Choice Book

How I Became a Pirate
Written By: Melinda Long
Illustrated By: David Shannon

Summary:

This is the story of a little boy who is playing on the beach one day and "becomes" a pirate. While his father and mother don't believe him, he knows pirates are real. He goes off on a pirate ship with them, learning how to speak like a pirate and play pirate soccer. He goes to bed way past his bedtime but doesn't wear pajamas! He begins to miss real life when he doesn't get a bedtime story or a good-night kiss. He really misses real life during a storm when no one even notices him. When the storm is over he takes the pirates to find a buried treasure in his friends back yard and stays on the beach, waving goodbye to the pirates.

Application:

This story is a good example of imaginative writing and could be a good introduction to such writing styles. Students could be read such a text and then be asked to write their own pieces about other adventures dealing with various topics such as space, the ocean, etc. This piece gives beautiful imagary and tells the story with such detail that students can truly learn from its example.

Choice Book

The Story of Ferdinand
Written By: Munro Leaf
Illustrated By: Robert Lawson

Summary:

There was a bull named Ferdinand who lived in a pasture. He liked to sit quietly away from the other bulls and smell the flowers as a young bull. As he and the other bulls got older and larger, he still liked to sit and smell the flowers. One day some men came to pick a bull to bull fight in Madrid, and when they saw Ferdinand he had just sat down on a bee and began to buck and make a crazy scene. Because of this the men picked Ferdinand over the other bulls. When he got to Madrid, he just sat in the middle of the ring...and smelled the flowers. :) They took him back to his pasture.

Application:

This book shows the culture of Spain while also telling the story of a bull who is nothing but himself, all the time. This would be a nice introduction to Spain in that it discusses bull fighting, matadors, parades, etc. that go along with Spanish culture.

Historical Fiction

Meet Kirsten: An American Girl
Written By: Janet Beeler Shaw
Illustrated By: Renee Graef and Paul Lackner

Summary:

This book of historical fiction is the first in a series about the life a a girl named Kirsten, a girl who traveled with her family from Sweden to the fronteir of Minnesota. It takes place on the pioneer in the 1850's and begins with the trip overseas on a ship from Sweden to America with her Papa, Mama, older brother, Lars, younger brother, Peter, and baby sister, Britta. Once the family safely arrives they face the task of living in a new country and on the fronteir. Kirsten's father always offers hope to the family, while her mother always keeps their Swedish traditions aliveas they begin to make this country their home.

Application:

This book takes the student and allows them to experience a piece of history from the eyes of a child their age. It takes struggles and triumphs that they would relate to and allows them to experience those along with the story teller, Kirsten. This is a great book in that it is a part of a series and that students can grow right along side of the characters. I would use this as an option to introduce the 1850's and this stage of history to the class, allowing them to do some creative writing to go along with their reading about how they would feel during this time.

Graphic Novel

Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Written By: Jeff Kinney
Illustrated By: Jeff Kinney

Summary:

Diary of A Wimpy Kid details the life of Greg Heffley and his middle school experience. He is an ordinary middle schooler discussing his every day experiences, from "The Cheese" a game of tag that the kids play, to experience with Halloween, Christmas, and Safety Patrol. Greg goes through the everyday events of his life with his best friend, Rowley, until the two begin to fall away due to a safety patrol incident. Rowley begins to replace Greg with another friend, Collin Lee. In the end the two make up when they work together to pay back the teenagers and give them the "Cheese Touch."

Application:

This book is an extremely popular book as of late with upper elementary aged students, especially the boys, and is a book that can be used to get students excited about reading when they are having a hard time in this area. It has a humorous story line and a comic-strip layout so students are drawn to its pages. Students who are struggling with an understanding for a love for reading could use this book as a spring-board to spark this love for reading.

