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Graphic Novel
Hot New Read of 2015
Date Read: 3/13/2016.
Genre: Fiction.
Review: Throughout this heartwarming and endearing. Graphic novel we follow Peppi in her middle school adventures. She has made rules for herself but quickly breaks the first one. She runs into the school bully, Jamie, and quickly realizes her awkwardness is unmistakable. As the story unfolds, we follow Peppi's repeated awkward encounters with Jamie. This novel is a great and funny way to talk about a real life issue and ways to combat this issue! Great one to have in classroom library.
Age/Audience: Grade 3+. Perfect for children who struggle with reading, as they can use the picture cues to guide them. Also, perfect for students who can relate to being, well, awkward! Grade 5 will enjoy this novel as they are getting ready to enter middle school, as the main character is.
Teaching Points: Fluency reading in the form of expression would be very easy to teach with this novel. Also, this novel is great for making predictions and inferences. Reading a small amount and then stopping for the children to write predictions about what will happen next in their journals is a great way to story build and practice creativity.

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Sunny Side Up by Jennifer and Matthew Holm

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Sunny Side Up by Jennifer and Matthew Holm

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Graphic Novel
Hot New Read of 2015
Date Read: 2/27/2016
Genre: Realistic Fiction.
Review: Sunny is sent to live with her grandparents in Florida. She realizes she lives here with many old people, and no one her age. She finds a friend named Buzz who helps her through the summer guiding her in adventure and fun! At the end of the novel she realizes that she had no idea why she was in Florida, but realizes she enjoys the comfort and new found friends and home she has. I love this novel for similar reasons as the others, it has amazing pictures that depict the relationships and feel the story is trying to convey very well!
Age/Audience: Grades 2+ (likely independent at grade 3+). Great for students who struggle with reading, they can use this graphic novel as a guide through picture to aid in their reading. Also, great for those who enjoy summer and fun in the sun!
Teaching Points: This graphic novel is great for practicing expressive reading in fluency as well as point of view (as we see Sunny's POV often throughout), and summarizing a text or read aloud.

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Early Classic Children's Book
Date Read: 4/11/2016
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy
Review: This book is all about a bat, who gets lost from her mother, being then raised by a bird only if the baby bat agrees to act like a bird and do everything a bird does. Even though she knows she is not a bird and id internally opposed to this behavior, she is determined to prove to her new found mother bird that she can fit in. Stellaluna hurts her wing and is forced to sleep hanging by her thumb. With this, another bat's curiosity recognizes Stellaluna and returns her to her mother in this heartwarming ending. This text is a classic and I cannot wait to have this in my future library!
Age/Audience: Grades K+. Independent at grade 2+. This text is great for animal lovers, especially birds and bats. Also, this book is great for students who love heartwarming endings to their texts and a story of a young animal eager to find their mother. If they have ever been lost in a store or thought they lost where their parents are, they can relate to this story.
Teaching Points: Some ways in which I would use this text for teaching in my class is as a read aloud before an animal habitat lesson. This text discusses various habits if birds and this would be great for younger grades introducing them to this. Also, this is a great way to lightly teach how not all animals act the same. Just because owls can fly just like birds does not mean they act like birds also. This text is great for writing predictive endings or rewriting ends. I could read a small portion of the text and the students could predict what happens next or at the end.

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SpaceMice: Alien Escape by Geronimo Stilton

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SpaceMice: Alien Escape by Geronimo Stilton

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Graphic Novel
Date Read: 4/09/2016.
Genre: Fiction. Fantasy.
Review: This book is out of this world! We follow the adventure of a spacemouse who is captain of his spaceship. This story is met with monsters, aliens, and crazy decisions. Will this super hero mouse save the day? Him and his team are not prepared for the many things about to happen in their trip to space. I loved this book because it gives the students a great adventure model for writing. Also, this book is a great read aloud.
Age/Audience: Grade 3+. This book is great for boys (and girls) who enjoy series books, and books about adventure and space!
Teaching Points: This text can be used to practice expressive reading in fluency. Also, this book is great way to model fantasy writing and bringing characters to life through descriptive imagery.

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Graphic Novel
Date Read: 4/02/2016.
Genre: Fiction.
Review: This is the very first book in this series, and Nikki's (the main character) first entry into her diary. Nikki is a middle school student and she explains throughout her diary the many trials and tribulations of being in middle school. She begs her parents for a new phone, talks about her worst enemy in her class, and her major crush on a boy! This text is great for 5th grades moving into middle school! This text has many real life applications that give great insight into a middle schooler mindset.
Age/Audience: Grades 3+. This is most likely targeted to the girls in the classroom seeing as the main character is a girl. Also, like most graphic novels, this one has plenty of pictures for struggling readers to cue with.
Teaching Points: This text is great for introducing 1st person point of view (as most graphic novels are) and fluency in the form of expressive reading and expressive writing modeling. This text is also a great way to introduce personal writing as a modeled narrative.

