Amy’s Comments (group member since Oct 27, 2011)

Amy’s comments from the http://www.EDUG573Fall2011 group.

One author who continues to drift into our home is Sandra Boynton. She has a bunch of board books for toddlers, really everyone that feature comical animals as characters. While three of my four children liked her books, our youngest child seems to be in love with Sandra Boynton's books. Our favorites include: Barnyard Dance; Moo, Baa, La, La, La; Perfect Piggies; The Going to Bed Book;

Today I bought the Belly Button Book for our youngest child. I loved the book because it has the sing-song, rhyming type text that is easy for my 2 year old to pick up on. The hippos in the book are hilarious as they bare their midsections. The baby in the story cannot say belly button and it again allows a connection even at 2 of a little one who cannot quite say what the rest of us can say. This text was an instant hit both with myself and my daughter Reagan.

I chose to write about Sandra Boynton rather than just one of her books. Many of us in class have young children, nieces, nephews, are moms to be, and have grandchildren. We spend a lot of time looking at texts for our classrooms. Choosing books that fit into the earliest of experiences of literacy can really impact our own family members as they embark on their journey of reading.

Any time I pick up one of Boynton's books, it makes me smile because I can read just one part of ANY PAGE in her books and Reagan will finish the text. Although we have already read the Belly Button Book twice tonight, I anticipate reading it again before bed (along with Moo, Baa, La! La! La!). Boynton also has music available for anyone who is interested and likes this author.

I really debated about doing an author study on Chris Van Allsburg. He literally is my all time favorite author, hands down. However, I knew I needed to dig into a different author, thus my reasoning for choosing Jon Scieszka.

Over the summer I taught a gifted class at the local university for students grades 6-8. I incorporated many of the items we completed during our technology course. One thing I used was the original version of Thy Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg. I don't know if any of you know the history behind the mystery, but the book is a series of black and white illustrations with titles and a one liner, but no complete story. Van Allsburg claims he is not the author and that he discovered the pictures and published them.

The book was just "re-imagined" and retitled to The Chronicles of Harris Burdick. This version now has 14 complete short stories using the preexisting titles, one liners and illustrations. I could not wait to purchase this book!

I can't decide what I am more excited about: 1) The republication of this text with stories added. 2) The fact that there are many of my favorite authors who wrote the stories (Walter Dean Myers, Jon Scieszka, Linda Sue Park, Lois Lowry, Louis Sachar, Stephen King, Chris Van Allsburg...and Sherman Alexie whom we just read about) or 3) The joy of rediscovering one of my favorite pieces of literature!

One thing that leaps out while reading is that the authors really stay true to who they are while they are writing. Scieszka uses his traditional fractured format and fractures common idioms in the English language to write his tale. (Although, Alexie's was a little disturbing.)

Anyone who has previously loved the original, will be sure to love Chronicles. My oldest son was in my class this summer and loved creating his own stories to match the illustrations. He has been begging me for this book since he heard of it. I am still hiding it from him, I am not ready to share!

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes is a great children's book to use as a tool during a lesson on bullying, particularly that of name calling. Chrysanthemum loves her unique name until she begins attending school. Her classmates make fun of her on a daily basis and you can see Chrysanthemum's self esteem begin to wilt. Through the intervention of a unique music teacher, Chrysanthemum's love of her name is rekindled along with her classmates and their new appreciation of a "flower" name.

While the message is simple and clear, this text is useful for all ages. Younger students will enjoy the mice characters presented in the illustrations keeping the mood light. Older students will appreciate the straight forward approach of Henkes.

Twoo Twit by Kes Gray is the tale of an owlet and the forest children. Everyone stereotypes Twoo Twit making comments about his intelligence because he is an owl. In fact, Twoo Twit cannot read. He is constantly making mistakes and being made fun of. Twoo Twit's secret finally comes out and everyone realizes he cannot read because he has been skipping school to do his own thing. Twoo Twit decides to go to school after sitting in a church bell and having it ring for two hours straight in his ears. He missed the sign and decides that now that everyone knows he doesn't read, Twoo Twit does not want to miss another sign and hear church bells nonstop ever again.

Initially I thought this would be a great book to address overcoming stereotypes. It's a cute children's book with fun illustrations. While I think it still could be used for elements of racial stereotyping, I was disappointed in the ending. I wanted so badly for Twoo Twit not to go to school and be "wise" in his own ways, other ways. In the end, Twoo Twit conformed to society. Bummer!