Multicultural Folklore

Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur! A Palestinian Folktale
Retold By: Margaret Read MacDonald
Illustrated By: Alik Arzoumanian

Summary:

This is a Palestinian Folktale that has been passed down and retold in various ways. It involves a woman praying for a child, even if that child is a pot. She receives her wish, and a pot she owns comes alive. One day her child pot begs to go to market, and even though she doesn't thing the pot is old enough to know right from wrong, she lets her go. The pot runs into the merchant who thinks the pot is beautiful and fills it with honey. The pot runs off and takes the honey to her mother, making the noise Tunjur! Tunjur! all the way home. When her mother sees the honey she thinks someone has given them a gift, and allows the pot to go back the next day. The pot then goes to the king, and the king's wife fills the pot with jewels. The pot runs home and her mother is distraught because the pot has stolen. The next day the pot returns and the king and the merchant recognize the pot that steals, deciding to give it the "reward" it deserves. The pot is excited for a reward until it finds that its reward is mud and muck. This is when the pot learns its lesson!

Application:

This story should be used to study the form of folktale, especially Palestinian folktale. It provides great example of repetition within the story, of personification, and of a lesson learned. These are all plainly displayed and easy to pick out in the story, making this a great folktale to open with to discuss these points of folktale.

Multicultural/International Literature

Angel Child, Dragon Child
Written By: Michele Maria Surat
Illustrated By: Vo-Dinh Mai

Summary:

This is the story of a little girl, Ut, and her family. They are from Vietnam, and traveled to America together. Ut has a hard time adjusting to her new life here, especially because her family did not have enough money to bring her mother home with her. When she has trouble with a red-haired boy, Raymond, she has to constantly remember the words of her mother and try to be an "Angel Child." When she and Raymond get into a fight and the principal makes them sit in a room together, making Raymond write down the story of Ut's travel to America, the two of them find that they can be friends. Raymond comes up with the idea that they should have a Vietnamese fair to raise money to bring Ut's mother to America, and after much time has passed, the family is reunited.

Application:

Many children can relate to this book because it is about a girl in elementary school, who is experiencing problems with a classmate. Students can put themselves in Ut's shoes and think about how it would feel to be completely out of their own culture. Students can take time to learn about the differences between the Vietnamese way of life and why that way of life was so different from the American way of life when Ut came to America. This book offers insight into the Vietnam culture through vocabulary, pictures, talk of clothing, and talk of customs. It would provide great discussion surrounding Vietnam.

Modern Fantasy

James and the Giant Peach
Written By: Roald Dahl
Illustrated By:Quentin Blake

Summary: James Henry Trotter, a young boy who once had an extremely happy life, went on vacation with his parents and saw them eaten by a rhinoceros. This meant he had to live with his awful aunts, Spiker and Sponge. One day, a wizard comes to James while he is crying in the bushes and gives him a bag of magic crystals which he spills on the peach tree outside of his house. The peach tree, which has never given fruit, bears an enormous peach. James, who is pushed outside at night, crawls into the peach to find that the peach is not the only thing that has grown, but the insects inside are enormous! He befriends them and they plan their escape from Spiker and Sponge, crushing them with their peach as they roll away. Their adventure takes them over the Atlantic, through many perils, and to Manhattan, where the people believe they are about to be under attack because there is a huge peach atop the Empire State Building. When James comes out to explain everything the insects and James are welcomed with a parade and James has all of the childhood friends he has ever needed.

Application:
James and the Giant Peach has strong ties of friendship that would be great to discuss along with this book. Also, one could tie some of the events of the book into other subjects such as science by exploring whether the traits of the bugs are true, whether the actions of certain animals could happen, and whether the way the peach reacted in the ocean is plausible. (Do peaches really float or sink? Buyoncy test.)

Choice Book

A Remainder of One
Written by: Elinor J. Pinczes
Illustrated by: Bonnie Mackain

Summary:

When a group of ants begin to march, the queen wants them in equal groups. They organize in lines of 2, and one lonely ant gets left out. He has the great idea to keep reorganizing their lines until he can fit in, but he just can't get the numbers right, and he is always the remainder of one! He organizes lines of 3, 4, and finally 5 where the lines work out perfectly and all are happy!

Application:

This book is an engaging way to introduce students to division where remainders are involved. It goes through the multiplication of the number twenty-five until there is no remainder using a cute story and wonderful pictures. By going through the story problem by problem the class could solve the problems and predict whether that one ant would be the remainder of one, or whether he would have finally solved the lines.