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Graphic Novel
Date Read: 4/18/2016.
Genre: Fiction.
Review: This book follows the story of a 6th grade girl who loses her teeth. In this sad, yet funny graphic novel we see we see this terrible experience she goes through and how the people around her handle it, as well as herself. I love this graphic novel for its content, drawings, and funny real life story. Losing teeth is something all kids go through at some point in time and having a fun novel about this is a perfect addition to my library.
Age/Audience: Grades 3-5. Perfect for those children who are not necessarily on grade level ready, they can still enjoy this book as they follow along with the pictures of this graphic noel.
Teaching Points: This novel is great for sequencing, as well as learning how to read by bringing the characters in your voice to life. teaching fluency with graphic novels is a great start because children can use the various picture cues to guide their expression and miscuing (to pronounce words correctly based on picture cues).

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One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey

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One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey

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Classic Early Picture Book
Award Winning
Date Read: 3/05/2016.
Genre: Realistic Fiction.
Review: Following WW2, the McCloskey family moved to Maine. This book is all about their move and life now in Maine. Sal, the young boy in the story, is eager to go for a day out on the boat. He has a lose tooth and is afraid this will hinder him from getting to hang out with his dad. As they are by the beach, he loses his tooth in the sand and cannot find it amongst his finding. The end of the book ends happy, but will he find his tooth? This text was a great way to learn about the lives of others and about other's troubles but is also a heartwarming story about a boy and dad. I loved this book when I heard it read aloud to my third grade class and I cannot wait to use it as well.
Age/Audience: Grade 2+. Read independently at grade 3. This text is great as a read aloud for students who have lost a tooth or have a lose tooth and can relate, also students who have moved and can relate to a new life somewhere different.
Teaching Points: This text is a great way to teach a small amount about the war, and life after the war as well as domains and atmosphere of Maine (or how other states in the US are different than here is GA). This text would be a great hook for an introductory lesson on the war (even though the text is only timed after the war but gives little information on the actual war itself). This is also a great way to teach how times have changed and the different habitats of GA. I also love this book for a simple classic read aloud.
Award: Caldecott Award

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The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper

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The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper

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Classic Early Children's Book
Date Read: 2/27/2016.
Genre: Fiction. Fantasy.
Review: In this book, we see a little engine who agrees to pull a large train up a hill when all of the larger engines refuse to do so. As he ascends the hill, he repeats the phrase "I think I can, I think I can!" As he gets to the top of the mountain, he begins to slow down but continues to say "I think I can!" and he reaches the top and with a sigh of relief he says, "I thought I could!" This text is a great way to teach goal setting and setting the bar high for you life. I love this text as a classic example of never giving up! This was one of my favorite books to have read to me as a kid and I cannot wait to have it in my future library.
Age/Audience: Grades PK+ (attention holding at grade K), Great for students who have tried hard at something and never gave up. Also students who love trains will love this book.
Teaching Points: This book is a great read aloud to highlight never giving up on your dream and persevering through anything! If you put your mind to it, it will happen. Also, this text has many repeated phrases (I think I can) which is great for understanding and recognizing this in real alouds. Also, this is a great way to introduce personification as the engine is brought to life and given human traits.

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Children's book of choice
Hot new book of 2015
Date Read: 4/18/2016
Genre: Fiction. Fantasy.
Review: Throughout this text, all the toy animals shown on the cover are waiting for something to happen or to see something amazing; snow, rain, the wind, the nighttime moon, etc. Throughout their waiting, they become tired, will they stop waiting and go about their day or will they stop waiting and do something? This book is a great way to introduce a very lifelong talent that many people have yet mastered. I loved this book because it shows creativity as well as moral situations.
Age/Audience: Grade K+ (attention holding at grades K-2). This book would grab the attention of those students who have toys such as this and have always been interested in what was outside and waiting for these things to appear as well.
Teaching Points: Not only can you teach this as a great lesson on waiting for greatness to come, but this can be used as a hook opener for teaching weather patterns, and the sun, moon, and stars. I love this book as a lesson on creative and fantasy writing as well. Also, since these are toys, it is a great lesson on using personification in writing.

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Early Classic Children's Book
Date Read: 2/20/2016.
Genre: Fiction. Informational.
Review: Throughout this book, we see various facts about popcorn and a couple of popcorn recipes. This book is all about a twin duo where one likes to cook and the other likes to read, so he reads the recipe to him while the other cooks! This book is great for a fun Friday read aloud! Also, this book gives a social studies integrated twist on a fun treat!
Age/Audience: This book is great for all ages! Those who love popcorn and cooking will love this book!
Teaching Points: This book is great for a fun Friday read aloud followed by a science show about popcorn making while also enjoying a popcorn snack. Also, this book is great for encouraging students to write about their favorite food/go home and research the recipe and write about it for homework,

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Should I Share My Ice Cream by Mo Willems

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Should I Share My Ice Cream by Mo Willems

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Children's book of choice
Date Read: 3/23/2016.
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy
Review: This story is a funny written story about an Elephant internal dilemma of whether or not to share his ice cream. As the story unfold, many different animals ask for some, and he continually asks himself "should I share?" WIll Gerald the elephant finally share? All of Willems books are wonderful but this book is one of my favorites by him. The character traits and dilemma Gerald faces is both funny and relatable.
Age/Audience: Grades K+ (grades K-2 in attention grabbing). This is a great text for students who like talking animal books as well as students who enjoy Mo Willems collections.
Teaching Points: This text could be used as a read aloud in the beginning of Kindergarten to model and teach sharing. Also, in upper grades, this text could be used to model character traits and how to properly use speech bubbles in creative, out-of-the-box writing.

