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bookshelves: currently-reading
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Cherina
voted on the book list Favorite Chick-Lit
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bookshelves: children-s-literature
Summary: This text is a collection of Indian tales. Each story teaches a moral by using the old stories past down from generation to generation.
Uses: read aloud (one story at a time over an extend period)
Literary Devices: metaphors, rhymes, symbolism
Social Issues: love, equality, service, self-sacrifice, being a kind ruler/leader, being obedient, other religions, different cultures' beliefs
Other: This is a great way to introduce other cultures' beliefs into the classroom. The stories provide a lot of opportunity to have a deep discussion with children. ]]>
bookshelves: children-s-literature
Summary: Brian is a thirteen year-old boy on his way to Canada to visit his father. During his flight, the pilot of the bush plane has a heart attack and dies, leaving Brian alone in the plane. Luckily, the pilot put the plane on auto-pilot before he died. Eventually, Brian's plane runs out of fuel and crashes into a small lake in the wilderness. Brian is left to fend for himself. After a while (and many mistakes), Brian learns how to start a fire, fish, hunt, and basically, survive. Each day brings a new trial for the young boy though. After spending nearly 2 months in the wilderness, Brian remembers the survival pack on the airplane (which remains in the lake). Brian successfully retrieves the pack to find a wealth of valuable treasure: a bar of soap, a gun, fishing supplies, a hat, a broken radio, a sleeping bag, and, most importantly, prepackaged food. Brian is delighted and decides to enjoy a feast. He is just about to dig into his meal when...a plane arrives and rescues the boy.
Uses: extended read aloud in grades 4 and up; independent reading for fluent readers; recommend to boys who show little interest in reading, students who like the outdoors/nature, and students who like action and suspense novels.
Social Issues: divorce, survival, appreciating the things that we sometimes take for granted (like heat and soap), being resourceful, coping with death
Literary Devices: symbolism, imagery, irony, foreshadowing
Other: This book has a lasting effect on readers. The description are so vivid that it feels like you are right in the action with Brian. This text is great for encouraging boys to read. They really love the gross parts! ]]>
bookshelves: children-s-literature
Summary: A father and his two sons do not appreciate their wife/mother. The mother works endlessly cleaning up after men, cleaning the house, and then (on top of that) going to her job. Finally, the mother gets fed up and leaves. The men are left to take care of themselves and eventually, turn into pigs (literally). The mother returns and the men learn their lesson. They appreciate the mother more and even help her around the house.
Uses: read aloud to grades k through 4; independent reading for late early readers; recommend to all parents who think that their children need to be more appreciative
Literary Devices: irony, play on words, metaphors, foreshadowing
Social Issues: being appreciative, teaching against male chauvinists, equality between genders
Other: Anthony Browne does a marvelous jobs with the illustration in this book. They are hidden throughout the pages as graffiti, on the wall paper, in the outlets, etc. It is fun to just flip through the book and discover all the of hidden clues that the author leaves. ]]>
bookshelves: personal
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bookshelves: children-s-literature
Summary: Born as the runt of the litter, Wilbur is supposed to be killed by Mr. Arable. Fern, the Arables' young daughter, rescues Wilbur and raises him until he is six months old. At that time, Fern is forced to sell Wilbur. Luckily, her uncle agrees to buy the pig and allows Fern to visit whenever she likes. In Uncle Zuckerman's barn, Wilbur meets Charlotte, an eight-leg arachnid who agrees to save Wilbur's life. Charlotte devises a plan to keep Wilbur off of the Zuckerman's dinner table. The spider works endlessly to create a web above Wilbur's pen that reads "some pig." Everyone, including the Zuckermans', the Arables', and the rest of the community are stunned by Wilbur. Charlotte continues writing messages in her web about wonder terrific Wilbur is. The Zuckermans' take Wilbur to the fair where he is given a special award. Unfortunately, when it is time to return to the farm, Charlotte is too weak to go. She used all of her energy making an egg sack. Wilbur takes the egg sack back to the farm and promises to care for Charlotte's children. When the baby spiders are born, most end up leaving, but a few stay with Wilbur at the farm.
Uses: extended read aloud in grades 1-3; independent reading for grades 3 and up or for fluent readers; recommend to animal lovers
Literary Devices: imagery, personification, similes, metaphors, foreshadowing
Social Issues: cruelty of animals, growing up, making friends, being loyal, courage/bravery
Other: This text is one of the classics. The story of Wilbur continues to touch generation after generation. This is an excellent example of imagery used in text. This book will inspire children to become better writers. ]]>
October 30, 2008
Ms. Jamie Lee Curtis
HarperCollins Children’s Books
1350 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10019
Dear Ms. Curtis:
Congratulations! You have been awarded The BIG Words Award in recognition of your outstanding children’s literature book, Big Words for Little People. What is The BIG Words Award? This award was created in September of 2008 to honor the author of a picture book that challenges children’s verbal communication, embraces complex language and encourages children to expand their spoken and written vocabularies. I established The Big Words Award as part of an assignment for my Language and Literacy Education course at Pennsylvania State University. Each student was required to develop an award for a specific group of children’s books. Once the awards were generated, students in the class nominated texts for one another’s award, based on the provided requirements. After the nominations were submitted, the award creators carefully selected the winning text.
I chose to base my award on “big words” because it is my belief that many picture books today are dumbed down for our youth in order to make a sale and please publishers. Instead of setting high expectations, authors choose to lower their standards of the vocabulary utilized in their books. “The more we believe that children are limited in various ways, the more we deprive them of experiences that might make them less limited…If we believe that [children:] cannot understand complicated language, we will give them only books with limited vocabularies…Deprived of the experience of anything more than the little we believe them capable of, children often do learn to be inflexible, intolerant of the complex and the unconventional” [Perry Nodelman:]. By creating this award, I wanted to honor those authors brave enough to incorporate big words in their stories.
I chose Big Words for Little People to receive The BIG Words Award for several reasons. First of all, complex language is the focus of the text. Not only do you use complicated terms in your story, but you provide their definitions and examples of how one would utilize these words in their everyday speech as well. This book promotes a child’s interest in reading while still educating him or her. The overall message is one of love and family, concepts that are slowly being undervalued in our society. Most importantly, Big Words for Little People is entertaining for readers young and old.
Congratulations,
Cherina A. Strait
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