Choice Literature

Mr. Popper's Penguins
Written By: Richard and Florence Atwater
Illustrated By: Robert Lawson

Summary:

Mr. Popper is an ordinary man who paints houses but has a desire for adventure. He listens to a radio broadcast from an explorer in Antartica, Admiral Drake, who promises him a surprise in the mail. When he receives a penguin, his life is turned topsy turvy. His penguin gets sick, and when he learns that it is because of lonliness, he soon receives another penguin in the mail. Mr. Popper ends up with a 12 penguin circus act that travels and pays his bills. When Mr. Popper and his penuins show up at the wrong theater and cause trouble they are arrested and have to be rescued by Admiral Drake. He ends up taking the penguins with him to Antartica where they will be more comfortable, and at the last minute Mr. Popper decides to join them, getting the adventure he has always longed for.

Application:

This book deals with penguins and their needs, so it would be a good book to talk about animals and their environments, why certain animals can't survive in certain climates, what types of things the penguins needed (even in this fictional setting,) etc.

Nonfiction Literature

Fraction Fun
Written By: David A. Adler
Illustrated By: Nancy Tobin

Summary:

Fraction Fun is a book that discusses fractions and how to divide them. It makes use of pizzas, coins, weights, years, and other real world occurrences of parts of a whole to discuss fractions and how to divide them. It also gives activities to do with the book that help students tangibly experience fractions.

Application:

This book is a great introduction to a fraction unit. It provides hands on activities and real world examples so that students can experience fractions in a tangible manner. One activity it gives is splitting a plate up into piece like a pizza so that students can see the parts that go into making a whole.

Modern Fantasy

The Indian in the Cupboard
Written By: Lynne Reid Banks
Illustrated By: Brock Cole

Summary:
A young boy Omri receives a plastic Indian for his birthday and locks it in a cupboard for safe keeping. The next day when Omri goes to take the plastic figure out of the cupboard, he finds that the Indian is no longer a plastic figure, but the Indian has come to life. Omri tells his best friend, Patrick, who demands that Omri use his magic cupboard to bring his cowboy to life. The two encounter many problems with their miniature friends, Little Bear and Boone, including fights between the Indian and the Cowboy that result in injury, the figures being seen at school, and even losing the key to the cabinet. In the end the two become friends through finding the key, Little Bear ends up with a small Indian wife, and the boys decide to put the figures in the cabinet for good, returning the figures to their homes.

Application:

This book would be a great book to use when discussing the Indians and the differences in how they lived in comparison to how we live today. Students could use the references made between Omri and Little Bear and make a concept map discussing the differences and similarities the two share. They could even make a Venn-Diagram with Omri, Little Bear, and Boone discussing three different time periods and how these differ and how they are alike.

Folklore

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
Written and Illustrated By: William Steig

Summary:
The story of Sylvester and the Magic Pebble involves a donkey named Sylvester and his rock collection. He finds a shiny red pebble that has powers to make wishes come true, as long as the person doing the wishing is touching the pebble. Sylvester runs into a problem, however, when her encounters a lion and wishes for safety by wishing himself into a rock. In this form he cannot move to touch the red pebble and thus change himself into a donkey again. He is stuck like this, to the sorrow of himself and his parents for months, until one day they happen upon the very spot where he lays, place the red pebble on top of him, and he wishes himself back into a donkey.

Application:
This story provides obvious examples of the elements of folklore, and these elements can be picked out and discussed within the class. I would use this book if I wanted an example of folklore that is new and entertaining to the students. Its storyline and pictures are excellent. It is a fairly contemporary story that brings the classic elements of folklore to life. This would be a great book to use when comparing older folklore to new stories, comparing and contrasting the elements of folklore and what makes this genre what it is.

Nonfiction Literature

Questions and Answers about Space
Compiled by: Capella

Summary:



Application:

This book provided an overview on many things space. It didn't go into great detail about any specific aspect of space, but it did cover many topics of space and introduced them well. This allows the students to get a taste of various aspects of space that they are interested in that way they can then find books that go into more detail about those topics later. This is a great space introductory book.