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Graphic Novel
Date Read: 2/27/2016.
Genre: Fiction. Fantasy.
Review: This book will leave you on the edge of you seats the entire time! Bird and Squirrel land on the North Pole and after a series of unfortunate events, encounter a killer whale. Squirrel hears that bird may be fed to the whale as a sacrifice. They feel like they need to escape, but also want to help the community escape the killer whale.
Age/Audience: Grade 3+. This book is great for students who love series books as well as action-adventure mixed with humor!
Teaching Points: This graphic novel is great for cause and effect modeling as well as fantasy writing. Also, this text can model creative and descriptive writing as well as practice with expressive fluency.

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Graphic Novel
Date Read: 2/20/2016.
Genre: Fiction.
Review: Fangbone is new to elementary school and especially 3rd grade. He isn't like the other children because he is a barbarian warrior. All of the students help him keep this sword weapon away from the evil villain of his world, and they also help him survive in a normal school. This book is full of color and adventure and new surprises around every corner! I love this series for my library in my future classroom!
Age/Audience: Grade 3+. This story is great for boys (and girls) who like fantasy, adventure, and make believe. This story is full of it all and the adventures don't stop here. Children who like series novels will love this first book!
Teaching Points: This book is great for modeling fantasy writing. Also, this book could be used for story building as the students write about their own world and the adventures they would face. This is a fun read aloud book or personal independent book the students retrieve from the classroom library.

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The Baby-Sitters Club by Raina Telgemeier

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The Baby-Sitters Club by Raina Telgemeier

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Graphic Novel
Date Read: 4/23/2016.
Genre: Fiction.
Review: This novel is the first in the Baby-Sitters Club series. Four best friends make up this club seen throughout the series. Kristy is the president of the club and her idea is to form this club of babysitters. As this story unfolds, she considers other to be part of the club. Kristy has a lot going on in her personal life as well and this carries over into her presidency in the club. This book is a great real life depiction of real life problems and solutions. This series is a great one to have in my class library.
Age/Audience: This book is targeted to Grade 3+, mainly girls who can relate to the actions and adventures throughout this story.
Teaching Points: This book is great for modeling cause and effect as well point of view of Kristy and her life challenges as described by her. This can be a model for writing narrative writing as well.

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Early Chapter Book
Date Read: 2/16/2016.
Genre: Fiction.
Review: This is the first of many Boxcar Children novels. In this one, 4 orphans begin to make their home in an abandoned boxcar after refusing to be separated from each other. Their purpose for making their home in this boxcar is to all stick and stay together. After a doctor spots them and their home and keeps an eye on them, houses them until their grandfather finds them and eventually takes them in himself. This book is heartfelt, sad, and happy all at once! this series builds and I love the story that unfolds.
Age/Audience: Grade 3+. This book is great for children who are interested in series books as this is one of very many. Students who like books that build upon each other and leave you on the edge of their seats will find this book very interesting.
Teaching Points: This story can be used to teach story sequencing, and also persuasive writing as modeled in parts of this story. This is also a great simple read aloud that can be used all year as the series progresses.

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Early Chapter Book
Date Read: 4/20/2016.
Genre: Fiction.
Review: In this text, Amelia Bedelia is in need of money after her parents tell her they will only be paying for half of her new bike. Throughout this story, she is forced to do anything and everything it takes to make this money happen! I love this book because in elementary school, a lot of students do random things to earn their own money for things they want. This story teaches hard work and discipline.
Age/Audience: Grade 3+. This book is targeted toward girls as the main character highlights the adventure of a girl. This book is also targeted toward children who earn their own money and can relate to Amelia.
Teaching Points: This book is great for sequencing. Also, this story is good for building their own endings. Students can get their journals and write how they think the story will end. This text can also be used as a teaching point for point of view and narrative writing.

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Classic Early Picture Book
Date Read: 2/13/2016.
Genre: Fiction.
Review: This book is about a group of 12 girls, who all dress to match, living together in Paris. Further in the story, Madeleine is in pain and rushed to the hospital. She ends up having her appendix removed which leaves her with a scar. All of the girls come and visit her in the hospital and are jealous of her scar. The story ends with the remaining 11 girls in "pain" because they want surgery and a scar just like Madeleine. This story is a great one about friendship, empathy, and compassion. This story has humor, sadness, and excitement. I cannot wait to use this in my classroom.
Age/Audience: Grade K-2. This book is perfect for those who can relate to scars, surgery, etc. Also, this is a great story of family and friendship and having a soft heart for those in pain and those who enjoy stories such as this will enjoy this read.
Teaching Points: This book is a great hook read aloud for a lesson on rhyming and reading/writing rhyming. Also, this book is a great way to teach togetherness and friendship. I love this book as a simple read aloud as well. For grades K-2, this book is an engaging book because of its humorous ending.

