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Biography/Autobiography 1

Bluebonnet 3

Caldecott 3

Coretta Scott-King 2

Fantasy 2

Graphic Novel 1

Historical Fiction 2

Newberry 1

Non-fiction/Informational 2

Poetry 2

Post Modern Picture Book 1

Realistic Fiction 3

Traditional Tales 2

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1 Minute Book Talk audio (2)

Blog Response (1)
Bluebonnet Project Book

Book Trailer

Defining Quote (2)

Infographic

Letter to Teacher/Friend
Nonfiction Pic Book Analysis

Poetry Read Aloud Video*(1)

Prezi
Read Aloud Audio

Recommendation (2)

Response in Poetry

Review (5)

Sticky Note Response (1)

Story Map (2)

Twitter Review

Most responses should be between 125- 200 words in length. These are “sample” activities you might use with future students.

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(1 Minute Book Talk )

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(Free-Choice)
Prezi
http://prezi.com/8semyzkqaszy/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

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Poetry Read Aloud Video
https://youtu.be/1httC1bdRHM

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(Response in Poetry)

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(Sticky Note Response)

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(Blog Response)
Growing up in the 1980’s was a fairly care-free and simple time in American history. Most of the state of Texas was feeling the effects of a financial boom from the oil industry and so families lived in relative comfort. My family was no exception. We had a place to live, food to eat and creature comforts that were considered luxuries. Children that grew up during the Great Depression faced hardships that I couldn’t imagine facing. Nothing to Fear by Jackie French Koller tells the story of 13-year-old Danny Garvey as he struggles to deal with the life of a normal teenage boy with the added pressure of the Great Depression tearing his family apart. Follow along as Danny learns what it means to become the “man” in his family while his father leaves them to look for work and learn the life lessons of the world before most children should. This book would be an excellent resource to help your students learn about the Great Depression and the hardships families faced during that time. There are several wonderful websites that have additional resources to tie in with the information about the Great Depression that I have included for your use. There is one that leads you to a resource about FDR’s famous speech about having “nothing to fear,” which is where the book takes its title from.

http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/65482.htm

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FDR-and-the-New-Deal-1662850

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learning/explorations/children_depression/depression_children_menu.cfm

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(Defining Quote)
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“There is one more thing,” said Mr. Peabody. “Now you must go and pick up all the feathers.” Tommy frowned. “I don’t think it’s possible to pick up all the feathers,” Tommy replied. “It would be just as impossible to undo the damage that you have done by spreading the rumor that I am a thief,” said Mr. Peabody.
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Mr. Peabody’s Apples by Madonna is a retelling of a 300-year-old story about the power of words and their impact on people. Using the pillowcase full of feathers strewn across a field to represent the way words cannot be taken back, to me, is a beautiful representation of this life lesson. I love the way the artwork depicts a pleasant small town that could be located anywhere in the country. The simplistic story work leads to a powerful story being told in a manner that is understandable to most children. I know I will use this text in my classroom as a means to start a discussion about our words and the impact they can have on others in both a positive and negative way. One way I can tie this lesson in with a kinesthetic element is with a tube of tooth paste. Allowing each of the students to empty the contents from a travel size tube and asking them to now return the contents to the tube will be a visual way to review the story and the impact of our words and our lack of ability to take them back once they have been said. I highly recommend this book for classrooms of all levels.

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(Story Map)

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(Recommendation)
Trombone Shorty is a story, I believe, should be in every classroom library. This book tells the story of Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and what his life was like growing up in Tremé, which is a subdivision within New Orleans, Louisiana. The words of this book are directly from Trombone Shorty himself and can be viewed as semi-autobiographical. He uses a powerful metaphor to describe what music felt and sounded like to him growing up. You could use the metaphor of gumbo in your classroom with your students to help them understand how all of the sounds were blended together to create the jazz music that Trombone Shorty is so passionate about. You can have your students bring ingredients for a gumbo and you can help them prepare the dish while listening to jazz music from lots of different artists. This book uses illustrations to provide a vivid and brilliant backdrop that keenly conveys the colorful, boisterous, and sometimes loud world that Troy found himself growing up in. As Troy would say, Where Y’ At? Where Y’ At? This book would be an excellent addition to any classroom library.

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(Review)
Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson is a graphic novel about one girl’s journey through summer and her time in roller derby camp. Astrid does everything with her best friend Nicole but this summer, they sign up to do separate things for the first time in their lives. Astrid goes to derby camp and gives herself over entirely to becoming a successful roller girl. She struggles from day one and makes friends with the only other girl that seems to be relatively new to roller derby like herself, Zoey. Together they work hard and make it to the exhibition match held during half-time of the Rose City Rollers derby match.

From a teacher’s perspective, this graphic novel offers a well-written story with beautifully rendered art work that enhances that story. There is a nice variety of cultural difference including the main character that lives in a single parent household. The novel isn’t difficult to read and the drawings are likely to help attract reluctant readers to delve into a story that deals with some real-world issues, such as the friendship between Astrid and Nicole and the metamorphosis that relationship goes through. This is a great novel and should be made available to your students.

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(Recommendation)
Mirror, Mirror is a unique collection of poems written by Marilyn Singer and illustrated by Josee Masse that could easily find a place in any grade level classroom and I recommend you add it to yours today. I see myself using it as a mentor text when working with students on different forms of poetry and how they can be written. These poems deal with well-known fairy tales that most all children love. They are unique because each fairy tale is told from two different points of view BUT they use the exact same words for each story. Take for example, Snow White, on one side of the page you have her condensed version of her story and on the other side of the page you get the Evil Queen’s side of the story. The really fun part, they use the exact same words to tell the story but you read it top to bottom for Snow White and bottom to top for the Evil Queen. Having this in your classroom just adds variety to a genre that doesn’t get much focus anymore. I hope you will find this collection as fun and entertaining as I did.

