The Un-Wedding by Babette Cole

Not knowing it, this is now my third book by Cole. This one however I liked unlike the other two. Cole once again uses her unique sense of humor to deal with children whose parents fight all the time and eventually get divorced or "un-wedded." It is a refreshing way to deal with the topic. Earllier I read another book on divorce which was rather sad. The colors were gloomy unlike this book. It is very colorful and the detailed images create something to laugh at even when talking about fighting. She makes the parents look like fighting 5 year old.

What I liked most about this book is how Cole made it known that it is NOT the children's fault and that everything can turn out ok. Rather than be upset with their parents not getting along they have an un-wedding. They all dress in black and get divorced. They have a party to celebrate a new chapter in their life and they show their parents going seperate ways. Cole mentions how life is better because everyone is happy and the best part is that living in two houses means two of everything! It even becomes special to the kids because they have their own secret passage way to each house.

I don't want to leave otu the fact that the book did deal with the topic and didn't sugar coat it. It did show that it created stress on everyone in the family. I just think it has a more positive outlook on how things will turn out after. It showed that some people are just not made to be together but that doesn't mean they are not still their parents.

This book truly has a more positive outlook on divorce than anything else I have seen. It shows the kids getting support at school from their other friends. It shows that they are not alone. It also shows how their parnets how different life style and the kids fit into both of those lives.

Arlene Sardine by Chris Raschka

Arlene Sardine is about a little fish who wants to be a sardine. It describes the fishes journey from birth to death then to the factory and her voyage through a factory into a can. I am having trouble finding the right words to day about this book. I can see why people have a problem with this book because it doesn't spare you any details about how a fish is caught and packed into a can but it doesn't do it in a graphic way. There is at least some level of sensativity used. I did like the pictures because they look like water colors. There is a lack of defined lines so I think that makes the pictures less graphic if you will. The pictures swirl with shades of orange, red, yellow and green.

If you look at the cover, you will see that it is a play on a sardine can. It says easy open and net wt. 12 oz. Then you open the book from the saide rather than the top or bottom just like you are pealing off the cover of a sardine can.

I think how animals become food is a hard topic to deal with. I personally don't remember how I learned about it but all children are going to learn about it someday. Children are smart and can't be protected forever. Now I am not saying this should be read to your 6 year old, but it might also be a tool to use to help children understand.

The other topic this book talks about is death. The beginning starts off with the author saying "I once knew a little fish once who wanted to be a sardine." The book talks about how the fish gently lays on a conver belt so there are images of death but in a sensitive way I think.

What the author does to make death and an animal as food is make it as part of the fish's desire. That is what it wants to be. Therefore when death is coming near, the fish is happy, not scared. All of her and her fishy friends are on the same path.

I know that I would not choose to share this book with my children but if they came across it on their own that would be a different story. I just am not a fan of the plot because it doens't interest me and is hard to think of a fish getting smoked in a factory. I think some people may see this as unsensitive but it is reality and it is a way for children to learn about death and death or an animal.

Uncle What-is-it is Coming to Visit
This book is about Tiffany andIgor who learn that their uncle is coming to visit them from Boston. They haven't seen them since they were babies and their mom informs that he is gay. She doesn't have time to explain what that is so they ask around the neighborhood. People tell them crazy sterotypes which they believe since they don't know any different. They don't want uncle Brett to come because they are scared of him. Finally they meet uncle Brett and find out that he is just like them. In fact he is better at a lot fo things like playing catch then their own dad!
I think that one thing that was great about this book is that is addressed some of the sterotypes that we encounter about gay people. For example they had that they like to dress as women or dress in leather and chains and that simply isn't the truth for everyone. I also like how they come to respect Uncle Bob because he is just like them. I think this sends a positive message to kids.
I can see why this book would be a contraversial topic to deal with. In fact in the book it mentions that the children are Baptist so I see how religion plays into the book but the issue of being gay really doesn't affect me. I think whatever your life style is you should choose to live it and have the option to do so. Just as people who are differnt colors and religions do. From what I understand (not having read the Bible at all) is that it states a man and woman are to be married. Since I know that us how people are taught, that is how they are going to think.

Hair in Funny Places by Babette Cole

This book deals with the topic of puberty. Now any book about this topic has to handle the issue in a very particular manner. Since this is the second book I read by Babette Cole, I realize that she uses an off beat humor to try and make the topic easier to the reader. She is frank, but doesn't take the topic too seriously. Cole does this by using simple sentences that are right to the point with images (sometimes graphic) to show the body changing.