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Early Chapter Book
Date Read: 3/21/2016.
Genre: Fiction.
Review: This book is a funny story about Freddy who is the only one from his class who has not yet lost a tooth. He is determined to lose a tooth and be one of the names on the big tooth you get to sign when you do. He tries a handful of things to lose his tooth, but all unsuccessful. When he is out with his mom, he is eating an icecream cone when he notices he swallows something hard. He feels around and realizes it is his TOOTH! This story is a hilarious real life depiction of the mind of an elementary school kid. The things that are important to them and the things they would do for attention and recognition make this book a great elementary story read.
Age/Audience: Grades K+ (independent after grade 2). Perfect for students who are around the age of losing their first look (K-1) and students who like books about kids who do silly things for silly reasons.
Teaching Points: For this book, I would use it as a read aloud to model cause and effect. The students would be given an opportunity to draw a T-chart and label the various cause and effects from the story. This is also a great way to model how not everyone develops at the same time (not everyone loses teeth at the same rate).

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Children's book of choice
Hot new book of 2015
Date Read: 4/15/2016.
Genre: Fiction.
Review: This is a heartwarming text about a mother and daughter who put their talents together to form something beautiful. While the daughter can draw, the mother can knit. Together the daughter draws a beautiful drawing and the mother knits it into an amazing beach blanket. This text is a great story of togetherness and the strong bond between a mother and their child. I loved this text because it shows this relationship in a creative way. These two are using their together talents to "knit together" something beautiful.
Age/Audience: This book is great for mother-daughter duos who have a strong bond and for anyone with a love for drawing and knitting.
Teaching Points: This text could be using to model why collaboration is so important, as well as showing how two things can be made into one (two minds work together as one). Also, this text is a great read aloud to model outside of the box thinking and writing. Also, this would be a great text for an art teacher to use before a drawing/knitting lesson for ELA integration.

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There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

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There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

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Classic Early Picture Book
Date Read: 3/23/2016
Genre: Fiction.
Review: This story is a classic my family used to read often. The plot unfolds with the little old lady swallowing a fly, and then a spider, all the way down to a horse. After each string of things swallowed, the repeated phrase is "perhaps she'll die!". This is a build upon story where each page builds upon the page before. The ending of the story is different, and ends with a humorous twist on the stories undeniable fate.
Age/Audience: Grades K-2, 2 independently. This book is great for students who like animals and bugs and humorous texts.
Teaching Points: This book has many different literacy teaching points! First of all, this is a build upon text which is perfect for story sequencing. The students would have different animals, bugs, and objects and the kids would have to but them in order of what the old lady ate when. Also, the story is great for recognizing repetition in stories. This text is full of repeated phrases and recognizing this in read alouds is a skill needed when moving on to 3rd grade.

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Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

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Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

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Early Chapter Book
Award Winning
Date Read: 4/19/2016.
Genre: Fiction Children's Novel
Review: This book highlights a young 5th grade boy who has been practicing to be his classes' fastest runner. When his match is met by a new girl in the class, his dislike for her grows. Even though his initial feelings about her stem from pride, he soon lets go and they become great friends. They spend time in her backyard and the land of Terabithia forms. Leslie, the young girl, adventures to this last without Jesse, the young boy, and something sad happens to him. This book is a classic, one of my favorites when I was younger, and one my dad read to me as I went to bed. I love this book as a read aloud and as a lesson builder. I cannot wait to build my lessons around this book for years to come.
Age/Audience: Grade 2+ independent around the end of grade 2, grade 3. This book is perfect for children who can relate to the characters home lives as well as those who have overcome grief. Students who enjoy chapter books with a deep plot will enjoy this text.
Teaching Points: This book is great for outlining how to deal with grief, and empathy building. I could use this book for fantasy writing and creative writing as well as story building and to model using descriptive imagery throughout our writing. Paterson does a great job of bringing the characters and settings to life throughout this novel and I entend to use it as a model for my class.
Award: Newbery Medal, ALA Notable

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Classic Early Picture Book
Date Read: 4/1/2016
Genre: Realistic Fiction.
Review: This book is a classic nighttime story read all over the world. It is about a mother who continually says the same phrase to her son every night as she holds him to sleep. As the woman gets old, and can no longer hold him, the son in turn holds his mother and repeats the phrase. Then, the son carries on the tradition with his daughter. I love this story because of its classic feel but also because it tells so much in such a small way. The themes present throughout this story and the feel you get arriving at the end make for a over and over again perfect read.
Age/Audience: Age K-2. Independent at 2. This story is a great way to end the day, and show your students how to love and be loved by the teacher and each other. Students who share similar characteristics with the characters (same tradiction) will enjoy this book.
Teaching Points: This story is a great way to introduce theme to the students. The themes of love, tradition and happiness radiate from this story. Also, this is a great way to introduce stories with repetition, as the traditional phrase she speaks is repeated often. This story is great for the teacher to also model a safe classroom and the love she will have for her students environment (to Kindergarten mainly).

