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Author: Andrew Celements

This book is fun and entertaining to read to a classroom full of third or fourth graders! A classic story of boys versus girls in a fifth grade classroom to see who can be quieter longer, this story can teach a lesson on how to respect your teachers and act appropriately at school. I would say that this book is moderately complex, with conversational sentence structure and simple vocabulary words. The graphics in this book support the storyline and are fun to look at. I would recommend reading this book to your students if you have a classroom full of hyper kids! A fun activity to do would be to act the book out in your classroom for a week: have a real competition between the students on who can be more well-behaved and quiet throughout the week and get a prize at the end. Along with this competition, the students can keep a journal of their thoughts and feelings toward the activity, and in the end can reflect on what they learned and how they will act in the future.

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Author: Kathi Appelt
Illustrator: David Small

This story of a calico cat who becomes friends with an unlikely hound is a great representation of how diverse friendships can be, if you get the chance to know someone you wouldn't normally hang out with. I think this is a book on the third or fourth grade level and would teach the students a good lesson on how you may become friends with people that are different than you. I think this book is moderately complex, because of the organization of the story and the conventionality of the sentences. They are easy to understand, but on occasion have a more complex meaning behind them. A good activity to do with this book is to have your students write a story of the cat and the hound and put their own twist on it, using the sentence structure and vocabulary presented in the text, and also adding figurative language to make it their own work.

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Author: Sharon M. Draper

When researching books for this assignment, I came across this one and in all caps it said that it is a MUST READ! So I read little excerpts of it and definitely agree and want to read more! This book is great to read aloud to a class of fourth graders, and I think it teaches a very important lesson of treating people who may look differently just the same as you would treat anyone else. I think this book is very complex because of the sentence structure and transition words used. The vocabulary is only moderately complex, but there are still words that a fourth grader may not know. A good activity for your students to do with this book would be to write a story from the young girl's point of view on how people treat her, and use the type of sentence structure that is presented in the book.

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Author: Carol McCloud

This book is fun and easy to read to a classroom of kindergarteners or first graders! It uses a bucket to show how compliments or mean things can fill or empty the bucket. This can teach a great lesson to the students about how saying nice things to others can make them feel good about themselves, and also make you feel good, too. I think this book is slightly complex, because of the simplistic sentence structure and easy vocabulary words. A good activity to do with the young students and this book is to have them write compliments down about their classmates, using adjectives to describe them, and give them to each other.

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Author: David Shannon

Although this is an older book, it is one of my favorites. A story of a girl who got a bad case of stripes before her first day of school, she worries about what everyone will think of her. By the end of this story, she accepts who she is and is proud of what she looks like! This teaches a great lesson to students, and a classroom of second, third or fourth graders would love reading this. I think the book is moderately complex, because of the length of the story, and all of the vocabulary that the students may not be familiar with. The graphics in the book also support the story. I think a good activity to do with students involving this book would be to have them write a letter to their family members, telling them that they got a bad case of stripes and cannot see them anymore. I think that this will allow the students to use their imagination and also be able to use some of the vocabulary words presented in the book.

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Girl Running: Bobbi Gibb and the Boston Marathon

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Girl Running: Bobbi Gibb and the Boston Marathon

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Author: Annette Bay Pimentel
Illustrator: Micha Archer

This is a very powerful book for students to read about a girl who overcame different obstacles and ran in the Boston Marathon. It is a fourth grade reading level and very complex because of the sentence structure and different meanings. It also may be confusing for students to read it in today's society because the girl in the book is not allowed to run on her school's track team, and nowadays everyone is allowed to join. I think a good activity to do with this is have the students write a list of what they need to do to prepare to run the Boston Marathon, and also tell the history behind the marathon and how important and impressive it is to run it! You can also pick out vocabulary words that the students may not know and can work on those as well.

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Author: Trudy Ludwig
Illustrator: Patrice Barton

This book tells a sweet story of a boy who has no friends, to finding a friendship with the new kid. The two team up to make themselves noticed while working on a school project, and are happy and successful in the end! I think this is a good book to read to a fourth grade classroom, and can teach them the lesson of not being a bully and trying to be nice and friendly with everyone around them. Also, it can help them understand how hard it is to be a new kid at school. I think this book is moderately complex, because of the life experiences and storyline presented, and because the graphics in the book strongly support what is going on in the story. An activity you can do with this book is having the kids write a story from their point of view as a new kid at school, how different their days would be if they didn't have the friends they have in the classroom and at recess.