That being said there are many images of naked boys and girl to refer to as they are growing up. I didn't find this as disturbing as the other Cole book because it wasn't giving children ideas about how to act. She is simply stating the facts.

The lines that I didn't like where about how when a males and females reaches a certian age and things happen to them when she says "it meant one day she could grow up to be your mommy." I didn't like this because of the suggestion about being a parents. Also, the changes don't happen to everyone so in a way I think it might be false hope. Families and how people create families today is so diverse that I think it makes it seem limiting.

Personally I thought that the images of "mr. and mrs. hormone" were rather gross and frightening. I don't think that kids should be scared of the changes that are going to happen to them or of what is going on in their body. It isn't a disease, just normal changes.

Mommy Laid an Egg by Babette Cole

This book is about how babies are made. At first when I started the book I didn't think it was very controversial. It starts out with the parents deciding to tell their kids how babies are made. They poke fun at some crazy ways babies are made like delivered by dinasours. Then all fo a sudden you turn the page and there are pretty graphic line drawings of the human body. The shall I say dirtiest page is a page that actually has images of how "mommy and daddy fit together" as in positions they may use during intercourse. A children's book SHOULD NOT give children suggests on how to have intercourse. That I believe is very very inappropiate for a children's book. I can understand a book that does deal with child birth because I think having a reference book to use is a way parents deal with the topic but to have pictures of positions to use is not ok. I would never read this book to a child.

Another thing I didn't like about the drawings of the ways mom and dad fit together is that they are juxtaposed children's toys. One has the parents floating with balloons. One has them on a space hopper ball and one has them on a skate board. I feel that this sends the message that you can do it anywhere. It also makes it less of a grown up act by having the toys on the pages.

The choice of pictures is interesting. The pictures of the characters is very detailed. The pictures that deal with the process of how a baby is made is supposed to be line drawings as if the parents are drawing them. They have a circle for the females parts and a squiggly line for the male parents that are as large as the whole page. You just can't miss them. But what makes it even worse is the fact that there is an arrow from the male to the female that says "this fits in here."

I am still in shock about the graphic detail of the book and the message that it sends to children. It gives children actual tips about how to have intercourse and plays down the fact that is a grown up thing to deal with by using images of toys with the parents.

The Giver byLois Lowry

I loved this book! The giver is about a boy named Jonas whose whole life is perfectly under control until he reaches the age where he is considered an adult. He is given a special job in his community where he is taught to experience things that he never knew such as color and emotions. With his new knowledge he begins to question his life as he knows it.

When I started reading this book I wasn't looking forward to it because I knew I had read it before in school and my general attitude towards books that are required isn't very good (even though I do like to read). But once I started I didn't put it down and I read it as fast as I could because I enjoyed it so much. First of all, I haven't read a book that isn't for school or a text book not for class in a long time so it was nice to be taken to a different place. The whole concept of Jonas's community is intriging and reminds me of things in my life that maybe I take for granted like choice. I can't imagine a world where you can't choose things everyday like I can and yet there are many places in the world that are just like that. There are also cultures that have every part of their life set up for them. It provided me with a new insight as to what exactly that might be like.

Also, I could NOT live without color after having known it. I am not talking about if I went blind, I am talking about if everything went black and white. Part of being an indivdual to me is as simple as waking up in the morning and putting on clothes that you want. You have your choice of patterns, fabrics, and style but none seem as important as color.

I am a person that has had to deal with a lot of emotions (as we all have) many of which are too personal for this classes blog. But the lack of feeling emotions was so interesting to me. I wouldn't trade what we feel for the world even though I wish we could do without some like sadness.

I also liked the idea of how Jonas felt our history and new experiences instead of just reading about it. I personally as a learner learn and interperate things better when I am doing them rather than just reading about them so I think it would be awesome if we got to do what Jonas did like when he experieced snow and the sleigh. I would like to do that but skydiving!

The concept of family was also one that got me thinking. Today, so many people are getting divorced and creating new families over again that as a society I think that we have redefined the word family. This is what was done in the book as well. It challenges what we know about family. In the book, there is the mom and dad and both are assigned 2 kids and 2 kids only. The mom and dad don't have a physically relationship because seeing eachothers "nakedness" is forbidden, so there wouldn't be any cheating on your spouse or broken homes. But the absence of grandparents was also weird. I knwo amny people grow up with only a few grandparents or none at all, but I was lucky enough to have nearly 20 years with 4 grandparents and even about 10 years with a great-grandma. I couldn't imagine not learning and benefiting from them. They are role model figures.

