Title: Junie B. Jones, And the stupid smelly bus.

Author: Barbara Park

Illustrator: Denise Brunkus

Publisher: Random House

Date: 1992

Number of pages: 80

Grade Level: 1st - 3rd Grade

Genre: Fiction/Humor

Theme: Fiction

Topic: Riding the bus for the first time

Main Character: Junie B. Jones

Setting: School, Home, and Bus

Plot: In this book, Junie B. is extremely nervous about attending school and riding the bus for the first time. She manages to successfully finish her first day and bus ride; however, she doesn’t want to ride the bus home because of a rumor that a student told her. As a result, she tries to hide and avoid riding the bus home, but she becomes even more nervous
because she is lost and alone, and in the end, she learns an important lesson about what happens when you try to hide from your problems.

This book hit home for me because in kindergarten i had the meanest bus driver. I was so scared to ride by myself for the first week of school. I think this book is awesome for younger children that do have to start doing things on their own. it shows that even though there are scary tasks in this world we can overcome any obstacle.

Author: Douglas Floriam

Illustrator: Douglas Floriam

Publication Date: December 2020

Number of Pages: 48 pages

Grade Level: 2nd-5th

Genre: Children's grade book/ Poetry book

Type of Poem: Rhythm poem 

Literary Elements: This book is about global warming and climate change. Book also talks about all the animals that live in the ice and the different between the north and south poles. I enjoyed how the author use rhyming throughout the whole book to make the information more enjoyable for children. I thought it was great that Douglas also illustrated his own book. The pictures are very child like and warming!

Personal response: 

Author: Jacqueline Woodson

Publisher: Penguin Group

Publication Date: August 28, 2014

Number of Pages: 336

Grade Level: 5th- 10th 

Genre: Poetry, Novel, Children's literature, Biography, Autobiography

Type of Poem: Verse 

Literary Elements: Racism, Activism, and the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. Brown Girl Dreaming focuses on the experience of growing up as an African-American child during the 1960s and early 1970s, a period of intense energy and organization surrounding questions of race and racial justice.

Personal response: I really enjoyed this book and what it stood for. Jacqueline writes Brown Girl Dreaming as a memoir of her childhood experiences growing up in the north and the south during the 1960's/ 70's. I thought this book was very unique because I have never seen a memoir written in verse or as poetry. I thought this book was very honest with what she was going through at that time. 

Title: Drum Dream Girl

Author: Margarita Engle     

Illustrator: Rafael Lopez 

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 

Date: 2015

Number of pages: 48

Grade Level: Pre K - 1st grade

Genre: fiction

Theme: fiction

Topic: Girls cannot be drummers. Long ago on an island filled with music, no one questioned that rule—until the drum dream girl. In her city of drumbeats, she dreamed of pounding tall congas and tapping small bongós. She had to keep quiet. She had to practice in secret. But when at last her dream-bright music was heard, everyone sang and danced and decided that both girls and boys should be free to drum and dream.
Literary Elements:
Main character:  Inspired by the childhood of Chinese Afro Cuban drummer Millo Castro Zaldarriaga,
Setting: Cuba 1930's
Plot: Drum Dream Girl is the story of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga, a mixed race Cuban girl, who defied gender roles in the 1930's music scene. The girl and her story show the importance of family, teacher, and music-education support to expose and develop our children's musical talents.

Personal Response: I think this book is a good example of challenging stereotypes and breaking the limits of gender norms. I also liked how the Drum Dream Girl let nothing stop her from being herself. books like these are important because they teach that we should not judge people for being who they are and that we should embrace differences and be more accepting. 

Title: Tangerine Dress

Author: Christine Baldacchino

Illustrator: Isabelle Malenfant

Publisher: Groundwood Books

Date: 2014

Number of pages: 32

Grade Level: K- 4th Grade

Genre: Fiction

Theme: Fiction

Topic: Being confident in yourself and bullying

Literary elements:
Main character: Morris
Setting: School and home
Plot: Morris has a great imagination. He paints amazing pictures and he loves his classroom's dress-up center, especially the tangerine dress. It reminds him of tigers, the sun and his mother's hair. The other children don't understand--dresses, they say, are for girls. And Morris certainly isn't welcome in the spaceship his classmates are building--astronauts, they say, don't wear dresses. One day Morris has a tummy ache, and his mother lets him stay home from school. He stays in bed reading about elephants, and her dreams about a space adventure with his cat, Moo. Inspired by his dream, Morris paints a fantastic picture, and everything begins to change when he takes it to school.

Personal Response:
I love this book with all my heart! i think the author did a great job writing this story. She mad morris a very unique character with a unique circumstance. Its okay for boys to wear whatever makes them happy especially if its a dress. this book shows children that even if you are different or dress different we all need need to be kind to one another.

Title: People in my family 

Author: Jeff moss

Illustrator: Carol Nicklaus

Publisher: Random House

Date: Jan 1987

Number of pages: 24

Grade Level: Pre K - 3rd Grade

Genre: fiction/ educational 

Theme: fiction

Topic: Counting up to five member in the seasem family

Title: Big Pumpkin

Author: Erica Silverman

Illustrator: S. D. Schindler

Publisher: Aladdin

Date: August 31, 1992

Number of pages: 32

Grade Level: Pre K - 3rd Grade

Genre: Children's Fantasy 

Theme: Fiction

Topic: The witch has grown the biggest pumpkin ever, and now she wants to make herself a pumpkin pie for Halloween. But the pumpkin is so big she can't get it off the vine.

Main Character: Witch

Setting: Woods, in the witches garden and kitchen

Plot: The witch has grown the biggest pumpkin ever, and now she wants to make herself a pumpkin pie for Halloween. But the pumpkin is so big she can't get it off the vine. It’s so big the ghost can’t move it, either. Neither can the vampire, nor the mummy. It looks as if there’ll be no pumpkin pie for Halloween, until along comes the bat with an idea to save the day.

