Amanda's comments (member since Sep 14, 2008)

Amanda's comments from the Children's Literature Awards, LLED Fall 08 group.

The HEARTS award goes to Elizabeth and Victoria Kann. "Pinkalicious" was nominated by Jaylynn Sapsara.
My award was created as I remembered some special people in my life. After attaining my first degree, I pursued becoming a counselor. I worked in a partial hospitalization program where children attended who couldn’t be maintained in the regular school setting due to emotional and/or behavioral issues. While there, I realized I wanted to be not only teaching children how to handle life’s daily stressors but impact them academically too. The children I worked with were often labeled as “bad.” I feel that a lot of them made “bad” choices. That is where my award comes in. I wanted the HEARTS (Helping Educate At-Risk To Succeed- name of our program) Award to go to a book that is full of mischief that would appeal to children. The book must conclude with a lesson learned from the mischievous behavior. My award goes to “Pinkalicious.” I really enjoyed reading this book as the little girl was warned by her parents to not eat so many pink cupcakes. She decides to make a “bad choice” and has to live with the consequences until she is able to change her negative behavior. This sets a good example of why children should listen to their parents and why to not eat too much of anything, let alone sugar! The illustrations were vivid and fabulously reflected the child’s “pinkalicious” experience. According to Ralph Fletcher, a good picture book is able to carry a meaning that is not recorded in the text. Pinkalicious was well-written but even without the text, the illustrations told a story in themselves.
Enclosed is my award. I hope you enjoyed hearing that your book won The HEARTS Award! Congratulations!
Sincerely,

Amanda Mitchell

Motherbridge of Love
Motherbridge of Love is a book about the traits you get from a biological and an adopted mother. It's about two different kinds of love.

Basketball Bats
Henry and his friends are challenged to play basketball by a group of cheaters. The group of friends go through some challenges within their team before working together to beat the Tigers.

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
Sylvester finds a magic pebble that will grant wishes. But when seeing a lion he gets scared and wishes he were a rock. As he does this he drops the pebble and can not wish himself back to his normal self.

Granny Torrelli Makes Soup
The two children in the story were only born a week apart and were raised just like siblings. Rosie struggles with her best buddy, Bailey, who is visually impaired. Granny Torrelli helps the two ammend their situation.

100th Day Worries
Jessica is a worrier. Now is very anxious about what to bring into her classroom for the 100th day of school. She spends a lot of time fretting over what to bring. With help from her family she ends up having a great idea!

Max's Words
While most kids collect stamps or coins, Max collects words from magazines and newspapers. He learns new words and about storytelling through this hobby.

C is for Curious: This alphabet book describes different feeling words for each letter of the alphabet. This book would be helpful to help children find the right words to go with their feelings while also reinforcing the alphabet.

Chrysanthemum: Chrysanthemum is dealing with accepting herself and her name. She struggles at school with her classmates teasing her about her "different" name. Eventually she learns she isn't alone and feels proud of herself and where her name came from.

New York's Bravest: In the 1840s there was a firefighter named Mose Humphrey who was very famous in the city for all the rescuing he did. In the end he risked it all saving people from a hotel fire. The book was dedicated to the firefighters who showed true heroism on 9/11.

The children I used to work with in a school based partial program were sometimes labeled as "bad" because of behavior problems. As counselors, we used many books to help children relate to or learn a lesson from making a "bad" choice. We hoped that the children could possibly apply the lesson in their real life situations. According to Shelby Wolf, "The words of a story lift off the page and enter into our social worlds."
This award goes to a book that is full of mischief that would appeal to children. This book must conclude with a lesson learned from the mischievous behavior. The characters can be fiction or real, human or animal, but the book should be published within 10 years. The picture book can be based around any elementary age.
Please submit your nomination by October 13th.