This book challenges so many ideas of society today. Often we wish things like we could feel no pain, but without pain I don't think that you would truly enjoy feeling good. I feel like I could go on and on analyzing this book and writing about it. using this book in school would be amazing because so much can come from it. You could structure almost any subject to fit the book.

Animals Should Definitely not act like People by Judty Barrett and Illustrated by Ron Barrett

This book is a sequal to Animals shoudl definitely not wear clothing. It is a book about why animals wouldn't like to do the things like people do. On each page, the letter that the animal starts with, a verb or adjective to describe why that animal wouldn't like doing people things is used. For example "a worm would be worn out." It makes for the writing to flow really well. The first time I read through it in fact I almost didn't pay any attention to the pictures. But then I realized that the humor in the book was because of the picks. In the line I mentioned above there is a picture of a worm lifting a weight as if it was at the gym. I thought this was realyl clever because the writing worked so well I almost didn't even focus on the pictures. But then when I read it again, I was smiling looking at all the pictures because it's a book with a lot of humor.

Something that stood out to me was that the format of the book. First, the title page was also the first page of the book and then the page after the title page started with because. Secondly, the writing is in huge black, bold letters that take up an entire page. Finally, the words and pictures fliop-flop sides. So on the book the page on the left might have the words on both sides and then the page on the left would have the picture on both sides. I don't know why they did it that way but it was something I noticed because it kept my eyes almost going in a circle.

I really enjoyed how this book uses strong adjectives to describe what would happen because that would fit in really well with a writing assignment. If you wanted to do a mini-lesson how showing and not telling with your words this would be a good book to use as an example. Also, I think it would be a good resource to give children ideas about what they could write about if they are stuck. Just flip through the pages and your imagination can run wild.

My Mom is Trying to Ruin my Life by Kate Keiffer
This book is about a little girl who thinks that her parents are ruining her life so she tries to come up with a plan about how she can escape from her parents. All she can think about is what could go wrong and how she might need her mom to help her out. Then she thinks that if she does get away from her parents and she comes home for dinner but there wont be any and if she is going to bed no one will be there for her either. She in the end changes her mind and decides that she loves her parents.
This story is definatly relatable to all kids because they ALL get annoyed with their parents every once and a while but at the end of the days we all need our parents there for us. The book has a bright pink and lime green themese to it which I sort of liked for little girls. The front of the book is bright pink and lime green and white. The mom wears a pink dress with green belt and the girl wears a green dress with pink belt.
The story is written very cutely too because it flows really well. I felt that at certian points I was speeding up my reading to match the tone of the story which I liked a lot. Also, there are parts where the ways that mom and dad ruin her life are listed and they are distinguished by big and bold font which was cool. The pictures are pretty basic but I like them. You don't need very busy illustrations to make this book good.

Ruthie and the (not so) Teeny Tiny Lie by Laura Rankin.
This book is about a little girl, Ruthie, who tells a little lie one day at school to get something she wants and it eats her up. Finally she feels so bad that she decides to tell the truth and she feels so much better after that.
The story definatly has a good moral lesson for kids about not lying because it is going to make them feel really really bad. In the end telling the truth is better. I actually enjoyed the way that the book dealt with lying because there is a little bit of humor and it wasn't hitting you over the head with triyng to tell you what is right.
This is definatly a girly girls book. It talks about how Ruthie likes all these little things and she always has something little with her. She is also a cute little fox which is different because I don't think that I see very many as the main character. The pictures are great as well.

Here Comes Gosling by Sandy Asher Issustrated by Keith Graves
First of all this book is about froggie who just can't wait to see gosling the new baby and he spends all day waiting and preparing. When the baby gets there, he is all fussy and scares froggie away. But in the end, froggie is the one who is able to calm down the little guy and they get to bond.
I read this book out loud with some students and I just read it again and I realize how different a book is when you are with kids than not. I took it to read with some 2nd graders. They really liked the book and it was fun to get both of the girls actively involved in the book. There are several hook lines (the line that is repeated throughout the story). Two of them I used and had each of the girls say it every time they saw it in the story so it became fun for them. They used different voices and accents by the end. Because of this they were paying attention the whole time. This made the experience of reading out loud very different from when I read it. All of us developed a rhythm. When I read it I thought that it was a cute story and that it would be enjoyable but I didn't realize the tone and how it would be read.
That is a real eye opener for. I think I will have to do some readig out loud. I guess that is going to be the same everyday for lessons. theoritically a lot of lessons look good on paper but you just don't know how they are going to play out that first time you do them.
The words chosen for the book would appeal to much younger kids. It uses those "cutesy words" and has repitition that is good for young readers/ students that are listening. The pictures are entertaining and colorful to go along with the animated story. I also liked how excited froggie was about the baby because I thought that made it relatable to kids. A lot of kids who are starting school are experiencing getting new brothers and sisters and they know what it is like. It also relates to all students because everyone knows what it is like to be so excited about something that time seems to move backwards no matter hwo much you do to stay busy.