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Author: Lois Brandt
Illustrator: Vin Vogel

This is a heartwarming story about two friends who live different lives: one has a fridge at home stocked with food and the other has enough to barely get by. This story teaches a great lesson on true friendship and how to be supportive to someone who has less than you. I think it is moderately complex because of the conversational vocabulary and use of graphics to support the story. This is a great book to read to second, third and fourth graders, and can teach them a lot about how they should appreciate what they have, and to not make fun of others who may not have as much. An activity you can do with the students is have them think of something that they are thankful for, and write a story or letter about to give to their parents.

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Author: Amy June Bates
Illustrator: Juniper Bates

I have never heard about this book until this assignment, but after I read it I knew it would be a great read aloud to a classroom of third and fourth graders. This book tells a story of how the umbrella is so big that everyone can fit under it, it doesn't matter if you're tall, short, big, small, or have a lot of legs, every one is welcome! This teaches a great lesson on how to accept people that may look or act different than you and your friends do. I think that it is moderately complex, because of the storyline and vocabulary words, and also because it presents life experiences that the students may or may not have encountered yet. A good activity for the students with this book can be having them draw a big umbrella and think of different adjectives that describe people that can fit under the umbrella.

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Author: Matt de la Pena
Illustrator: Christian Robinson

This is another book that I read in my reading education class, and I thought it taught a great lesson on how to appreciate the things you have, and the people that love you. I think this is a moderately complex book, because of its conversational vocabulary and sentence structure, and also how the graphics support and even develop the story further than the words on the page. It is a third or fourth grade reading level, and I think a great activity to do with this book is have the students come up with a list of things that have and appreciate and write a story of why those things are important to them. You can also have them write a story from the boy, CJ's point of view on his bus ride's with his grandma everyday.

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Author: Adam Lehrhaupt
Illustrator: Scott Magoon

This is a book about overcoming desires and finding friendships that you may have not been looking for. The story of a beast who lives in a cave and thinks of everything as a potential meal, soon comes to find out that a little boy may be his reason for coming out of his cave. I would say that this book is moderately complex, because the pictures support the storyline and it also explores several themes that students may encounter in their lives. This is a second and third grade reading level book, and I would use it to introduce new vocabulary words to the students, and also have them think of a time where they really wanted something, but ended up not getting it and how it made them feel. They can also write a story from the beast's point of view and also the little boy's point of view and read them to the class if they feel comfortable.

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Author: Jerry Spinelli

This is a fun, easy and relatable book to read to a classroom of third graders. I would say that it is moderately complex, because the reader may have a difficult time predicting where the story goes. The use of graphics in this book support different parts of the text to help the students better understand the storyline, and the vocabulary is mainly conversational throughout the story. An activity you can do with this book is having your students write or act out a story that involves being nice to a friend, family member, or stranger, and how it makes them feel when other people are nice to them. You can also teach a lesson on what it means to be nice to everyone you meet, even when you don't want to.

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

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

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Author: Ellen Levine
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson

The first time I read this book was in my reading education class. I thought it was a heartbreaking, yet heartwarming story about a man who was enslaved, met a lovely woman, made a family, and then everything was taken away from him. In the end he shipped himself to Pennsylvania so he could be free, although he never got to see his wife or children ever again. This book can be read on a third or fourth grade level, and I would say that it is moderately complex because of the length and vocabulary presented on every page. With this book, you can teach the students about the history of slavery, and have them write a story imagining if they had to spend days in a box being shipped somewhere (grandparents house, beach, etc.). This can allow the students to use their imagination and the vocabulary that they learned from the book.

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Author: Adam Rex

Nothing Rhymes with Orange is a book that tells rhymes about all of the fruit imaginable, and then there's orange. He feels left out and sad that there is no word to rhyme him with, and his little side comments about all of the other fruit will have a classroom of first or second graders laughing! I think this book is slightly complex, because of the rhyme and rhythm, it makes it pretty easy to read and the readers can predict what will happen in the end. A good activity to make from this book is simply presenting a group of words to your class and see how many words they can rhyme with. They can also have an assignment to write a poem using these words presented to them, and depending on the time of year, you can also have it be a poem about the holidays.

