Learning to be a Bookworm

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Written and Illustrated by: Jeff Kinney

Age Group: 3^rd and 4^th Grade

Published: 2007

The story Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a novel in cartoon characters and a #1 New York Times Best seller. The story follows the life of a middle school boy Greg Heffley and his best friend Rowley. They are dealing with the older cooler boys in school, parents just not understanding and just trying to fit in. When his best friend Rowley starts hanging out with the cooler boys, Greg needs to figure out a way of getting him back. In the end of the book Greg helps out Rowley and they are back to hanging out everyday after school.

This story deals with situations that all children at this age deal with and have to make it through. The connection of friendship is huge in this book. Greg and Rowley are such good friends and they are always there for each other. The thing about this book that isn’t helpful is that yes it is nice that the author goes by months and clearly labels it, but since he labels each day of the week he needs to have one after the other. While reading he goes from Tuesday and skips Wednesday, and Thursday and goes directly to Friday, this could be confusing for some students.

I think what makes this book so popular is the way the author, Jeff, writes the novel with the pictures and font. He uses paper in the book that have lines, like an actual diary would, so the reader doesn’t feel like they are just reading a regular book. He has cartoon pictures that children get really into because they love to draw cartoons and make up stories. The font he uses is just like the writing of a child; it clearly looks written and not typed out at all. The pictures in the novel don’t happen in any certain order, it seems that when the illustrator has something he wants a picture for, he just writes it in the middle of the page whenever he feels like it. Which makes the book so original and unique.

I would definitely have this book in my classroom for students to read. I would love to have everyone in the class read this book. All students love this book, students are different reading levels, and boys and girls with completely different interests enjoy it. When they are done reading the book, they can make their own story, where I can see into the lives of my students through writing and art. It can be an ongoing assignment where they write in their diaries each night.

Green Eyes

Author and Illustrator: A. Birnbaum

Age Group: Kindergarten

Published: 1953

Green Eyes is the story of a young kitten’s experiences through his first year of life. Green Eyes was born on a farm and the year is documented through the animal friends he meets during the four seasons of the year. When Green Eye’s is born he is so small that he lives in a small box. After a year of life, he is moved to a bigger box.

I don’t know that I can say that there is any real lesson that is taught through this story. The author has created a lot of opportunity for teaching and learning using, animals, seasons, number, colors the transformation from a kitten to a cat.

The illustrations are very simple and child like. There isn’t a lot of detail, which makes it easier for a young child to understand and absorb. The colors the Birnbaum chose are primary colors that again cater to the young child. The animals, seasons and colors provide the opportunity for a lot of dialogue and questions with the young child.

I recommend this Caldecott Honor Book for the early childhood classroom. Whether in large or small groups there are a lot of teaching and learning opportunities. The teacher can use this book for a weather unit, farm unit, number unit, color unit or teaching about seasons. Through this book the teacher can ask the children a lot of questions about the various topics and can use it as an assessment tool to see what the children know or are interested in.

Where You Are My Love Will Find You

Author and Illustrator: Nancy Tillman

Ages Group: All ages

Published: 2010

This is a sweet, short story that follows a child through a variety of adventures in life reminding the child there where ever he is, whatever he does his mother’s love will always follow him. When he is feeling down all he needs to do is “lift up your face, feel the wind in your hair…” .

This is a story that is a gentle reminder for all of us that we are loved. In this particular story it is a mother’s love, but if you are reading it with your class you can talk about all of the love that surrounds us along with all the different kids of love. A friends love, a spouse’s love, God’s love etc. That wherever you are and whatever you are doing you are never alone, someone, somewhere loves you.

The illustrations in this book are as soft, gentle and beautiful as the message. Some of pictures are so beautiful they could almost look like an actual photograph. I really liked how on almost every page, the illustrator shows the child with a different kind of animal. The fun, animal adventures makes for an interesting picture book that even the youngest child would enjoy looking at.

I would recommend this book as a read loud around Valentines’s Day of maybe even during a time of a death or tragedy in the classroom, community or world. The message is one that we can never be reminded of enough. The words and pictures are very calming. The book is short but may contain some challenging words, could be read and enjoyed by first or second graders.

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

Author and Illustrator: William Steig

Ages Group: 3rd-5th Grade

Published: 1969

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is the story of a young donkey who collects pebbles. One rainy day he found a beautiful red pebble, as he was holding it he wished that the rain would stop. The rain stopped. He made a couple of more wishes and they came true. He then encountered a lion, he wished that he were a big rock to protect himself from the lion, he was turned into a big rock and the lion walked right by him. He stayed a rock because he couldn’t hold the pebble to wish him back to himself. Sylvester’s parents were very worried because their son didn’t come home. They waited and looked for him and he could not found. They finally gave up thinking something horrible had happened. One summer afternoon, a year later Sylvester’s parents were on a picnic and missing him. The father found a beautiful red pebble and showed it to his wife saying that Sylvester would have loved that pebble. Holding the pebble, Sylvester’s mother wished that he would return to them. HE appeared. His parents were so happy! The parent’s pl aced the pebble in an iron safe until they day that they needed a wish to be honored. Until then, they lived happily with everything that they needed.

The lesson in this book is a good topic to be reinforced in all classrooms, The difference between greed and wishing for more than you have. We should all be happy with what we have and if we aren’t, then we need to change something within ourselves or something that we are doing to make it happen. We are responsible for our ourselves and our future. We should never let greed get the best of us. We need to learn to be happy with what we have.