Congratulations, Miss. Malarkey! By Judy Finchler and Kevin O'Mally
This book is about a teacher who is keeping a little secret from her class. The students all get worried by how she is acting. Finally she has reveals that she will be getting married and that the whole class is invited to join her at her wedding that saturday.
As far as kids books go, this plot was not at all interesting to me. The only part that I thought was good about this book is that is gives you a little glimpse into how people of different cultures get married all over the world and what some of the traditions are. Oh and there is a little bit of suspense about what is happening to Miss. Malarkey but I can't see why children would be interested really in a book about a teacher who is engaged. Maybe...
an interesting little part of the book is for us older readers to enjoy. The names of the characters are funny. First there is obviously Miss. Malarkey, there is also principal Wiggins, and a Mr. Buffup and the fiancee is bob Fulla so the big joke at the end (a very corny joke) is that the kids ask if they have to call her miss fulla-malarkey.
The pictures were a little different because sometimes they were from a different view than normal. What I mean is that it looked really zoomed in on a face or on one page the wedding invitation.
It made the teacher look like a hero to the children which is always fun! The boy gets so worried that there is something wrong with Miss. M or that she might be leaving that he can't even concentrate in school. It doens't help that all his friends are talking about it too. That reminds me of middle school also because once a rumor gets going it spreads like wildfire and people always assume the worst. Of course what you hear from your friends "has to be true" since they said it so you pass that information along and it spirals down from there.

The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens and Susan Crummel
I love, love this book! The great fuzz frenzy if about a group of groundhogs who find a mysterious tennis ball that rolls into their hole one day. At first they don't know what it is but then one brave little guy touches it and finds that is it fuzzy. He takes some fuzz and plays with it and soon everyone wants a piece of the fuzz. However, there isn't enough to go around so one groundhog decides to take charge and steal everyones fuzz so no one has any. Then he gets swooped away by a huge bird. Thankfully he is ok and the groundhogs reunite ddespite the fuzz dispute.
If you are ever looking for a book that uses strong verbs and imagery, this is it. Every page is like you are acutally there. The authors are very clever and find 10 different ways to describe something and each way brings something new and exciting to the page. This is one of those books that although the pictures are great, the writing is so good and detailed that you could imagine it without needed to see the images.
The story starts even before you open up the first page. On the inside front jacket, you see a dog playing with a ball. When you turn the page to the title page, you see the dogs name is violet and violet drops the ball down a hole. Then begins the story. But the first page isn't normal either. It is a page that you unfold so that you hold the book vertically and you basically see the ball bouncing down and down into a groundhog hole. This happens 3 times during the book. Then on the back inside jacket you see violet again but this time she has a different colored tennis ball and she is about to drop it in the hole agian! I like this cute little humor.
I loved this book because a little mystery and humor mixed with cute animals usually makes for a good story in my opinion. You see the groundhogs wearing bottle caps for hats and the tennis ball fuzz as a dress and you can't help but smile. I think this is a book that I would like for my own personal collection. It is just one of those books that I love and for some reason I can't put my finger on a reason why but it is just one of those books that you know you like.

I bet I could even work it into a curriculum like how to use stronger verbs or for writing. (As a side note because I know that isn't the main poin of blogging)

