Tuesday, November 17, 2009

"Bronzeville Boys and Girls" by Gwendolyn Brooks

This book is a collection of different poems that celebrates the "joy, beauty, imagination, and freedom of childhood". This book is about childhood from all walks of life, whether it be Bronzeville, Chicago or some other neighborhood around the world. This book illuminates all the emotions and experiences that children go through as they grow and develop. Some of the poems are about aunts and uncles coming to visit, "adult" parties, tea parties, dreams, being taken care of when your sick, , church, rich neighbors, dead gold fish, playing in the snow, being poor, claustrophobic from the city, babysitters, and much, much more! Many of these poems include repeating lines or words, and have a lot of rhyming also. The pictures are really neat. The illustrations look "child-like" which makes it even more meaningful because it has this child vibe throughout the book. Even through the writing, I hear the voice coming from a child. There are many obvious reasons this book could be useful in the classroom but one thing that set this book apart for me was how most of the illustrations and poems are about these kids growing up in the city of Bronzeville and how they experienced childhood. It would be interesting to have students read this book and then ask them to write a poem about their childhood. I bet this book would spark some ideas!

"Flamingos on the Roof" by Calef Brown

As I started reading this picture/poetry book, my first impression was that the poems are random. It includes poems about the ABC's, Flamingos on the Roof, Bob, Bug Show, Medusa's sister Sally, Biscuits in the Wind, Soggy Circus, Peas, Birthday Lights, Crystal Bowling Ball, Martian Men etc. I think this book would be a good tool to help students generate ideas of what they can write about. Although this book has different poems about random ideas, the ideas are everyday things that people see and can connect to. One poem that I really liked was called "Ten Cent Haiku" The poem was about a man sitting down to write a haiku about a dime he found:

"Shiny Silver Friend
I will never let you go
Look! An ice cream truck!"

As you can tell, this haiku was somewhat random. However, I really like the randomness because it shows that poetry can be about anything and can be written in so many different ways.

"America Is" by Louise Borden

Louise Borden answers the question of "What it's like to live in America" in this poetry book. This book has great historical and background information about how America came to be. The poems make references to the American flag and what it stands for, as well as the pledge of allegiance and the star spangled banner. The poems are about the coasts, the different climates, suburbs, rural areas and the city. The poems incorporate what kinds of people and different jobs are available in America. The author had included a very important poem about the first native people of America. I think this is so important because many kids don't really understand how we took over America.... The book also covers the importance of diversity and how there are all kinds of people living in America who are "one family and one team". "America is a land where we are FREE. To live. to speak out. to worship. to work. to play. to follow our dreams".

I think this is a great book about America. It is a positive book and doesn't touch on the disparities that we have in America but accentuates all the great things about America. I loved the illustrations. Each individual page looked like a painting and had a lot of work put into it. This is a great introduction book if your talking to students about America in general and what it encompasses.

"Good Dog" by Maya Gottfried


I love dogs, and haven't had my own for like eight years! so when I saw this poetry picture book about dogs I had to read it! The poems are written in all different forms and describe a different dog breed on each page. Some of the poems look like lists. Some of the poems have sequential rhyming. Some lines are staggered on the page. Some of the poems include repetition. I like how the poems represent the dogs behavior. For example, the Chihuahua's poem is short and defiant and the actual poem reminded me of a chihuahua. One line about the chihuahua is " I chased that hound, and then he hid. I may be small, but I am swift." Or another line from a bulldog poem was " All I really want is a hug and a bone". I really liked how all the poems describe the nature and behavior of each dog.


One of my favorite poems is in a letter format from a dog to their "person" and it's an apology for staining the piano bench and getting hair all over, and chewing on their leather shoes.


I think adults as well as children would get a laugh out of this book and it teaches you about different kinds of dogs and what kind of behaviors to expect of them. This is a great poem book that I would definitely use in my classroom to show students all the different types of poems that they can possibly do on their own.

"How to (un)cage a girl" by Francesca Lia Block

This is a young adult book for ages 14+ and I highly recommend keeping these poems for this age level audience or above. There is some graphic language and some graphic scenes that may not be suitable for even 14 year old's unless they are mature and can handle this kind of material. This author writes about growing up as a girl dealing with love, loss, happiness, heartbreak, insecurities and how she views herself as she grows and matures. Personally I had a rough 8th and 9th grade year, so a book like this would probably make me feel like I was not alone if I had the opportunity to read something like this when I was younger. Many girls go through these experiences and this is just one way to express your feelings.