The illustrations are harsh and dark, when I look at them, I don’t have a sense of positive feeling or emotion. The black outline around the drawings creates a sketch feel, more of a drawing than a painting or photograph. The art supports the words of the story and follow what the author is trying to tell us, they just don’t appeal to me.

I remember my parents reading this book to me when I was a kid and I didn’t like it. Now that I’m older, I still don’t. I can’t put my finger on it, it has a good lesson that can be used in a classroom about wishing for more than you have and being selfish. I just don’t care for it. I know that this book is a Caldecott Medal winner, but I can’t recommend it.

Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus

Written by: Barbara Park

Illustrated by: Denise Brunkus

Age Group: 2^nd Grade

Published: 1992

Junie B. Jones is a huge series of books for children to read. They are all hilarious and about the same little girl. This book is about Junie Beatrice Jones and her first day of Kindergarten and she hates the school bus. Her friend Lucille tells her that she is going to get chocolate milk poured all over her head. At the end of the day instead of leaving school and going on the school bus she hides in the teachers room and when everyone is gone, she leaves her hiding spot and starts exploring the school. A janitor finds her and calls her mother and Junie goes home and explains to her mother why she did this.

All of the lessons in the Junie B. Jones books are lessons that all children this age go through and have to handle, especially in this book. Most kids are afraid of there first day of school and are especially scared to take the bus. The bus has many older students on it, so to the younger students they feel so little and scared of how they are going to be treated, especially if they are hearing stories. This is a great lesson of what to do and what not to do, and if you are afraid of something you need to speak up and actually tell someone the feelings you are having.

The book doesn’t have many pictures in the book, but when there are, they are very funny. They are just sketches of pictures and they are very detailed. In my opinion I think that this book would be just as great even if it didn’t have any pictures at all. My favorite part of the pictures are that they make Junie B. Jones look kind of rough sometimes, they have one of her socks always squished down on the side which is so funny.

I would have many of the Junie B. Jones book in my classroom. Since these books are very leaning from books, the students can always relate. In my classroom I would want the students to write about and draw pictures of something they are afraid of when it comes to school, or something they were afraid of. We could have a lesson of each of the things the children say, and I bet that some will overlap. Then the students will realize that some of their classmates are also afraid of the same thing as them, so they know that they are not alone. In my classroom I would try to have as many of these books as possible on my shelf so the students have options of many kinds.

Magic Tree House: Dinosaurs Before Dark

Written by: Mary Pope Osborne

Illustrated by: Sal Murdocca

Age Group: 2^nd Grade

Published: 1992

This book is the fist in a large series of Magic Tree House books. The main characters Jack and Annie find a mysterious tree house filled with lot of books. Jack really wants to see a Pteranodon in real life after looking at all the pictures, so him and Annie travel through time to the land of dinosaurs. They see so many dinosaurs like a T-Rex and Triceratops. They travel through and learn all about dinosaurs.

This book has lessons for students. Especially since this book about Dinosaurs, it has great vocabulary that the students in the class can learn about and memorize. Information about dinosaurs are so interesting to children, because no one has actually seen dinosaurs before or have footage of them, it is such a slightly unknown thing. The ways we discover dinosaurs are so cool for students to learn about. They have great websites and museums where students can really get into the

The pictures in this book are very realistic. They are beautifully drawn with pencil and have excellent detail; it makes you feel like you are actually in the book itself. The pictures in the book aren’t just on one page, they continue on some pages back to back The font and writing on the pages fit around the pictures so make the book more fun for students to read.

I would love to have a bunch of the Magic Tree House book series in my classroom. The Magic Tree House website has so many options for students to work on with each chapter and vocabulary that they learn for each. The vocabulary in each is so great and relates to what the students enjoy. At the end I would love to have the students in my classroom create their own dinosaurs either making them all up on their own, or taking many different parts of dinosaurs and creating a whole new one with an original name.

How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You?

Written by: Jane Yolen

Illustrated by: Mark Teague

Age Group: Preschool and Kindergarten

Published: 2009

The book How do Dinosaurs say I Love You? Is a very creative book telling the readers that even when dinosaurs make mistakes they are still loved. The different dinosaurs will not take naps, not eat what is put in front of them, and throw sand in the sandbox outside, flood the house when playing in the sink. But looking past all of that, they hold the parents and in the grocery store, always say I love you and blow kisses, so that makes up for all the bad that they do.

Before I introduce this book, I would want to ask the children in the class how they think dinosaurs say I love you? I would say well we would find out about all the different ways. At the beginning of the book it also gives the names of all the dinosaurs that the book will include and talk about. A great activity for the students to look up is information about the different dinosaurs so they can be familiar with them before reading. For review on each page while reading, they also have the names again of the dinosaurs on the page under the picture of them.

The pictures in this book are great and so vibrant. The colors are just so bright and crisp and it makes me really get into the story. Since the book doesn’t have many words on each page, the pictures are what really do the trick for the book and for students to learn. The pictures are very funny and get the children reading it to laugh at the different expressions on the faces of the parents and the dinosaurs.

I would have this book in my classroom and I would definitely make it more than just a read aloud and do things for the students to get involved with a lesson. I would definitely want them to learn about the dinosaurs, and I would make this one of the book that they bring home to read with mom and dad. It is great how they show the dinosaurs doing both bad things that they know are wrong but then also good things where they get praised for them.