A Family Secret by Eric Heuvel.
So I was initially drawn to this graphic novel because of the cover. The first thing that stuck out to me was the Jewish star from the Holocust. Then I looked more and recognized lots of other WWII artifacts. I saw that this book had something to do with the Holocust. So I strated to read it. The book is about a boy who searches through his grandmother's attic to find things to sell at a yard sale on Dutch Queen's day. He find his grandmothers scrapbook where he discovers some secrets about his grandmothers losing her best friend. The reason this worked as a graphic novel is because the pictures take you back to the time of WWII so it is like you can see what is going on. I know that you mentioned in class how you don't like when the story is about someone losing a Jewish friend during the war and I am with you, especially having 2 grandparents that survived the Holocust in Poland. So that part was hard for me to get around. HOWEVER, the difference in this story unlike most is that because it is a graphic novel, you might be hearing it from another point of view but you SEE it like you were there. It is almost like a sneaky little way of getting around the usual way of telling a Holocust story. I give the author props for that. On that note, I think this story put a unique twist on how to go about learning history through pictures. But maybe it is just me because I am not a fan of graphic novels, but I couldn't get past that. I just didnt know how to read it. If I looked at the pictures and the words I was thinking about both and you can't read one without the other. It is like you have to re-learn to read with these books. I got confused while reading it personally. I just don't know where to look or when to look. Sometimes I look at the pictures first but then I don't want to go and read the lines and I would get lost.
I do want to point out that this book didn't exactly sugar coat what happened in WWII either. There are some pretty detailed images like page 50 where Esther is walking through town and sees a girl with her head shaved being tourtered in the town square and a swastika painted on her head. That caught my eye.
Overall I am still not sure how I feel about this book. Like I said I think it is a cool way to put a new spin on reading about history and how we read about the horrors of WWII, but I am just not the type of person who enjoys graphic novels so it was hard for me to force myself to read it. I thought this would end up being a book that I could write about for a long time on thsi blog but it didn't turn out to be that way. I know that my personal opinion of how books written about the Holocust are biased since I do have surviving family so I also wanted to note that since that definatly plays a big role as to HOW I read books about this particular issue.

Don't Look Now by Ed Briant
I stumbled across this book when I was looking for graphic novels for this week. To me, this seemed to fit the mold of a graphic novel for beginning readers. It is about 2 boys who play tricks on each other while in their backyard. The pictures are what makes the book because one boy will say don't look now but there is a ___ and the picture will show a dragon but really it was just a bird. I thought that was sort of neat.
The pictures and colors that are used in this story remind me of a cartoon show that you might find on saturday morning. So although I thought it was a creative book, I wasn't loving the plot or it. But i gues with a book like this one, the pictures are more of the plot that the words themselves which is a concept I seem to have trouble wrapping my head around.
After reading the book I noticed that both the front and the back cover give a great little preview as to what the book is about. On the front you see how the boys imaginations are at work and on the back you see the plain backyard that they are playing in, with a monster in the window. I didn't notice that until after I had read the book. Another thing I noticed which I haven't seen is that the front inside cover and the back inside cover are different colors. one is blue and one is green. That was different from anything I have seen or that we saw during that class presentation. I think it shows that this is a new book where authors are taking different directions.

Tess's Tree by Jess M. Brallier Illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds

Website to go along with an arbor day lesson or lesson on the enviroment for little kids = www.arborday.org/kids (note that is sponsored by toyota but it is still a good site)

Tess's tree talks about a little 9 year old girl's favorite tree. A storm breaks the tree and has to be cut down. She has a funeral service because she morns the loss of her tree.

I was looking at the new section of the curriculum lab because I know that you want us to find what is coming out and what it is current even though reading your favorite classic chidlren's books are fun. I looking into this one because the cover caught my eye and so did how the title was written. It in supposed to be tree branches. Then I turned it over and on the back was i was intrigued because there was a paragraph about how the company made a donation for the arbor day foundation to plant new trees.

We all know that the issue of the enviorment is a big one. I think that it is important to teach kids early on about how to treat the planet that they live on and not just so we can do soemthing about global warming or something but because I personally think the more natural places we have, the more people can enjoy it.

This story reminds me of my grandpa who I miss dearly. He was a gardender and LOVED his plants. He had little competitions with his friends about who could grow the biggest tomatos. I loved eating his radishes with some salt and evertime I sprinkle a little salt on a radish I think of him. Anyways, when I was pretty young he gave me a little furn tree. He also gave my brother one. So of course I had to run to the back yard and plant them in the back along a row of trees. They grew very slowly but without a doubt they were my favorite trees. In the winter I was scared the snow would burry them too much so I would dig them out. I would water them and take care fo them with care. We even put christmas ornaments up on them one year. One tree grew faster than the other but I can't remember which one.

We have since moved from that house for almost 6 years but I would be curious about what happened to those trees. I would hope that they are still there and growing strong.

Ella of Course! writeen by Sarah Weeks Illustrated by Doug Cushman

This book is about a cute little piggy who is a great problem solver and she LOVES her new umbrella. She takes it every where even when it is not raining. She keeps opening it and closing it and sometimes this causes some problems for Ella. Ella doesn't want to leave her umbrella so she comes up with a solution.

This book is going to be for kindergarteners. The pictures are what make the book and really tell the story of just how much trouble Ella gets into. The words don't say Ella hit over peanut butter instead you have to look down at the picture to see what she is doing.