The Family Book by Todd Parr is a great piece of Children's Lit that illustrates all types of families: two parents (both heterosexual and then as Parr says, "some families have two moms of two dads"), single parents, adopted families, blended families, etc. Literally the book goes on to cover how we sometimes look alike or not at all, color, distance...anything you can imagine.

This book is really a great piece for teaching tolerance and acceptance in our classrooms. The text can be used as young as pre-K and with older students. The illustrations are whimsical cartoon-like pieces of people who are blue, purple, pink, yellow, etc. and includes animals too.

The text also lends itself to helping adopted children see that all families are different, not just theirs. This is a text I really appreciate and wish we had read more of this type of book for class since it is one I can use with my students.

Meet Danitra Brown by Nikki Grimes is an African American picture book that is a story but in poetic form. I love the poems for each page. The poems can be read in singular form for meaning, but overall collectively create one story about Danitra Brown. The poems are told from the perspective of Zuri Jackson, Danitra's friend. While Danitra is somewhat of an oddball, she pays no attention to what others think of her. Danitra has "coke bottle" round lenses for glasses and is the target of bullying by the other kids in the neighborhood. Danitra has such wonderful self esteem that she does not let this effect her outlook on life.

This text is appropriate for all ages really. The blend of poetry, illustrations and the overall story together makes a great piece focusing on friendship.

On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer is a short novel that takes place in Illinois on the Vermillion River; specifically Ottawa, IL near Starved Rock. The story tells of two boys riding their bikes on a hot afternoon. The decide to go for a swim even though they have both been told on numerous occasions never to swim in the Vermillion River. Though the river is shallow, it is treacherous. The boys go in despite Tony's lack of swimming skills. They are to swim to a sand bar and once Joel looks back, Tony is gone. Ultimately, Tony has drowned. Joel doesn't know what to do, basically panics, goes home and does NOT tell anyone.

The rest of the novel focuses on Joel living with the guilt of his best friend's death. The police come to the Tony's house at the end where finally Joel spills what he knows.

Joel's father later apologizes to his son telling him that he should not have let the boys go on the bike ride. Joel tells his father that by touching him, his hand will have the stink of the river forever. While his dad cannot smell the stench, in this moment it is a realization of the grief, guilt and shame Joel is carrying. Joel's father tries to reassure him that the burden is not only on Joel, but on all who made choices that day.

Although this novel is very sad, it is really a great book to use for grief, friendship, living with the choices we make...lots of issues really. I think it would be great to use with students who are in 5th grade or older to help them realize that there are always consequences to the choices and chances that they take. The boys in this novel are the same age as fifth graders.

The Korean Cinderella by Shirley Climo is just as the title says. The illustrations in the text reflect that of traditional Korean clothing with the females wearing hanboks (pronounced haan bow) throughout the text. The Cinderella in this version is named Pear Blossom. She is named after the pear tree planted in honor of her birth for her parents to pay tribute to their good fortune of having a child. Pear Blossom is tended to by her mother daily and adorned with beautiful clothing and with ribbons woven into her braids. Suddenly her mother dies and her father is concerned about who will take care of his daughter. He decides to see the matchmaker who sets him up with his new wife and her daughter (There is only one step-sister in this version).

The stepmother, true to form, treats Pear Blossom horribly, dressing her in rags and forcing her to clean, cook and tend to the fire. Pear Blossom is referred to as "Pigling" by the two enemies. The stepmother constantly plots how to "send the pigling to the market." Omoni sets out to make it difficult for Pear Blossom to complete a task thus in the failure, giving Omoni the excuse to rid herself of the girl.

Along each task, an animal comes to Pear Blossom's aid allowing her success. There is a village festival that Pear Blossom can only go to once she weeds the entire rice paddy. An ox comes to her rescue thus once again allowing success in a task. Pear Blossoms runs off to the festival but is stopped by a magistrate and his attendants, she is embarrassed by her looks, so she hides behind a tree. The magistrate sees her and calls out to the girl, she runs off dropping her straw sand into a stream. The magistrate orders the sandal to be picked up as he is awed by Pear Blossom's beauty.

While in the village, Omoni accuses Pear Blossom of trickery as the magistrate comes in to announce he'll marry the girl with only one shoe. Omoni laughs and says that the magistrate is really there to arrest Pear Blossom. In the end, the magistrate and Pear Blossom do marry.

The author states that this version is actually a combination of three different Cinderella stories told in Korea. I initially bought this book for two reasons: 1) our daughter Reagan is South Korean and I wanted her to have a folk tale from her birth country and 2) Our daughter's name, Yi literally translates to Pear Blossom.