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Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

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Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

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(Review)
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is a children’s picture book of the realistic fiction genre. It is a well-known book, and was made into a movie. This is a story featuring a little boy named Alexander who wakes up and immediately begins to have a rotten day. He is treated to many injustices like cereal boxes with no prizes inside, being stuck in the middle seat, and finding out he has a cavity. As Alexander’s day progresses, things only get worse. He experiences disappointment, jealousy, anger, having a tantrum, and being scolded. Alexander mentions that he should just go to Australia periodically throughout the book, further demonstrating his desire to escape his misfortunes.  By the end of the day, Alexander has survived, and his mother assures him that everyone has bad days no matter where they might live. A child reading this book will be able to relate to some of Alexander’s difficulties. This book has many good examples of the types of mishaps that happen in a child’s life, and realistically delivers the actions in a way that show that Alexander is having a bad day of his own making, but the author shows that from Alexander’s point of view, he is the victim. This slight twist might help a child to understand that actions have consequences by making a connection to a totally relatable book character. This book is well written, and I appreciate that fact that Alexander does not get a happy ending to his story. This story ends in more of a “let’s try again tomorrow” sort of feeling. I think that parents and teachers alike could use this book to help get through some of the bumpy times that a child might be experiencing.

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(Review)

I have attached my review. This is a method I can see myself using in my classroom. The concept is to have a collection of these reviews from my students so they can share their thoughts and opinions on our classroom library with their peers.

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Pop! The Invention of Bubble Gum is a fun informational text about the development of bubble gum by the main character Walter Diemer. This is a non-fiction picture book that has colorful illustrations that look more like a fiction book. I believe the illustrations in the book make it attention grabbing, and help to make it fun. This little book is enjoyable to read, and has terrific little historical facts that are tossed in to help the story along. The author used a conversational tone throughout the book making it easily relatable and made the story feel more like a fun read rather than a book full of information. Children of a broad range of ages will enjoy this book and will certainly be well informed after reading it. It sparks a curiosity for a product that many of us use everyday, and I think that in the classroom it could be used as an introductory lesson for the non-fiction genre, and as a cross curricular lesson in science as well. There was only one place in the book that I felt myself wanting a little more information. I really wanted to know how Walter decided that he should start adding ingredients to the bubble gum sample that he was only supposed to be watching, and why he could not give up trying to make it work. Teachers should add this little treat of a book to their libraries for children to break into the non-fiction genre, and I suspect that this book will appeal to boys especially.

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(Review)

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(Story Map)

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(Twitter Review)

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(Book Trailer)
https://youtu.be/q7MSbvowWjA

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(Defining Quote)
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But maybe the white people tell it best. They talk about the night their foregathers witnessed seven black spirits, walking on water - to their freedom!
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Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship & Freedom tells the story of Little Mo, a slave, and Martha Tom, a Choctaw Indian girl. On one side of the river Bok Chitto lives the Choctaw nation and on the other side lives the plantation owners and their slaves. If a slave escapes and crosses the river, they are free because the plantation owners are forbidden from crossing, it was the law. One day Martha Tom goes to pick blackberries and crosses the river to find some, despite her mother's warning not to, and she meets Little Mo. He helps her find her way back home and the two become friends. One evening Little Mo's family is given horrible news and they decide their only option is to try and escape. Martha Tom and her people help Little Mo and his family cross the river and disappear into the night to their freedom. This book is a wonderful resource to add to any classroom collection and can be used as a means to discuss this time period in history.

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WOOSH! Lonnie Johnson's SUPER-SOAKER Stream of Inventions

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WOOSH! Lonnie Johnson's SUPER-SOAKER Stream of Inventions

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(Bluebonnet Project Book)

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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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(Infographic)

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(Letter to a Teacher)
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Dear Dr. Solomon,

I am writing to you about a wonderful little book that I just finished called The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt. Poor Duncan just wants to color his latest masterpiece but when he opens his box of crayons he finds a pile of letters instead. Each color from the box has decided they are finished coloring for Duncan and they write him a letter to tell him just what they think about his use (or lack thereof) of them. This adorable story can be easily integrated into any early elementary or preschool classroom as a fun end-of-year reading with your students. After finishing the story, I would encourage the students to grab a sheet of that ugly manila paper that every teacher always has way too much of and try using their crayons in an unusual and unique way. If I were to use this book with an older grade level, I would have them choose one of the colors with a more unusual name, such as chartreuse, and write their own letters from the crayons perspective with reasons for their resignation. I was just so excited about this book I had to share my thoughts and ideas with you. Let me know if you have anything else that would work great with this book!

Your (soon to be) college,

Jeremy Slatton

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(Book Talk)

https://youtu.be/mmZ-NSDzsyI

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This is a children's book that was read to my son when he was 4 years old by a mom of a little girl that was in his class with him. This was her favorite story ever and I found it fascinating that a little girl would love a book that ends the way this one does! The teacher allowed the mom to read it but did let all of the parents know about it before hand. I was intrigued so I showed up so I could hear it as well! Since then, it has become one of my favorite children's books but it is anything but typical. I would relate it to a Grimm's fairy tale with a Cajun twist! I hope you enjoy this book as much as I do!

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(3-Page Nonfiction Picture Book Analysis)