I like how this book is a fun read that shows how you can problem solve. It wouldn't be one that I would keep in a classroom but it could be on a reading list for my students.

The covers gives the impression that this is going to be a girly book and it is. It is bright pink (which you cannot see here) Ella wears a pink polka dotted dress and the inside covers are baby blue. This is not a book that would ever interst a boy. The final problem is about Ella and her dance recital.

This reminds me of when I was little because I think that evert child has 1 thing that they refuse to let go of no matter where they go. For me it was my little blanket. I recently came across it while moving and still seems just as special today. No worries though, I don't keep it at school or take it where ever I go. I think a good book is relatable to the reader and I think this is one that a lot of little girls can relate to.

Roberto the Insect Architect By Nina Laden

This cute little succes story follows roberto the termite as he sets off to accomplish his dream of being an architect even though no ones belives in him. If you are a parents reading this book to your child you are going to get a laugh out of it because the author sneaks in little jokes that if you are older you will understand like he calls a reporter barbara waterbugs and diane spider. There are alos funny parts like "terminte chips new homes out of old blocks" so it makes it entertaining for older readers. It also provides a good story about going after what you what and what you believe in.

This pictures in this are amazing. Some of the images look like they are real but have been molded into the scene. It looks like a great job of scrapbooking real images together to make the whole. The pictures are very imaginative as well. You can't but be drawn to the color and the how busy they are. One page stood out to me and that is when Roberto was finished with his houses. Not only are the houses constructed out a variety of scrap material that you would just find, but there are textures on the building. Some big and some small. There are also full scenes within the house. One scene is a city skyline and another shows a birdseye view of a kitchen and another some trees in a park. It is very creative.

I thought it was funny on the back how the auther played with the presentation of the barcode since we just had a speaker on that. They have a termite nibbling on it.

Shooter by Walter Dean Myers

Before I begin I want to say that this book is definatly for the older grades and the advanced readers. I bet that was a given due to the title. Anyways this book is about the aftermath of a school shooting. What is AMAZING about this book is how it is written. You first are reading manuscripts of 2 interviews from the shooters 2 best friends Cameron and Carla. They seem to beat him down with questions about the incident as they call it. After reading the interviews, you see newspaper clippings from the papers about the shooting, then the police report, and finally the shooters diary. It is a great way to see the shooting in depth from 3 point of views. We are not used to seeing that in the media. We don't get to see the interrogations of the friends and familiy. We never see the personal diaries of the shooter so it is like an inside look at what a killer might be like.

The very look of the book is so cool too. There is police tape across the front of the cover which is what drew me to pick this one off the shelf. The top os the pages that normally have the book title and chapter names are made to look like stamps of the police files from the county. The cover has a bullet hole and so does that back. It looks like on one side it could be a person and on the other side a wall.

This book WILl keep you in suspense. I couldn't put it down once I first started reading it. You don't even know what happened at the school shooting until much later because in the interviews you are learning about the shooter (Len), Carla, and Camerson. That is what kept me going. I wanted to know what happened. It is almost like working backwards from the things we see in the media. First we are presented with the evidence and the facts and then we learn about what happens. This made it cool because you get to formulate your own opinions about what happened, who is to blame, and if you could have seen it coming. From what I have seen about school shooting there may seem to be a "category" that people fit into. I am not trying to sterotyoe here I am just pointing out similarities. First, they are kids who are bullied everyday so much so that they would rather end their own life then walk through the halls of their schools again. Secondly, there seems to be a lack of solid relationships in their lives from friends to family. Both of those are seem here in the book.

I would reccomend that this book be read even if you just have some free time. It obviously will be a very easy read for us older people but still is engrossing.

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen Illustrated by John Schoenherr

I was drawn to this book book because it has won the Caldecotti medal and I am in love with the cover. The story is about a father and daughter go owling last one night and their beautiful night's adventure. The reason I liked this book so much is because it is a book that takes you back to those special moments that you share with your parents. It can be just as simple as a walk in the woods like this book but moments like that are special. The story reminded me of one of my favorite memories from when I was little. My first house in my bedroom there was a floor to ceiling window One clear night I had on pink and white fuzzy pj's and my dad came up with a plate of grahm crackers. I sat in his lap and we looked at the stars while munching away on our crackers. I live just off the lake front so I am usually able to see the stars on a clear night. In this book the descriptions the author uses brings out all of your senses so you feel like you are this. This made the book very relatable to me. I think this would be a fantastic story to read aloud and use as part of a writing workshop project. It is one that is definatly going to go in my classroom.