I am going to share one of the many poems I enjoyed reading from this author.

Pain is like an onion:

remove one layer and the next is there
keep peeling, my beloved
peeling and chopping
putting in the pan
fry it to translucency
and eat it
let it digest
it's only been a year and a half
since he took your heart from your chest
peeled it chopped it fried it ate it spit it out

and eventually a new one will grow back
eventually
the tears
will stop

I felt like most of the poems that were written in this book had a lot of emotion and meaning behind the words. I know how hard it is to go through middle school and high school and even though it may seem unimportant and silly now, those trials and obstacles that we faced at the time were not easy to go through.

"Love that Dog" by Sharon Creech


I absolutely loved this short novel about Jack! His character made me think of how many young kids feel uneasy about writing poetry and writing in their Language arts classroom. From personal experience I always thought poetry had to look a certain way and that caused anxiety for me because I didn't really know how to write "good" poetry. For example many poets write stanzas or short lines, and that's perhaps why Jack would write down his thoughts in this format. the book offers different ways that people write poetry including poems that rhyme, poems that don't rhyme, poems that look like the object you are describing, poems with lines of repetition etc. I think this book teaches kids and everyone that poetry can be written in all different ways and can be written about ANYTHING.


I appreciated the progress through out the book as Jack builds confidence in himself. At first he wants his teacher to keep his work anonymous. Once he gets positive feedback and realizes that what he is writing is important and is "good" poetry, he starts to come out of his shell a little bit and lets the teacher put his name on his work to show the class. Through different poets the teacher introduced to the class, Jack really started to like one poet and author in particular named Mr. Walter Dean Myers. When Jack took Mr. Walter Dean Myer's style of writing and applied it to his own stories, he was able to create some very interesting poems. I think it's important for teachers to model different examples and show students that poetry can be written in so many different ways. (Which this author did include different poetry at the back of the book that the teacher used throughout the unit--very useful!)


When Jack started writing with the notion that an audience may be listening he had found a sense of purpose. When Jack wrote to Mr. Walter Dean Myers he found another purpose or function of writing. Even though authors or poets might not always give students the response they are looking for, this is an example that shows that sometimes they do respond and it can be so rewarding!


This was a very powerful book and I really really enjoyed reading it. I was so excited for Jack and his class to have Mr. Walter Dean Myers come in and read some of his poetry to the class.

Monday, November 16, 2009

"Lost and Found" by Rebecca Doughty


Have you ever lost anything? I think everyone can relate to the term "lost and found". This is a story about a little girl named Lucy who loses personal things throughout her day. This book is about losing and finding things. There is a rhyming beat throughout most of the text. For example "Getting off the bus, I lost my snack. It must have fallen out of my pack". I really like this book because it's simple and it's a theme that most kids can relate to. After doing a mini lesson on "brainstorming to develop an idea" I realized that this book would work for this too. When Lucy gets grounded she goes and looks under her bed because she is bored and she finds a whole list of things under her bed! It also could probably spark an idea for readers and writers because it discusses so many different things from items such as her lost dog to her toothbrush or cowboy hat. It's a simple book, but I think many young readers would like this book. I did!

"Fish School" by Nancy Poydar


This is a cute fictional picture book that has lots of factual information about fish, mammals and ocean life. Charlie goes on a field trip with his classmates to Check Spellingthe aquarium and brings along his own gold fish. A problem arises when Charlie misplaces "wishy" his gold fish. The classmates, Ms. Finn and Charlie work together to find wishy and eventually they find him under a seat in an auditorium. I think this a fun book and can be used in a science lesson or students could just read it for enjoyment. The book doesn't give that much information about fish but it does decipher the difference between freshwater fish, ocean water fish, and other sea creatures like dolphins which are mammals. I really liked how the author and illustrator represented the students with all different skin colors and I really liked how the author highlighted some of the words. Repetition and highlighting familiar words can help students learn new words and build on their vocabulary.

