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This book is very familiar to me, I’m almost certain that it is the first book that I read because my sister would read it to me every day.  I love this book, and I think it could provide great opportunities for discussions about things seen in the book but not exactly discussed. These could include why the baby bird’s mother is absent, how the baby bird returns to the nest, and the actions of humans; which are not discussed by the first person story-teller.

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I love the messages that this book shares.  The book depicts a girl who has decided that she has no artistic talent, and the best thing she could produce is a single pencil dot on a blank paper.  When her art teacher requests that she sign her work and then hangs the signed paper above her desk, she inspires the girl to make all kinds of dots with all kinds of colors.  The book concludes with the girl inspiring a boy with a similar belief in his artistic talent in the same method that her teacher provided.  I think this book would be great to read to any group of students as a feel-good story, but it might be especially useful for students that don’t believe in themselves, and perhaps it could inspire them to accomplish greater things.

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If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Laura Numeroff

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If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Laura Numeroff

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This was another childhood favorite. This book creates a fun way to describe the consequences of actions.  It’s like a slippery slope effect without severe negative end product, besides the fact that the mouse will repeatedly need a cookie.  I think students could discuss the sequence of events, why it was logical, and how it could’ve been different if the story was about a person instead of a mouse.  Another activity could be for them to write their own story like that one.

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This book is based on the real story of the first black woman to go to space.  When she was growing up, the girl was put down for aspiring to be an astronaut and was told that something like nursing would be more appropriate for her.  This book isn’t so much of a biography as it is an ode to perseverance, but I think that it can still have great value in the classroom, perhaps in the older elementary grades, where they can discuss the struggles that Mae goes through and how she overcomes them, and what obstacles she has from specific people, or society, or even herself.

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I love how silly this book is, and I would probably be sharing this book for the fun and rhyming if I were presenting it to a lower elementary grade.  If I were going to read this book to older elementary students, however, I think they could analyze the character relationships more. For example, we could discuss the progression of the story and have the students discuss why Knox, the second main character, ends up shoving the Fox into a bottle at the end of the book. The students could discuss how they would feel in this situation, and possibly discuss Knox’s boundaries that the Fox crosses throughout the book, using Knox’s verbal and physical reactions as evidence for the conclusions.

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Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus

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Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus

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Our protagonist, Aven, is moved away from everything she knows and loves to start a new life in Arizona. She is a very strong and absolutely hilarious character.  Oh, and I should probably mention that she does not have arms.

The biggest struggle for Aven is that she moves from Kansas (where generally everyone is cool with her not having arms), to Arizona (where everyone is generally not cool with her not having arms).  She spends a good portion of the story describing how she misses everyone being used to her minimal limb-age, and how it hurts her feelings when people stare at her because she doesn’t have arms.

Something that continued to amaze me throughout the book was how cool Aven’s parents were.  Her parents required her to be self-sufficient in everything, which might sound cold, but this is the source of her most important character trait- her ability to do anything.  She’s never been treated like she couldn’t do something because of her disability. When she first moved to Arizona, she had to tell teachers that she didn’t need help in doing classroom tasks.

Once I picked it up and started reading, I couldn’t put it back down!  I thought this book was absolutely delightful and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone!

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Bayou Magic is about a girl named Maddy who leaves the city to live with her grandmother for the summer.  Maddy meets a new kind of people- those that live in the bayou- and a fair amount of the story is spent noting the major differences between the bayou and the city, including details like the climate, people, and lifestyles. Maddy learns about the history of her family, swims with mermaids, and saves the bayou from oil pollution.

I love the way all of the characters are pictured, but I especially enjoyed how strong of a character Maddy is.  She is brave but not reckless, and she believes in the magic of the bayou.  She goes through a big personality change throughout the book, as she moves away from having four older sisters who trump any fun that she has, to having liberty and freedom on the bayou.  Having her “own space” teaches her how to be independent, and it teaches her that she is capable of doing great and heroic things.

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For this week’s novel in poetry format, I chose to read Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai.  The book is about a young girl that must move from Vietnam to America because of the war.  I love the first poem.  Right out of the gate, the author has my attention because the deliberate and fiery insubordination presented about the narrator is exactly the thing I want when reading any book.  She has spunk.  I love how the narrator makes the heavy subjects very personal and therefore understandable for the reader.  For example, I have never lived in a place where a war was so close I might have to hide in my own house, but she mentions how she just wants to jump rope after dark, which is something I’ve done and enjoyed.  That poem is very dark and fore-telling, and the very next poem made me laugh (out loud).  When brother Khôi and Kim Hà threw their doll and smushed chick into the sea, I cried so hard I had to stop reading because I couldn’t see, but a few poems later I was laughing again.

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This is a super fun book! It provides great opportunities for expressive moments in a read-aloud. This book has a great imagination, but still has important points that make it more human.

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My Cat, The Silliest Cat in the World, Bachelet 2006

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My Cat, The Silliest Cat in the World, Bachelet 2006

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This book is hillarious! It depicts an elephant that someone has mistaken for a cat. It includes the elephant doing all kinds of cat things, except that the elephant doesn't land on his feet! This book would be great for interactive read-alouds, or for children to enjoy the story on their own.

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This book is about a dog named Hallly Tosis, whose breath is so terrible that her family decides they can't keep her. The younger members of her family take her on a journey to relieve her of her bad breath, but to no avail. At the end, Hally's halitosis saves the day. This book would be good for an interactive read-aloud.

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This book is about Oskar and Theodore, who calm the monster wreaking havoc in the library. This book would be great for an interactive read-aloud.

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This book doesn't have many words. The main character goes to Mars to find life and share a cupcake with the life he finds, but is followed by a monster that he never sees. Great for an interactive read-aloud.

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This book is hilarious. It tells all about how to host a dragon party, and the do's and don't's of serving tacos and salsa to dragons. Great for an interactive read-aloud.

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A collection of a great spin on familiar fairy tales- hillarious and silly, with great illustrations.  This book incorporates elements of book structure that weave said structure into the stories and the stories into each other. Great for an interactive read-aloud.

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Extra! Extra! Fairy-Tale News from Hidden Forest, Ada 2007

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Extra! Extra! Fairy-Tale News from Hidden Forest, Ada 2007

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This book is a collection of news articles from Hidden forest, where all of the fairy tale characters such as Jack (and his beanstalk), the little red hen, the big bad wolf and so on, live. This book includes details from several different fairy tales, but mainly focuses on Jack and the Beanstalk. Might not be great for an interactive read-aloud, but could likely be enjoyed by the individual child.