Modern Fantasy

The BFG
Written By: Roald Dahl
Illustrated By: Quentin Blake

Summary:

The BFG is a story about a little girl, Sophie, who is stolen out of her room by a giant one night during the "witching hour." She sees him blowing something into the window of a kid down the street, and before she can hide in her own bed, he steals her and takes her to giant country where she learns that he is actually the Big Friendly Giant who steals the bad dreams of children and gets rid of them, replacing them with good dreams. He is not the only giant, however, and the other giants and large nasty giants who eat children. Sophie and the BFG come up with a plan to get rid of the child-eating giants, a plan that involves allowing the Queen dream about these giants. With her help and the help of other key figures, Sophie and the BFG take a group of helicopters, tie the other giants up in their sleep, and place them all in a giant pit, forcing them to eat snozzcumbers instead of children for the rest of their days.

Application:

This book is a great example of fantasy, but it has a wonderful message and theme of friendship that cannot be ignored. Sophie and the BFG become great friends in spite of their extreme opposites in the book; she started out terrified of him! This book opens the door to great discussion about how differences can be overcome and friendship can come out of those differences.

Historical Fiction

Fly Cher Ami Fly! The Pigeon Who Saved the Lost Battalion
Written By: Robert Burleigh
Illustrated By: Robert MacKenzie

Summary: In Europe in World War One an Officer picks up a phone to call his fellow American Troops and let them know of his battalion's dire situation. They were surrounded with no food or water and bombs exploding all around. When the phone was found to be dead, the officer sent out a carrier pigeon with a map and a message asking for help. The pigeon, Cher Ami (French for Dear Friend) travels through the explosions and the chase of a German hawk. He safely arrives at a wooden lodge that holds American soldiers who then go and rescue the lost battalion.

Application: This book is a great hook or tie in when teaching about World War One. It is based on a true story about a carrier pigeon that carried a message that saved a lost battalion, and it represents the use of carrier pigeons at this time as a form of communication. This book is also a great representation of courage, strength, and perseverance, and can be used to talk about these traits as displayed in the form of the carrier pigeon that saves the lives of the battalion.

Realistic/Historical Fiction

The Watsons Go To Birmingham
Written By: Christopher Paul Curtis

Summary:

The Watsons Go To Birmingham is the story of an African American Family living in the 1960's. The main character, Kenny, tells the story of his families life in Flint Michigan. After his younger brother Byron gets into too much trouble, his family packs up the car and takes a trip down south to Birmingham, Alabama to visit their Grandmother so she can teach him how to behave.
The Watsons learn to slow down their fast paced, Northern lives, but also learn about the racial problems that are still occuring within the South. When a bomb is dropped on a local church in Birmingham and Kenny's sister, Joetta, is thought to be amoung one of the victims, things truly hit home and the problems become personal for the whole family.

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Application:

This is an excellent story when talking about the events of the 1960's, the Civil Rights, segregation, and the way things used to be in comparison to now. Students can truly get a feel for the problems of the time because the story is told with the focus of a ten year old boy. They can relate to his feelings, his struggles, his laughter. This story has a message that they can take home and comprehend.
Also, I think it would be a good idea to chart the travel of the Watsons along with the Watsons. This can be done using technology or using a map, but it would be a great connection to geography as the students read all of the states the Watsons travel through. This will also give them an idea as to how far the North is from the South.
Students may also need to have a discussion on the differences between the North and the South at the time and why such a drastic change in pace occured with travel.

Multicultural/International Literature

Babushka's Doll
Written and Illustrated By: Patricia Polacco

Summary

This book is about a little girl, Natasha, and her Babushka (Grandmother.) Natasha is a very impatient little girl, never willing to wait for anything. Her grandmother tells her to wait to play with a special doll, but Natasha can't be patient. When she pulls the doll off of the shelf it comes to life. The doll demands that she keep playing until Natasha no longer wants to play. When Natasha goes and puts the doll back on the shelf and her Babushka finally gives her permission to play with the doll, Natasha no longer wants that permission and has learned her lesson of patience.