"Melvin Might" by Jon Scieszka


This is a cute story about cars and trucks. The main character, Melvin is afraid of living because he worries about every little thing. His friends try and get him to "soar through the air" or "splash in the water" bug Melvin's worried that he might get hurt, or get stuck or he might get dirty. Then he is confronted with a dilemma when his friend Rita is in real trouble. He has to decide if he can get over his worries to help his friend. In order for him to help her he's got to go through all the different obstacles that his friends were experiencing earlier like jumping the bridge, swimming through the water, and soaring through the air. He starts to believe in himself and eventually he helps Rita. This book reminds me of a cross between the movie "Cars" and the book "The little engine that could". I felt like this book has a lot to offer kids because there is a great message and the book connects to kids on a personal level. Cars and trucks are an interest that many young kids (especially the boys) have and are personally invested in. One other thing I really liked about this book was the layout. Some pages you had to actually unfold (the climax of the story) to see what was going to happen next.


I like this book because I am a worrier! I need to remember to slow down and enjoy life and books like these help me remember that.

"Do Not Build a Frankenstein" by Neil Numberman


This book is about a little boy that is new in the neighborhood and he has an urgent message to tell all the kids. "DO NOT BUILD A FRANKENSTEIN!". The little boy lists reasons not to build a Frankenstein because they are a lot of work, they can get annoying, they require a lot of attention etc. At the end of the book Frankenstein offers to play "Monster Tag" with all of the kids and they all accept him into the neighborhood. The little boy realizes that it isn't so bad having Frankenstein around and he joins in on the fun.

This was a cute book that didn't have any "important" themes or messages but I think this is a great book to get students reading who are more hesitant to read. This book uses text bubbles which may make the reading look less threatening because it appears to have less text to read. From experience, I know some primary level children really enjoy reading comic books and this is kind of like that. The illustrations are also very cartoon like and the colors are very bright. This is a book that I think most 1st and 2nd graders would really enjoy reading out loud.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

"39 Uses For a Friend" by Harriet Ziefert


I used this book in a mini lesson for my block A class to help kids elaborate or think about more ideas to say about a specific topic. I liked this book because it's very simple and some of the pictures are actually quite humorous. For example, one of the uses of a friend is "napkin" and then the illustration is of two kids and one kid is wiping there hands on their friend's shirt. The book gives different "uses" for a friend such as co pilot, back scratCheck Spellingcher, therapist, pillow, story teller, accomplice etc. I think this is a great way to get kids brainstorming about a topic that they want to write about. I would definitely use this book in a primary level classroom. Kids pick up on the humor, and it's a fun read for me too.

Monday, November 9, 2009

"Year of Impossible Goodbyes" by Sookan Nyul Choi

Reading this book right after "So Far From the Bamboo Grove" was very beneficial for me as a reader. I appreciated how both authors were able to captivate their experiences without bashing on the other race. Reading these books together was a powerful experience because it shows how destructive war can be for both sides of the war. Reading from both perspectives helped me understand that no matter where you live or what nationality you are, neither side was right in their actions.

The book, "Year of Impossible Goodbyes" was actually very educational for me. Growing up, we didn't learn a lot of information about WW2 and how it effected all the different countries. Of course I learned the basics, but it's kind of embarrassing the lack of information that I know of past war times. I knew that North Korea is a communist country but I never knew it was because the Russians came during 1945 and took over N. Korea, after the Japanese surrendered.

Again with this book, I empathized a lot with Sookan. I can't imagine going through some of the horrific events she went through and the descriptions she gave made it very real for me. I was heartbroken when Captain Narita and his men cut down her Grandfathers tree. That was such a sacred thing to him and his religion. Another way the Japanese would make the Koreans suffer is when they would starve the Koreans to make them give up whatever family treasures they still had left. Or when Captain Narita decided to take the "sock girls" away so that they can be used and raped at the Japanese soldiers will. People should never have to endure these kind of experiences. I was captivated by the courage and hope that Sookan and Inchun had when they were separated from there mother on there journey to escape North Korea. They luckily met someone that helped them and directed them towards the Southern border. All of these are events are just unimaginable. When I was 10, my worries were minuscule compared to what these children and families had to endure.

I think these books are so powerful, and I definitely would recommend reading the two books together like we did in this class. These books actually kind of scared me... thinking about our world today and how someday war could break out in the United States. I hope that we can use these books to learn about the past and understand what happened and to hopefully make peace in our world today.