This is my absolute favorite children's book. I used to read this every night before I went to bed. I love how the characters are spooky but not over the top. I absolutely love the wording/ and rhyming that the author used throughout this whole book.  I must be bias because pumpkin pie is my favorite!!!

Author: Kate and Jol Temple
Illustrated: Terri Rose Baynton

Publisher: Kane Miller Books/ EDC Publishing

Publication Date: Janurary 1, 2019

Number of Pages: 32

Grade Level: Pre k-1st

Genre: Fiction

Literary Elements: Room on our Rock is a powerful allegorical exploration of the emotions and fears that drive exclusion, persecution, and rejection of refugees. Read conventionally, it tells the tale of a group of seals who fear the approach of a strange pair of seals, one a child, whose rock is being overwhelmed by the sea.

Personal response: I thought this was a really cute book, it shows children the emotions of what can happen when someone tells you no or is just plain mean to you for no reason. I also liked the illustrations throughout the book

Publisher: Lothian Children's Books
Age group: 9-12 years old
Reading level: 4th grade to 6th grade
Pages: 256
Theme: Family and school injustice
Topic: Books, growing up, social justice
Genre: Fiction
Illustrations: None

Synopsis: Amy Anne Ollinger was upset to find that her favorite book, The Messed up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was removed from the shelf of her elementary school library. Why? Because it was banned. And who decided to do such a thing? The librarian wasn't one to do it but rather another student's mom who had a lot of bearing on the decision because of her connections and money. Mary Anne had the opportunity to speak up about the decision and state her feelings at a board meeting but lose her nerve and didnt speak up at the board, leaving her favorite book still off the shelf and still banned. More books are being banned because the same mom keeps making complaints about the books and the school board agrees and makes the school librarian pull them off the shelves. Amy Anne is furious. She believes no books should be taken off the shelves because they don't like what's inside of them! Heck, half the books they are banning are ones the school board never read but they are scared of the content inside the books. Mary Anne and some of her friends decide that there's only one thing to do to combat the censoring: start an illegal locker library of copies of the banned books donated by her fellow students.

Author: Shirley Climo

Illustrator: Ruth Heller

Publisher: Harper Collins

Date Published: 1992

Number of Pages: 32

Grade Level: Preschool-3

Genre: fairytale

Theme: everything works out as it should

Topic: princess

Artistic Elements: Colors are bright and realistic

Literary Elements: This book is about a girl, Rhodopis, who is a slave in Greece. She receives a pair of slippers from her master that make her happy. Suddenly, the shoe is stolen by a bird and is dropped in the pharaohs lap. He is detemrined to find the owner of the slippers and make her the queen.

Personal Thoughts: This book is quite entertaining and cute, and it has a strong moral lesson.

Curricular Connections: I would have an older student, maybe third grade, compare this version of Cinderella to another.

Title: Frog and Toad are friends

Author: Arnold Lobel

Publisher: Harper Collins 

Date: 1979

Number of pages: 64

Grade Level: 1st-3rd Grade

Genre: Children’s Fiction/Chapter book

Theme: Friendship

Topic: What Frog and Toad do together 

ARTISTIC MEDIA:

Drawings

LITERARY ELEMENTS:

Main Character: Frog and Toad

Setting: Outside, Toad & Frogs homes

Plot: This book covers 5 days of what Frog and Toad do together. The first day, Frog helps Toad get motivated to clean his house. The second day, they fly kites together. The third day, they tell ghost stories. The fourth day is Toad's birthday and Frog gets Toad a hat. The last day Frog wants to be alone because he appreciates his life and his friendship with Toad and wants to soak it all in. 

Author: Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton
Illustrator: Liz Amini-Holes
Publisher, Date: Annick Press, 2010
Page Number: 156
Grade Level: 4-8
Genre: Biography
Summary: This is a story about a young girl who is wanting to go to residential school to learn & read. She is one who loves to read, but once her family gives her wishes to go to the school, it becomes a nightmare all in one.
Personal Response: This book caught me by surprise with where it was leading to. I had some idea with what might happen in the book, but I was not expecting this at all. It hurt me even being the reader, seeing all the pain this young 8 year old went through. All she wanted to do was to read because it was her desire, yet when she went to these schools, tormenting came along with it. It breaks my heart knowing that there are people out there who have gone through similar things, but just keep it buried inside, too scared to bring it to the surface. I am very glad she shared her story to all of us. 

Author: Stacy McAnulty 

Illustrator: Stevie Lewis

Publisher: Henry Hold and CO

Number of Pages: 40

Grade Level: ages 4-9

Theme: Sticking together 

Genre: fiction 

Topic: All about the moon

Summary:

PERSONAL RESPONSE:

I thought this was a really cute story about the Moon and its importance! It is informational but also keeps you engaged and entertained with its lightheartedness. It would be great for younger grades- especially those who are learning about the moon!

Illustrator: David Shannon

Publisher: Scholastic
Year: 2004

Number of Pages: 33

Grade Level: 2nd 

Theme: Learning to be yourself and be comfortable in your own skin

Genre: Fiction

Topic: Identity, insecurities

Summary: Camilla woke up with stripes all over herself, and she felt so embarrassed to go to school. She was made fun of and laughed at during school. She felt ashamed and insecure. No doctors could figure out what was wrong with her. She 

Personal Response: I feel like we can all relate to this book one way or another. Often times I find myself spending a lot of time worrying about what others think of me. I see and feel the effect that this has on my mental health.  I think this has such an important lesson about being comfortable in our own skin. It doesn't matter your shape, skin color, height, etc... You need to be confident and comfortable in your skin!