Application

I would use this book in my clasroom when teaching about patience. The students could listen to this book toward the beginning of the year when they are learning about asking permission, patience, and the rules of the classroom.

I would also use this book when doing a lesson about Russia. It makes use of a few Russian customs such as Russian dolls and teaches students about Russia, especially through the pictures.

Multicultural/International Literature

Adelita
Written and Illustrated by: Tomie dePaola

Summary:

Adelita is the Mexican version of the Cinderella story. In it, a young couple Francisco and Adela have a baby, but Adela dies in child birth. The father names the baby girl Adelita, or little Adela. Throughout Adelita's life she is taken care of by a helper, Esperanza. Later in life Adelia's father marries another women, Senora Micaela de la Fortuna who has two daughters, Valentina and Dulce. Soon after the marriage Adelita's father dies and her stepmother forces Esperanza, Adelita's caretaker and friend to leave, and Adelita to become a servant. One day, the family hears about a fiesta that Senora Gordillo was having to celebrate their son Javier. At this fiesta he would be looking for a wife. The stepsisters and stepmother prepared for the fiesta, but Adelita would not be able to go. When she thought there would be no hope of going, Esperanza showed up at her home with her mothers dress. Adelita got dressed, went to the ball, and won the love of Javier, but left before he had the chance of knowing her name. The next day he went through the village to find his true love, and to the surprise of her stepmother, Javier found and declared his love to Adeita. The two were married and lived happily ever after!

Application:

This story is a version of the Cinderella story, and has many references to the Mexican culture. It can be used when studying fairy tales in a comparison of how fairy tales vary throughout cultures. Students can read both the classic version of Cinderella, as well as the Mexican Adelita and do a comparison chart on the two. This book can also provide study on or examples of Mexican culture. The book has an example of a fiesta, the traditional clothing worn to a fiesta, and the types of things people do at a fiesta. Examples of traditional Mexican houses and foods are also present in this story. Another element of this story that sets it apart is the use of key Spanish phrases paired with others in English. This can be used to teach students a few Spanish words, as well as immerse them in the culture.

Nonfiction Literature

Monarch Butterfly
Written and Illustrated by: Gail Gibbons

Summary:

This text goes through the life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly, beginning with the egg, hatching into larva, following its growth and molting stage, and watching its growth and molting stage into the time when it is a full grown caterpillar. It then discusses how the caterpillar forms a Chrysalis, living inside for about two weeks until it comes out as a full grown Monarch Butterfly where the life cycle begins again.

Application:

As a teacher this text could be used in multiple ways. First, it could be used to teach the life cycle of a Monarch Butterfly, being paired in class with the raising of Monarch Butterfly from egg to Butterfly. This text could also be used in discussion of animal cycles in general, as it is a great picture of how animals cycle through life.

Traditional/Folk Literature

Dream Peddler
Written and Illustrated by: Gail E. Haley

Summary:

There is a man, John Chapman, who peddles books for a living. He only makes pennies, but he is happy because he does what he loves, provides the world with words. His family, however, barely has enough to eat, and his wife has to do extra baking to provide food for the family. One night John has a dream that he should travel to London for news of "great joy." While this dream seems crazy, John follows his dream. While in London, he seems to be a fool, having traveled six days in search of nothing, but he meets a man who tells him of a dream he has been having of a man named John Chapman who has a treasure chest buried in his yard. John Chapman returns home to find the treasure chest buried exactly where the man described, and John Chapman and his family lived comfortably for the rest of their lives, with John Chapman giving back to his city in the form of books and teaching those around him how to read.

Application:

Many students are told they cannot, or they are not good enough. This book, paired with lessons on figures in history who followed their dreams and made great impacts on those around them, can be used to discuss what it means to dream big dreams and not give up on those dreams even when others around you say that you can't. People in John Chapman's life told him to give up his book peddling for a more profitable business, but he would not because he believed in teaching others to read with his whole heart. This can be connected to men and women in history who have done the same, and students can see what it means to believe in and live for something even when it is difficult.