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Author: Kate DiCamillo
Illustrator: Yoko Tanaka

This book is described as a "haunting fable about trusting the unexpected, and making the extraordinary come true". The story of a young boy wanting to find his sister that he thought had died, and having to trust an elephant to lead him to her, is something that can bring a classroom of fourth grader's imagination alive. This book is very complex, with its vocabulary, plot, figurative language and theme changing throughout the story. I think a good activity to do with this chapter book is to have the students write their own story of a time they had to trust something that someone told them. This is a great lesson to teach because students at this age may believe anything people tell them, and this can give them a chance to use their creativity and write their own story about it.

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Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

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Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

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Author: Kate DiCamillo
Illustrator: K.G. Campbell

This comical, thoughtful chapter book is something that fourth graders will enjoy hearing and reading. I think it is very complex because of the vocabulary, sentence structure, and plot that make it unable to predict but can still challenge the readers enough that it wouldn't be considered moderately complex. The vocabulary in this book is what stood out to me, most of the words being big enough that I even had to look some of them up. This book tells a story of a young girl who saved a squirrel from a vacuum cleaner, something that you don't hear about everyday. A lesson that can be taught from this book, aside from broadening the students vocabulary, is the lesson of seeing the good in the world and to not be so cyclical.

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Author: R.J. Palacio

Wonder is a book that any and all ages need to read. It is a story of a kid, Auggie, with a facial difference, telling his story of starting mainstream school and the difficulties that come with it. He encounters making new friends, being bullied, and accepting who he is and standing up for himself. This is a great book to read aloud to a classroom of fourth graders, and can teach them many lessons of acceptance, understanding and how to be a good friend to those who may look different. I would say that this book is very complex, simply because the students have probably never experienced a kid with a facial difference in their classroom or school before. The lesson I would choose to teach to my students not only involves how to be a good friend and not discriminate towards anyone who may look or act different to you, but also being able to teach the idea that you may come across people in your life that don't treat you how you think you should be treated. There are many vocabulary words and sentence structures that we could work on from this book, and overall I think it is able to provide great activities for the class.

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Author: Katherine Applegate
Illustrator: Patricia Castelao

The One and Only Ivan quickly became one of my favorite little books to read. The story of a gorilla and a baby elephant held to put on a show in a mall, turning into a heart warming story of friendship and family, is great to read to a third or fourth grade classroom. There are many activities that you can do with this book. With my students, I would have them draw a family tree and write down the names of people that aren't in their blood related family, but people they consider to be like family. There are simple vocabulary words and other themes that you can pick out of this book to work on with students, and I think it tells a great story of how to look out for, support, and never give up on the ones you love. I would say that this book is moderately complex, because you can assume what happens in the end, but there are events that you may not see coming. This would be a good book for third through fifth grade students.

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Author: Nick Sharma

This book is great to read to a class of kindergarten, first, or second graders. It teaches a lesson on being brave and courageous, something that all students should learn and take with them as they grow older. I would say that this is a moderately complex text, because you do not know what will come next in the story of a little tiger and bird looking for fish in a "river of horror". The illustrations in the book support the story and can further the understanding of what is being told. An activity you can have the students do with this book is a reader's theater, each student acting out what the characters in the book say and feel. There are also many vocabulary words in here that the students have not heard of yet, so you can pick those words out and do an activity involving those words and their definitions. This book is great to read to first grade students specifically.

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Author: Drew Daywalt
Illustrator: Oliver Jeffers

This book is great to read to first or second graders. It's a great book to introduce how to write a letter, and the students can practice using adjectives and figurative language in the letters they write. The book includes many different letters written by the crayons to Duncan, the kid coloring with them all. The give reasons and explain why they are quitting and in the end, Duncan finds a way to use the colors more creatively in a drawing. I would use this book to have the students think of ways to write more creatively and even write a letter to their friends or family explaining the different ways to tell someone you want to be treated better. This book has a moderately complex meaning, and would be good to read to a class of first or second graders.