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Early Chapter Book
Date Read: 4/13/2016.
Genre: Fiction. Fantasy.
Review: This book is a classic, later made into a film, and loved by many people around the world. This story of Charlotte's long for friendship and yearning to stay alive and well leaves the audience captivated from chapter one. This book shows courage, friendship, and bittersweet moments of triumph and happiness. This book has many well learned lesson for the audience and allows for open discussion ad predictions. This book is a great tool in the classroom.
Age/Audience: Grade 3+ independent. Students who live feel good chapter books will love this heart warming story of friendship. Also, those students who enjoy stories with talking animals will love the use of creative characters in this novel.
Teaching Points: I would use this book as a proper age group read aloud. Also, this book could be used to teach theme, moral of the story, and fantasy vs. real life text. Also, this book is great for teaching how to make proper inferences and predictions. After each chapter, the class can predict what will happen next in the story. Their predictions will easily be tested each day. The possibilities with this creative story are endless. It only takes a creative teacher to find them.

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Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

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Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

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Classic Early Picture Book
Award Winning
Date Read: 4/13/2016
Genre: Picture book, Fiction, Fantasy, Children's literature, Speculative fiction
Review: This book is all about a little boy who gets in trouble with his mother and is sent to bed without dinner. As the fantasy of this book unfolds, we see that his room changes into a forest like setting. He then travels to an island where the "wild things" live. He becomes the king of these beasts but returns home at the end of the story. This text is wonderful at descriptive imagery and fantasy writing. Imagination runs rampid throughout this story and is a great model for children.
Age/Audience: Grades K-3, independent at grade 2-3. Great for students who love to read and explore adventure and fantasy reading. Also, great for those with creative minds who love monsters and adventure.
Teaching Points: This book will be a perfect model for writing fantasy and for determining between fantasy writing and realistic writing in third grade. This text will be a great mentor text to refer back to on occasion when writing fantasy pieces or comparing/contrasting fantasy and realistic texts.
Award: Caldecott Medal.

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Classic Early Picture Book
Date Read: 4/12/2016
Genre: Fiction.
Review: This story is about the friendship of a girl and her newly bought teddy bear. She first sights him in the store but to her sadness, he was missing a button and her mother declined purchasing him. Corduroy was saddened by this discovery, so he searched the story for his button. The end of the story reveals a happy purchase from the money in her piggy bank and a friendship that will last a lifetime. This story is a great early classic book that gives heart warming tales of friendship in anything and anyone.
Age/Audience: Grade K-2. Targeted toward 2 grade independent. I believe grades younger will appreciate and relate more to this story as it is about a teddy bear and his friend.
Teaching Points: This book can ben taught at the beginning of a lower level age grade as an opener to the school year book. Also, this book would be great for writing in creating their own ending. The book could be read halfway through and then the students could write in their journals how they would end the story. This is also a great lower level grade read aloud.

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Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See by Bill Martin Jr/ Eric Carle

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Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See by Bill Martin Jr/ Eric Carle

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Classic Early Picture Book
Date Read: 2/14/16
Genre: Fiction
Review: Throughout this book, we see a brown bear, and multiple other animals, who see various other animals. Each animal that the animal before sees, appears next. Being ask "what do you see?" Each animal is described as a color. This book is a fun, exciting way to teach a variety of different lessons, and keeps the children on the edge of their seats, waiting to see what animal is next in the story.
Age/Audience: Grade K. This book is targeted to younger readers who are learning colors!
Teaching Points: Some things that could be taught using this book are colors and sequencing. This book is perfect for teaching colors because it pairs an animal with a color. This way, when a child things of an animal, they will be able to identify a color as well.

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Early Chapter Book
Date Read: 4/18/2016
Genre: Fiction.
Review: As Greg and Rowley enter middle school, they notice everyone is bigger and better than them. Rowley becomes popular pretty quickly to which Greg piggy backs off of. Throughout the story, Greg and Rowley get into hilarious arguments, and trouble. As Greg soon realizes his actions have consequences, he does not seem to care, and continues to perform all of his pranks and mischief, none of which go right for him.  I love this book and the many in the series that follow because it shows a real like depiction of silly middle school boys up to no good. Also, it gives students an idea of what not to do and shows that actions have consequences, some are good and some are bad, and the choice is almost always your own!
Age/Audience: This book is for children grades 3+. The audience of this book is targeting to boys who enjoy pranks, hilarious jokes, and the rise of an underdog. This book is perfect for students in 5th grade, about to enter middle school, as the character in the book just has.
Teaching Points: Throughout this book, we see many rises and many more falls. This book is a perfect read aloud for a 5th grade class, soon rising to middle school, but is also great for a cause and effect model. This book is full of Greg doing things that get him into trouble or causing harm to someone else. I would love to have this book, along with others from the Wimpy series, in my classroom library for my students to read as a hilarious hook to practice fluency in a fun way!