Friday, November 6, 2009

"So Far From the Bamboo Grove" by Yoko Kawashima Watkins

Wow. What a moving story. When I first started reading, the book reminded me a little bit of the Dear America Series which are stories about fictional characters during real historical past times. I really liked how "So Far From the Bamboo Grove" is written from the author's real life experience. I felt that this book relates to young readers because the author writes from a "child's" point of view. There were times when Yoko would complain about walking, or complain about being wounded, or refuse to give up her blanket because she was afraid people would get blood on it. War is a very abstract idea for people that haven't been deployed or have not experienced being in a war zone in their life. Even though I have never had to experience any of these horrible traumatizing events, I feel that this book made it concrete for me, in a way that I could connect with Yoko's character and really feel what she was feeling. I was so scared for her when the communists came to their home and took their belongings and kicked Yoko in the ribs. Or when there was a bomb and some of the shrap metal had inflicted Yoko's chest and ear. In the beginning of her life Yoko had to see people being beaten, murdered, as well as she saw what it was like to be homeless and hungry, cold and helpless. I can't even imagine going through the hardships she went through as a young girl just trying to stay alive. I assumed Yoko's mother died from hunger or some illness, but I was curious to find out what was the cause of death.

I really like the idea of comparing the two different perspectives of two people that lived through the same war but from two different "sides" of the war. It teaches kids, or helps them form opinions about war. Who is the real enemy? Especially times like these when our own country is currently at war with Iraq. I am looking forward to reading "The Year of Impossible Goodbyes" because I know that I will probably sympathize with this person as well. During war, so many people suffer. I just can't get my head wrapped around the idea that we as a human race actually travel to another part of the world to kill people over power or resources. It's such a foreign thing to me, but I really appreciate how this book, "So Far from the Bamboo Grove" allowed me to understand what it was like to live as a Japanese girl in Korea during World War 2.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

"No Zombies Allowed" by Matt Novak


Sometimes I think it's important to pick out books and read them to your students just because they are fun, entertaining books. "No Zombies Allowed" is one of those books. I chose this book to read with *Trey (reading buddy) because it was a day before Halloween and I knew that the kids were all very excited about their costumes and trick or treating. This book is about two ladies that throw an annual Halloween party and they are preparing for this years party. They find pictures of zombies, werewolves, witches, ghosts, vampires and other creatures "ruining" the party by doing various things. Such as the zombies drop their eyes into the punch bowl or the ghosts moaned and groaned about everything. So the two ladies decide to be more careful about who they invite this year. Eventually they find a picture of two witches that looks oddly familiar. They realize that all of the pictures were really their friends dressed up in costumes, and that they too had dressed up as witches the previous year. They remember how much fun the party was last year and decide to let everyone come to the party. I like this book because it can show kids that sometimes people may be dressed up in scary costumes and act kind of funny (in character) but that it is just a costume and they are doing it for the fun of Halloween.

When I read this to Trey* he started to catch on, and he predicted that these were all the friends dressed up in different costumes. Overall, this is a fun, festive book that kids will enjoy because it talks about all the different Halloween creatures and what kinds of "vile" actions each does. It's important to sometimes choose books like these because we need to remember for ourselves and for our students that we should all read for enjoyment sometimes too.

"Eek! Creak! Snicker, Sneak" by Rhonda Gowler Greene


For the spirit of Halloween I picked out a few books that I thought *Trey in my child study would enjoy. "Eek! Creak! Snicker, Sneak" is about two night time tricksters named Bugbear and Bugaboo who find pleasure in frightening kids in bed. Although it might sound like it would not be a good book to use because many little kids are afraid of the dark, or whats underneath their bed, the book implies that the two nighttime tricksters are one friendly furry animal and a tall giant that just want to have a little fun. In the end, the kids devise their own plan to scare these night time crawlers and it works!


This book in particular was good for Trey* because he is a new emergent reader and he needs these kind of books to help him become a stronger reader. This story has rhyming and repetition throughout the story which makes it easier for students to learn more words based on words they already know. It also helps new emergent readers to become better spellers too.


What I really liked about this book was all the onomatopoeia's it had including giggles, "tee-hee-hee-hee" and freightening sounds such as "Eeeeks, Cr-r-reaks, and big bad H-ow-owls and Yee-ow-owls!" At the first and second grade level, students are breaking words down and spelling them out. This book is simple, has fun illustrations, and has many reading strategies and mini lessons that can be used to help kids read.