Be Quiet, Maria by Kirsten Debear photos by Laura Dwight

When I first picked up this book I thought that it might be a good tool for teaching children about how to deal with children with specials needs and that are different from them. For some reason however, I didn't like it much. I did like the idea of having actual photos for the pictures in the book. I wasn't a fan of the way the book was written. I know that it is intened for younger children but I found it almost boring and it took a lot of effort for me to finish the book. I guess it would be a book that would require discussion because I don't think a children aged 4-8 would understand why Marina would shout and scream and why Moria would get scared and cover her eyes. That might be hard to explain to a child at least for me. It would provide a good starting block. I just don't know how to explain what Cerebral Palsy and Down Syndrome are to such young kids. It does show the idea of acceptance

I was looking at the book and the design was unique. First, the title on the cover is in a rainbow. Then when you keep looking through the pages, there are sentances that are highlited in different colors to stand out. A seond thing that makes this book just a little bit different is that all the pictures are in black and white. I am not sure why that is but it is unique to children's books today which are covered in color. Another thing that I noticed was that all the pages are different colors, but none of the colors are bright.

My Grandmother Often Forgets by Reeve Lindbergh and Illustrated by Kathryn Brown

I chose this book because I just started searching the computers for topics that I think would be hard to know how to handle with my students. A lot of issues are bound to happen and I am not saying that I would just hand them a book and say here learn but I think reading is a great way to help communication between you and your students.

This book is about a boy whose grandmother might have Alzheimer's because she is having trouble remembering everyday. It takes you through the grandma's everyday activites and how it is important for the boy to help her out.

It is also written in a creative way. Every other line rhyme's throughout the whole book. It really made the reading flow very well. The front cover is a "zoomed out" version of the last page of the story. The inside cover are swirly red imaged which sturck me because it is a confsing time for grandma and the inside cover alludes to that confusion. The illistrations are also fantastic. They look as if they are done in water colors with black detailing. This means that there are not defined lines and they can blur together, kind of like the grandma's memory.

Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin

I chose this book because honestly I wanted to learn a little more about the new year myself. I think it's important in the classroom to have a lot of diversit from lessons to your classroom design. One thing I really remembered is always learning about so many different cultures. Some of the ones that stuck out in my mind is a group in africa that clicks as their form of communication.

This book was great because in a simply manner it provided the traditions of the new year and how it is celebrated. In the back of the book there are two pages that give a little more detail about the new year also. The pictures in this book are very important because they show what the people are doing to get ready for the new year. They show the type of clothes they wear, food they make and things that are special to just the new year like lanterns and spring poems.

What I thought was unique about the book is the inside cover of the book isn't a solid color. It is actually pictures of things that are traditional to the Chinese new year with the names under them. The names are in Chinese too. That is what I also like about this book. It provided an opportunity to see words in Chinese and that gives the chance to say them out loud. This book is appropiate for k-1 but it would be one that I would want in my classroom.

Oliver at the Window by Elizabeth Shreeve Illustrated by Candice McDonald
This book is considered a contemporary realistic fiction. It portrays a little boys confusion of dealing with his parents divorce while adjusting to a new school.
Since we just talked about the cover of books, I noticed that the dust cover which has a large area of gray that you can see to the left is the same color as the darm window. The Inside of the book cover is a bright red like the title and that is the color of his school building.
I think that this book provides a unique insight to a child that is dealing with a divorce. We all know that it is going to be hard on him but when I think of a young child whose parents got divorce I don't think about how confusing it must be for them. The book talked about how he didn't know who was picking him up from school that day and how he didn't know what house he was sleeping at. The one thing that was consistent in his life was his stuffed animal lion. As a result he carried it around with him where ever he went and he never put it down. The only time that he did was when he saw a new girl in school who was crying and he wanted to comfort her. I took his lion as his idea of stability that all children need when going through a time that they don't understand.
I liked the simplicity of the pictures because what was the true focus of this book was the boy and his story about what he was going through. I think that bright pictures with lots of detail would have taken away from it.
Another thing is that this book was alittle emotional for me. I mean that I really felt for Oliver because I know that divorce happens a lot. As teachers we are bound to be dealing with kids that are going through the same thing. Maybe this book is a resource I could use to help get through to a child or not. Maybe it would help them feel not so alone. It is still a touchy subject that needs some addressing.