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Classic Early Picture Book
Date Read: 4/13/2016
Genre: Fiction.
Review: This book is all about the relationship between this tree, and the boy. The tree calls the boy, "boy" and he enjoys many different activities with the tree. Throughout the boy's life, he wants something different, all of which the tree provides for him. When he is grown, and there is nothing by a stump left of the tree, she still remains happy to give the boy, now a man. This story is inspiring, and encouraging. I loved this story as a kid and it has followed me into my adult life. I cannot wait to see how my future students learn from this text.
Age/Audience: All Elementary grade levels. Independent starting at grade 2. This book is a great read for 2nd grade because it is heartfelt, and gives a great lesson on sharing and caring for yourself, others, and things around you. Students at this age need to read stories that model this behavior.
Teaching Points: This story would be best used used to model and practice reading fluency. This story contains many areas for characters to come to life and expressive reading could be taught through these character conversations. Also, this book is a good beginning of the year lesson on giving and sharing.

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Graphic Novel
Date Read: 3/2/2016
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy
Review: This graphic novel is the hilarious adventure of two chubby pigs, pinky and stinky. They are determined to be the first pigs on the planet Jupiter. Throughout their journey. things go wrong and they lose sight of the mission in order to fix all of their array of troubles. The seem to be caught up in a fantasy war between men on the moon and astronauts. Throughout their journey, Pinky and Stinky are faced with moral dilemmas, will they do what is right? I love this story because it uses fantasy and humor to teach valuable moral lessons.
Age/Audience: Grade 3+. Funny novel for kids who enjoy adventure, books with talking animals, and hilarious mishaps and plans gone wrong.
Teaching Points: Great moral teaching points can come from the funny story. The pigs are faced with decisions. A great activity for the kids is to write about what they would do in these various situations. Also, this text could model cause and effect recognition. The students could make a T-chart and highlight all of the cause and effects from the story read aloud.

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Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Pena

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Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Pena

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Children's book of choice
Hot new book of 2015
Date Read: 4/1/2016.
Genre: Fiction.
Review: This book outlines a young boys Sunday morning routine with his grandmother. The author of this book does an amazing job using descriptive imagery throughout the text, I almost felt like I was there with the pair! The young boy in this story has multiple conversations with his grandmother as to why they do not have "nice" things like his friends. Grandmother always has a quick and uplifting answer for the boy and helps him see that even though he doesn't have those things, he has all that is around him, including his grandmother and family. This book is fun, creative, uplifting, and morally precise.
Age/Audience: Grade 1-3. Great for students who can relate to the characters in this story. Those who live closely to a wise grandmother.
Teaching Points: This book could be using for story sequencing. The students could pretend they were on the bus and have to remember the sequence of events from the read aloud. Also, this book is good for teaching points on general life lessons. Materialism is a big part of society these days and combating that with integrated lessons such as this is very important for growing and developing minds! Great mentor text.
Award: Newbery Medal (2016), Caldecott Honor Boo, Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book, New York Times Best Seller.

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The Adventure of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey

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The Adventure of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey

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Graphic Novel
Date Read: 4/12/2016
Genre: Fiction.
Review: This graphic novel follows two fourth grade boys (George and Harold) around on their pranking adventures. Throughout the entire novel, these 2 boys pull prank after prank and eventually receive a great deal of trouble from Mr. Krupps. As punishment, they must do a series of chores for Mr. Krupp. Later in the novel, they hypnotize him, turning him into Captain Underpants, who fights against Dr. Diaper. This used to be one of my favorite graphic novels growing up and I am sure it will be around for many more years to come.
Age/Audience: Grade 3+. This story is perfect for students in grade 4 because it is written about two 4th graders. This book is perfect for boys at this age who love pranks and the consequences that accompany them.
Teaching Points: With this graphic novel, I could introduce story boarding to my students. They could create their own comic stripts. To further this and add collaboration, the entire class could create just one story block and add them altogether to create a funny comic. This book could be used as a read aloud in ELA and model as a writing for fiction hero writing. Each student could invent a super hero and write about their strengths, weaknesses, and abilities. This is a fun book to build lessons on!

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Classic Early Picture Books
Date Read: 2/14/2016
Genre: Fiction
Review: I love these books by Eric Carle! This one in particular is perfect for integrated lessons. As we learn more about the chameleon, the more the students will understand how the environment shapes the chameleon's color. This book has lots of color and descriptive detail and is great for younger readers to keep them involved and focused on the assignment.
Age/Audience: Grade K-2. This book is perfect for younger readers, possibly grade K.
Teaching Points: This book could be taught in a variety of lessons and is great for integration. You could use the book to teach about science, and the habitats of the chameleon, and students could write about one of the habitats in their journals. Also, story boards could be made about this book and additional writing topics can be made. Additionally, this text could teach children to be happy with who they are, and to make the most out of the people they are, and not wish to be someone or something else!

