. This book is great for all students, because it teaches the importance of individuality.
I can use this book to teach Serravallo's strategy 5.11, "Retell What's Most Important by Making Connections to the Problem". Students can identify what pages show the problem that Suki is facing and find the pages where Suki's problem is resolved.

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Smile is about Raina and her story of getting braces. In sixth grade Raina gets hurt and as a result, knocked out her front teeth. She has many issues with the dentist that span from sixth grade all the way to high school. Aside from her insecurities about her teeth, Raina also deals with other things like mean friends, family, and crushes. This story is a cute coming of age story that I believe would be great for upper elementary and middle school students. I would recommend this story to a student who does not like to read unless there is pictures.
This book is perfect for using strategy 6.1 from Serravallo, "How's the Character Feeling?". This book makes it easy to step into Raina's shoes and experience what she is feeling because she goes through a wide range of emotions. It is good practice for the students.

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Guts is another story about Raina, and her irrational fear of getting sick after she gets a stomach bug. This fear gets bigger and bigger, to the point that it starts affecting her schooling. Her parents decide it is best to have Raina see a therapist to work through the issue. Raina works through her fear of being sick, as well as her fear of what others think. It is a great story for all children, because it shows them that everyone has fears, but they can also overcome them. This book also is great for students who prefer lots of pictures or the comic book style.
Strategy 6.4, "Feelings Change" from Serravallo pairs nicely with this story, because Raina goes from many negative feelings to positive ones. Students can sketch pictures at certain points of the book to describe how she is feeling, and then compare her feelings from beginning to end.

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The Critter Club is a early chapter book and a series book, which focuses on the character Liz and her journey with summer school. Liz has to take math classes over the summer, which interrupts a lot of her plans. She no longer can do her art class and spend lots of time with the other members of the critter club. Instead she has to go to school, and Liz feels pretty upset about it. One day at school Liz finds a turtle and brings it to class. Liz and her friends try to keep it a secret, but the teacher finds out. Instead of getting in trouble, the teacher adopts the turtle as the class pet, which makes math class much more fun. Liz goes through summer school getting better and better at math, and even having fun! By the last day of summer school, Liz earns an A in math. What makes it even better is Liz has two whole months of summer left to play with her friends and her turtle, Digit. This story is great for younger readers who like animals. This story is also geared towards girls, so I would suggest it to my female students too (but anyone can read it!).
I can use this book with Serravallo's strategy 6.12, "Empathize to Understand". The students imagine themselves in Liz's position and try to feel what she feels. This helps the students connect with the story.

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Zoey and Sassafras: Dragons and Marshmallows

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Zoey and Sassafras: Dragons and Marshmallows

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This book is an early chapter book and a series book about the adventures of Zoey and her cat, Sassafras. In this story, Zoey learns that her mother secretly cares for magical creatures in the barn outside. Zoey and her mother are the only people who can see the creatures, so they keep it a secret. Zoey's mother has to go out of town for a week, so Zoey offers to help any creature who comes to the barn for help. Zoey and Sassafras encounter a baby dragon who they call Marshmallow, and Zoey must help him feel better. She runs experiments and takes notes, trying to find what would best help Marshmallow. Zoey saves Marshmallow with some help from Sassafras and her mother, and lets him back into the wild. I would suggest this book to students who enjoy science and animals, because there is a lot of that in the story.
Strategy 6.10, "Who's Telling the Story?" from Serravallo is a great pair to this book. The students can figure out who is narrating the story based on pronouns. This book is in first person point of view.

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Esperanza is a young girl from Aguascalientes, Mexico. She was born into a rich family and has never had to work for anything. The day before Esperanza's thirteenth birthday her father is killed, throwing Esperanza's life into chaos. Her father's ranch is passed on to his brother, who is very cruel and forces Esperanza's mother into marriage if they want to keep their lifestyle. A couple days later a fire burns down Esperanza's house and the entire ranch. Now Esperanza is homeless and still dealing with the grief of not having her father. Her mother and some of the workers that helped Esperanza's family decided to sneak away and work in California. Esperanza essentially goes from riches to rags and has to learn how to live this new life without any luxuries. Her mother becomes ill and Esperanza now has to take care of her family by working in the fields. This story shows how Esperanza grows and matures even through the darkest times. She makes friends along the way and eventually gets to the point where life is good again. Different, but good. I would recommend this book to upper elementary students who are looking for a moving story about overcoming difficulties in life. This book covers serious topics and is educational as well.
Serravallo's strategy 6.20, "Conflict Brings Complexity" connects so well to Esperanza Rising. There are several different conflicts that Esperanza faces, which brings out new complexities to her. She starts changing, and when the students focus on these points of conflict they can better understand the character.

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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry By: Mildred Taylor

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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry By: Mildred Taylor

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Cassie Logan and her family live in Mississippi during the Great Depression. Her family was able to buy land during Reconstruction, and they are very proud of that land. Cassie does not know much about racism, but this story follows Cassie and what she learns from her experience with racism. Her family works to keep their land from Harlan Granger, a rich white man eager to buy their land. They also do their best to stay away from the Wallace's, a white family that owns the only store people of color can shop from, but who are very violent. Cassie gets frustrated at all the things that happen like the white students on the bus yelling at them, Lillian Jean bullying her, her Mama losing her teaching job, and her Papa being attacked by the Wallace's. The Logan's will do what they must to protect their loved ones, even if that means starting a fire that forces the whole community to work together. This story is for upper elementary grades, and is great for all students. I would also suggest this to students who enjoy history. It is important for every student to understand the evil that took place back then, and all the injustices that people like Cassie Logan had to face.
This story goes great with Serravallo's strategy 7.7, "Mistakes Can Lead to Lessons". Stacey, Cassie's older brother, learns many lessons through his mistakes. He starts off covering for people in order to protect them, and eventually learns to do the right thing. This happens later on in the story when Stacey decides to stop being friends with T.J. Students can make a chart that organizes the mistakes students make and the lessons they learned from them.