The Fourth Floor Twins and the Skyscraper Parade by David Adler (ages 7-10)
Something I don't know very much about yet (but I am discovering through this reading) is what is appropiate for different age groups. When I think of a chapter book I think of older kids but this one is not for older kids. I had a hard time figuring out what to read for a series book so I ended up just looking at the shelves of the curriculum lab and finding a series. This one is the Fourth floor twins because two sets of twins live on the 4th floor fo their apartment building. It is a series that deals with solving mysteries.
To be honest, I didn't like the book very much. To me is was just blah. It wasn't a particular great solving a problem book. I just hurried to get through it and sometimes just skimmed the pages. Even though it is a super short book, it was too long fo rme to keep interested.
The thing I did like however was the it did a good job describing things using all of the 5 senses so I really felt like I was at the museum with the characters.
I don't really know what to say about this book except that I would reccomend the series. Maybe the kids will like it because mysteries are always a good way to keep children interested but I think that I could find a much better book.

Just Another Ordinary Day By Rod Clement
This book is different. The story is about just a day in the life of Amanda. So the actual story isn't very special but what makes this book very unique is the pictures. This makes for a twisted combination of ordinary words and extravagant illistrations. The author Rod Clement is an Australian cartoonist and his pictures make your imagination run totalyl wild. Everything about Amanda's life is far from normal. She wakes up to gong. When she gets dressed she wears metal boots. She gets a ride to school from her friendly neighbor, a tryrannosaurs. Her teacher is a bug, she showers in a waterfall and her can fly around her house.
When I read this book, it made me think of how things are everyday and how you wish they could be different. I mean who doens't want to be able to fly around their house and have an Alien for a friend? What this book really does is take the everyday extraordinary with exaggeration. It puts a playful and silly spin on life. I mentioned before that I like humor when it is used in books and this definatly takes that to the extreme. I am sitting here in the curriculum lab at a computer reading this book and smiling. It is one that even I can enjoy.
I am interested now in looking more into Rod Clement and his work to see what I can find out. What I did find is that his books seem to have a similar theme with the illistration and ordinary topics. There are books about counting and grandpa's teeth. I love that he can take something very normal and make it exciting because I think that is what makes your best lessons as a teacher. He is someone that I will continue to follow.

Angelina and Alice by Katharine Holabird

I came across this book for another class when I wanted to find one about gymnastics for some 2nd grade girls I work with. Then I realized that I had read some of the books by this particular author when I was younger and I was excited to discover this series again. It is a very girly book. This is good for me because I am goign to be using it in a lesson for two girls. The story is about two friends (they are little mice) Angelina and Alice who love to do gymnastics but they can each do different tricks. When one fo the girls falls, she feels left out until the other teachers her how to do it so the kids at school don't make fun of her.

This book is just overall an enjoyable story. I think it can relate to a lot of girls because I think that both gymnastics and dance are two very popular things to do for elementary school aged children. I know that I have mentioned pictures in a lot of my entries but the illistrations in this book are just AMAZING. They have so much detail and color that it is mind blowing to me. Just focusing on the page that has the villiage festival is fantastic. I think that I coudl use this page for a whole lesson. It is one the evokes a lot of emotion for me. I can see excitement and lots of activity. I see families young and old all together. I see people playing games and eating ice cream. And of course there is the gymnastics show which the entire festival is focused around.

We have been talking about writers notebooks and writing obviously goes hand in hand with reading so I got to thinking that this page could be a greaet launching point for a lesson on adjectives. There is so much to describe about what is going on and how it is being done. I could see students really running with this idea. Also, if a student got stuck, they would be able to hopefully relate to the picture. Some ideas on how it relates that comes to mind are families, parades, games, brothers and sisters, sports, parks, and watching live shows.

That's What Friends are For By Valeri Gorbachev

This book was just adorablw. It was about a pig and goat whoare best friends and who are there for each other. It not only puts a smile on yoru face but sends a good message about being there for your friends.

One thing that I noticed is that there is a good rhythm that goes with the book almost like the melody to a song. That makes for a good read. The pictures were also big and bold that rolled over the pages sort of like the way the words of the book were also. Another thing I liked was the little bit of humor used at the end when goat finds out that pig was crying because he was cutting onions so goats cries too when he cuts the onions with pig. I love when there is a little humor in a book because I think it's always important to keep a smile on a kids face and if I smiled at it, I know you child would like it. Yet another thing that I noticed was that the characters weren't the "traditional" ones you think of. They were both older and one was a goat and one was a pig. So far in m reading I haven't encountered too many older characters in children's books.

I personally could relate to this book because when goat sees pig crying his mind goes in a million directions about what could be wrong and it turns out to me nothing. I think all of us do that, especially girls haha. When something isn't just right I know I let my mind think of a million things that could have gone wrong and it is never as bad as you make it out to be in your head.