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Magic Treehouse #18  Buffalo Before Breakfast by Mary Pope Osborne

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Magic Treehouse #18  Buffalo Before Breakfast by Mary Pope Osborne

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Early Chapter Book
Date Read: 1/20/2016
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy/Historical
Review: This book is a great way to incorporate fantasy into history. Throughout this story we learn more about Native American lifestyle and the history behind their culture and customs. This book is a fiction based book about 2 kids who travel in their magic tree house to a far away native land. They learn how to live in this native world and compare differences from the way these people live and how they live beyond the tree house. This book, and the many other magic tree house series books, are great dipictions of how life is in other culture, and great for story telling and imagination building.
Age/Audience: Grade 3. This book is a great grade 3 independent reading level and is perfect for readers who like learning about history and a variety of different cultures
Teaching Points: This book is perfect for incorporating Native American culture with a fantasy world.  Also, this book could be used as integrated reading and social studies because the students could compare/contrast the lives of the natives in the story and their own lives. Also, this book would be a good model as to how to write abstractly and with descriptions. I love this book for a daily read aloud as well.

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Classic Early Picture Book
Date Read: In about 2000. Read again on 4/12/2016.
Genre: Fiction.
Review: This book is an obvious classic! Growing up, this book put me to sleep multiple nights. This book is about a child who is going to bed and throughout the book she says goodnight to everything around her (room, cow, balloon, etc.) This book consists of rhyming, and silly word usage that children will love. This book reminds me a lot of my childhood and I would love to add it to my library one day so that the children I teach will remember it too.
Age/Audience: Ages K-2. Younger students will appreciate this book more and it will hold their attention greater than older students. Independent level around grade 2 (end of grade 1).
Teaching Points: This book would be great for teach rhyming, and story sequencing. This book consists of different elements and layers and would be good for students to learn paying attention while reading and practice comprehension. I would most likely use this as a mentor text that we revisit often for poetry writing.

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Junie B Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth by  Barbara Park

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Junie B Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth by  Barbara Park

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Early Chapter Book
Date Read: 2/12/16
Genre: Fiction
Review: Who doesn't love Junie B. Jones and her mischievious behavior? This story is all about how her mouth gets her into trouble. Throughout the story, she continues to say things that she should not have said and Mrs., her teacher, seems to always be saying her name. This book is hilarious, even for the adults, and is sure to keep the students interested. Not only that, but this is one of many many in the Junie B. Jones series, and can be used time and time again to provide a perfect lesson hook.
Age/Audience: Grade 2-3. Students who are on this independent reading level will love this book! Reading about a silly Kindergartener is always fun! Students who may have been a little silly like Junie B and can relate will love this book the most! Students who enjoy funny literature will keep reading book after book!
Teaching Points: There is much to be learned about fluency, comprehension, and grammar throughout this novel. Many sequencing lessons could be taught as well reading strategies such as retelling after every chapter, or summarization. I like this book for teaching various reading lessons because it keeps the student interested. What will Junie B. Jones do next?

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Pete the Cat With Shoes On by Eric Litwin

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Pete the Cat With Shoes On by Eric Litwin

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Children’s books of choice
Date Read: 2/8/2016
Genre: Fiction.
Review: This book is fun, funny, engaging, and upbeat. This book will keep the interest of younger readers more so than older readers but can be used along a wide variety of lessons. This book is all about Pete the Cat "rocking" in his shoes. As the book progresses, Pete does many things in his shoes and you are always excited to turn the page to see what he will do next!
Age/Audience: Grade K-2. I believe this book would be best used in the younger grades because it will better keep their attention. If this is a text being read independently, it would be better used in 2nd or even 3rd grade.
Teaching Points: I love this book for inflectional -ing ending lessons. It gives a funny, interesting hook and well describes the meaning of
-ing (present tense of verb) as well as giving pictures that can be referred to later to steer understanding, comprehension, and context clues of an unknown word.

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Children’s books of choice
Date Read: 2/8/2016
Genre: Common Sense Media
Review: As this book unfolds, it takes you through a series of directions in which you must follow for the pages to turn to magic upon turning. This book will keep interest peaked and imagination flowing as the magic conveyed will transform the minds of the readers. The concept behind this book and the many others by this author are  sure to pair with lessons across many weeks and hook the student's extended attention.
Age/Audience: Grade K-2. This book could be entertaining for all ages but it is targeting toward younger readers due to this standards it could easily go along with. In addition, I believe the magic the book is meant to convey will stay with the younger readers rather than the older ones.
Teaching Points: This book is great for hands on learning and following directions. I could use this book in a lesson on fine motor skills and problem solving as well as fantasy and imagination building!

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Children’s books of choice
Award Winning
Date Read: 1/1/2016
Genre: Fiction.
Review: This story is about a bunny who has a big imagination. He can turn his box into anything he thinks up in his head and he calls this his "not a box." This book is a great hook for students to widen their imaginations and think more critically in may different content areas. I love this book for younger readers and for teaching creative writing.
Age/Audience: Grade Kindergarten-1. This book is perfect for children who love creativity in reading, silly animal characters, and outside of the box thinking.
Teaching Points: This book could be used to teach sequencing, story building, creativity, and critical thinking. Also, students could make their own "not a box" creative writing.
Awards: New York Public Library's "One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing", ALA Notable Children’s Book, Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book