"The Book that Jack Wrote" by Jon Scieszka


One other book that I found from the same Author (Jon Scieszka) is called "The Book that Jack Wrote". Again, the illustrations are what made me first preview the book and then looking at the inside flap got me even more interested. The inside flap copy talks about being the inside flap copy and how you as the reader are probably wondering what this book is about.It is about Nursery Rhymes and Fairy tales written in a very abstract way, just like the pictures. The pictures almost look like they are put together in a collage style, but in fact they are just really detailed and the shading and coloring is really interesting. I thought this was a clever way to grab the readers attention, because now you want to know what this book is about. So the story starts out with a framed picture of a person lying underneath a huge book called"The Book that Jack Wrote". This book is interesting because it isn't the ordinary fairy tale. However, the text is simple and has a lot of rhyming and repetition. For example: "this is the cat, that ate the rat, that fell in the picture, that lay in the book that jack wrote". Each page, there is a new twist to the story which is added to the rhyming verses and to the story. It seems that the story is being told backwards and at the end you see how the man in the tattered coat at the beginning of the story got squashed by the book. The illustrations are what really hold this book together and make it entertaining and unique.

"The Frog Prince Continued"


One book that I loved reading as a kid was "The Frog Prince Continued" by Jon Scieszka. I was and still am fascinated by the illustrations in this book that were done by Steve Johnson. For starters, the front cover says "The Frog Prince" and then slashed in red blood writing across the cover is "CONTINUED". I think the dark tones and the eerie and abstract pictures makes you really get into the story. The book starts out by showing the last page of the original "Frog Prince" story and the picture and text illustrate that the frog turned into a prince and lived with the princess and they lived happily ever after. But then Jon Scieszka tells what really happened after they were married and lived "sort of happily for a long time....Okay so they weren't so happy". In fact, the frog prince and his princess actually didn't get along very well and were very different people. I don't to explain the whole story here, but needless to say the Frog Prince goes adventuring about to try and find a way to become a frog again. I really enjoyed reading this story because it gives a different perspective, a more realistic perspective. I think children and adults appreciate this style of writing because it's interesting to see that these fantasy fictional characters are actually having real life problems and do not live in a perfect world. In this book, the author also eludes to different witches from different fairy tales throughout the story. Kids can make text to text connections as well as text to self connections in this book. And lastly, this book has an important real life theme that even adults have trouble with sometimes which is the saying that "the grass is always greener on the other side". The prince spends all this time trying to become a frog so he can live happily ever after again, when the whole time he could have been at home with his princess trying to make things better.


In this book Jon goes beyond the "normal" story of the fairy tales that we all know and love. Instead of just ending at "they lived happily ever after", Jon goes deeper and gets the real emotions and feelings that are going on inside the Frog Prince. I think this attracts readers because we want to know what really happened, and not just some fantasy that has the perfect ending. (Even though at the end of this book the frog prince and princess do live happily ever after, however as frogs! ....does this mean that the woman had to change into a frog to make the frog prince happy?)

"The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" by Jon Scieszka


After doing the author study last week, one of my group members did their study on Jon Scieszka which sparked an interest to explore some of the books he has written. The books looked funny, and I really was attracted to how Jon writes some of the old folk tale stories from a different point of view. For example, Jon wrote a book called "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" and it is written from the Wolf's point of view. After reading the three little pigs from this point of view the reader can understand that most times there isn't a right or wrong answer, but there is often times, a grey area in which people with different view points have different feelings and different perspectives about the same event or idea. Alexander T. Wolf is the wolfs name, and from his perspective the reader understands that all of the huffing and puffing was actually all a misunderstanding and he did not mean to intentionally harm the pigs. He actually was looking for an ingredient and went to his neighbors (each of the three little pigs houses) to see if they had it. Alexander had a horrible cold and accidently blew the houses down with his gigantic sneezes. From Alexander T. Wolf's perspective he didn't see any harm in eating the already dead pigs after their houses were accidently blown down by his sneezes. This could book could even facilitate a conversation or debate on whether we should eat animals in our society. I would definitely recommend this book, and use this book in my own classroom to teach students about multiple perspectives and being aware of other people's view points. Plus, this book is fun to read!