Published 2012

This story follows the journey of a little dog’s rescue from an ice floe.  The story takes place in Poland during a particularly harsh winter.  The dog was trapped on the ice floe for two days and traveled seventy five miles, ending up in the Baltic Sea.  He is finally rescued by a research vessel.  The print is simple and easy to read while the illustrations support comprehension.  It would be appropriate as a read aloud for early/lower elementary, and some readers may be able to read it on their own as well.  The students really loved hearing about the people who tried to rescue the dog and how the dog was adopted by the people who saved him.

Illustrator: E.B. Lewis 

Copyright Date: 2015

Grade Level: 2-12 

Posted By: Janna Walsh

Synopsis: This book is about people in Huntsville, Alabama planting seeds of freedom with their peaceful approach to protest segregation. There are several different events that occur throughout, and each one there is only peace portrayed: sit-ins, Blue Jean Sunday, playing Patriotic music and releasing balloons asking for support of freedom, as well as integration and reverse integration of schools. The focus of this book is to shine a light on the “nonviolence and dignity and cooperation and courage” of the people of Huntsville as they tried to stay peaceful and approach exclusion based on race.

Student Reactions: My students loved the illustrations, and had some amazing discussions surrounding this book. My students have been exposed to events related to the Civil Rights Movement, however they were shocked to see the approach of peace instead of violence. They wanted to know why they didn’t fight and why the police officers were nice. We had a discussion about how to approach situations that we don’t agree with, and they were able to make the connection that these are the ways that we encourage them to approach disagreements at school. My students see a lot of violence outside of school, so their first thoughts were that violence should have been the answer, which I expected. I will be reading this book with each of my classes from now on, because they need to understand we can get results without violence. 

Post by: Brenna Holsclaw

Synopsis: This book begins by comparing the lives of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. It begins with the birth of both men-- one into a life in New Jersey and the other in the Caribbean. Both boys were born into families that were well-off and orphaned as very young men. Aaron ended up being raised by his uncle, while a wealthy merchant took in Alexander. The story highlights the boldness and the intelligence of both of these men, before bringing them together in the whirlwind of the American Revolution. The illustrations are beautiful and work well to show the similarities between these two men, yet also where their lives began to diverge, culminating in a strong dislike of each other. The book actually presents a very unbiased view of both individuals, not condemning either (particularly Burr) for their roles in the duel, and the author allows the readers to come to their own conclusions about who (if anyone) might be at fault.

Students’ Reactions: Initially, I attempted to read this book to my toddler-- which was a bit of a mistake. The pictures are lovely and the text is simple enough, but the story is not particularly engaging for a 2-year-old, haha. Middle-schoolers, however, ate it up! Particularly with the popularity of the show Hamilton at the moment, the students were very interested in the backstory of Hamilton and Burr, along with a point of view that did not automatically demonize Burr. The text was understandable, historically accurate, and included real quotes from both men.