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Early Chapter Book
Award Winning
Date Read: 2/8/2016
Genre: Fiction.
Review: I love this book because it gives a variety of stories in one book with consistent characters. Each story in the book has its own moral and lesson to be learned about friendship.
Age/Audience: 2nd-3rd Grade. Independently, this book is targeted more toward end of 2nd, beginning of 3rd grade, As a read aloud not on grade level, it could be most any grade!
Teaching Points: I love this book for teaching volume reading. Also, I like this book for a proper on grade level read aloud. I like for the read alouds to be books the students can go back later and read independently. Also, this book could be great for kids to build off of as a writing assignment (make your own ending.
Award:  Caldecott Honor Book,  Newbery Honor Book, Christopher Award

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Early Picture Book
Date Read: 2/8/2016
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy
Review: I love Rainbow Fish because the book is appealing to the younger students as well as a book with a good moral lesson. This book uses a unique way to caution children about selfishness and vanity at a young age.
Age/Audience: Grade K-2. Great for those students who like light reading as this. Also, this book is great for hands on learners and students who enjoy great illustrations.
Teaching Points: This book could be used for picture walk practice, sequencing, and real life lesson cautioning. I could show them what happens when you live a selfish life and how vanity can effect you in a negative way.

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Horrible Harry and the Dungeon by Suzy Kline

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Horrible Harry and the Dungeon by Suzy Kline

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Early Chapter Book
Date Read: 1/20/16
Genre: Fiction- Comedy and Humor Series
Review: This book is hilarious. Full of humor that kids will love! Harry is a troublemaker who will do anything to make it to the dungeon (or detention) to check out the new detention teacher, who seems pretty scary. I know boys will love his rebellious persona and the girls will appreciate the humor and funny ending!
Age/Audience: Grades K-2, independent at grade 2. Targeted to boys who are mischievous as well will relate to this book. Also those students who like series novels will enjoy this series.
Teaching Points: This chapter book could be used to teach cause and effect writing or cause and effect comprehension in reading.

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And to Think That I Saw it n Mulberry Street by Dr. Suess

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And to Think That I Saw it n Mulberry Street by Dr. Suess

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Classic Early Picture Book
Date Read: 1/16/16
Genre: Fiction
Review: I love this book and the characters amazing imagination! After every page turn you see a new piece of this thought form. The craziest things can be seen on Mulberry Street from on simple image. This book has all of the greats of Dr. Suess rolled into one. And to think this was his first ever children's book.
Age/Audience: Grades K-2. Any child with a wild imagination would love this book. Young learners would probably appreciate it more but older students may also enjoy the humor and ridiculousness of it as well.
Teaching Points: You could do so much with this book! I would love to use it for a sequencing lesson or a lesson on finishing the book with your own ending. There are endless writing topics that could pair with this book like "What would you see on Mulberry Street"

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Have You Filled a Bucket Today by Carol McCloud

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Have You Filled a Bucket Today by Carol McCloud

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Children’s books of choice
Award Winning
Date Read: 1/18/16
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Review: This book is a fantastic representation of emotions. Everyone starts out with a bucket and you can either fill others or take from others. When you fill others, your bucket gets filled as well! Such great motivation not only for children but for adults as well. Have you filled someone's bucket today?
Age/Audience: Grades K-2. This book is perfect for Kindergarten first weeks of school and as a review in 1st and 2nd.
Teaching Points: This would be perfect for a lesson on being nice and finding encourging words to say to your friends and family. Each student could write down something encouraging and put it in the class bucket. Everyday we could read a couple and write a response about them in our journals.
Award: Mom’s Choice Awards

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Children’s books of choice
Award Winning
Date Read: 1/16/16
Genre: Biography
Review: This is one of my favorite books. This true story about Dr. Jane and her love for animals is absolutely inspiring. As the story goes from her childhood among nature wishing to live among animals and making a difference to her life in the field where she has founded corporations who do just that: make a difference for all living things.
Age/Audience: Grades K-3. Students interested in nature and animals will love this book but I believe the inspirational story behind it will capture every heart.
Teaching Points: This book could be used to help teach biography writing. It can also be used to teach persuasive writing. In integrated lessons, it can be used to teach about nature preserves and habitats that protect animals. Science lesson could also be integrated using this book.
Award: 2012 Caldecott Honor Book

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Children’s books of choice
Award Winning
Date Read: 1/16/16
Genre: Children's Literature Fiction
Review: I loved this book! Especially for elementary aged students, this book shows the triumpt of an outcast boy. Not only this, but it shows how not to treat your peers and shows taht everyone comes from different lifestyles and homes. At the end of the book, the young boy's teacher sees potential in him and encourages him to showcase his talents. This shows a great model of how to be a nurturing teacher.
Age/Audience: Grades 3-5. This book is perfect for upper elementary aged students. More specifically students who come from homes like the main character and can relate to his sadness and loneliness.
Teaching Points: Crow Boy could be taught in multiple arenas. I could touch on Japanese culture as well as social norms and bullying. This book could also be taught for a number of literature lessons such as use of adjectives and protagonist vs. antagonist characters.
Award: Crow Boy has received the Caldecott Honor Award.