As an adoptive parent of internationally adopted children, I feel it is crucial for my children to have pieces of their birth heritage in our home. We celebrate our transracial family and I tell people that I am Vietnamese and Korean too.

I changed my mind. Since I already wrote and discussed Jon Scieszka in my author study presentation, I decided to read something else. I was delighted to come across Leola and the Honeybears by Melodye Benson Rosales. This piece of Traditional Literature is an African-American retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Leola gets lost wandering into the woods and is frightened by Mr. Weasel. Running of leads to the discovery of the cottage. Rather than eating porridge, this little girls samples plum pie, rose cobbler and a huckleberry tart. Eventually Leola falls asleep, is discovered by the bears and is frightened the bears will eat her. The mama bear asks if Leola has any manners and they form a friendship. Mama Honeybear lovingly guides Leola back through the woods to her grandma's house.

I love this text because of the multicultural viewpoint of the book. I enjoyed this version so much better than the familiar. Often I find myself shocked that my students have missed these classic pieces of literature that many of us have been exposed to. Leola and the Honeybears allows me to bring traditional lit to my students, yet honor their culture and heritage at the same time.

Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann is a Caldecott Medal book written in 1995. Initially the story starts out with Officer Buckle and his safety tips for students. Officer Buckle makes his presentation for students and the kids fall asleep. No one seems to care what he has to say and he is used to this being the typical reaction to the presentation. Time fast forwards in the book and the officer is partnered with a K-9 police dog. The dog, Gloria, attends a safety speech at the school and stands behind Officer Buckle. Throughout the presentation, Gloria mocks the policeman unbeknownst to him. The students seem to perk up and pay attention the entire time. Gloria's antics begin to draw bigger crowds and the duos receives multiple requests for presentations. One night, Officer Buckle sees the couple on the news and is shocked and angered by Gloria's behavior. When he is called for another appearance, he refuses to go. Is this resolved? Yes...but I am going to suggest you read this yourself. I think this is a great story for using as bibliotherapy when a child feels they have been wronged by another student to see you can forgive and get past your conflict.

Has anyone read The Hat by Jan Brett? It's similar to the mitten, except a hedgehog accidentally stumbles into a "hat." Throughout the story Brett uses all parts of the page including the borders. At first glance, one may not notice the key piece the borders around the main illustrations. Throughout the story, other animals see the hedgehog with the hat and desire to have one too. The clothing comes from a clothesline hanging out to dry. The illustrations in the borders show the owner's clothing, Lisa, trying to figure out what is going on. Basically, it's a story within a story. Brett weaves together textual story in the main frame and a graphic story in the border.

My youngest daughter loves this book! I am not sure if she thinks the animals are entertaining, or the somewhat predictable nature of the story as it proceeds throughout the book.

Again, another great text for combining multimodal uses of print as mentioned in are articles from class. Students really have to look that there are layers of stories occurring simultaneously throughout this text.

I recently finished reading Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn to my class during the month of October. For anyone who loves a good mystery or thriller, this is the children's version and an excellent on at that!

Initially I read it simply for the genre and the month of October. Okay, boring and so cliche I know. However, as I read this book, I discovered it was awesome for making connections! The main character, Molly, has a blended family that just moved from Boston to a small rural town. Her mom and step-dad are artists who think living in the picturesque countryside will inspire their work. Molly has to share a room with her 7 year old step-sister Heather. Their new home? It just so happens it is an old refurbished church turned house right next to an old graveyard. Throughout the store, Heather lies to get Molly and Michael (Molly's brother) into trouble. At the same time, Molly discovers Heather really is seeing a ghost.

My students were able to grasp making connections because many of them have blended families. Moreover, they could identify with Molly and her efforts in dealing with a step-sibling. Our conversations also led to how Molly handled the situation, did she do the "right" thing, etc.

What started out as a ghost story, turned into a powerful lesson not only about making connections, but about how to handle adversity and persevere while maintaining integrity!

Runny Babbit by Shel Silverstein is a great collection of poetry the is constructed of switching the first letters of words throughout poems as evident in the title.

When I first shared this collection of poems with my class, I did not tell my students who authored the poetry. Prior to reading Runny Babbit, I saw that my students kept checking out The Giving Tree. Don't get me wrong, it's a great piece too, but really kind of drab compared to many of Silverstein's other pieces. My class thought someone had "messed up those words Mrs. Stevens." When I revealed the author, the class had a hard time believing me.

The thing about this collection compared to Where the Sidewalk Ends or A Light in the Attic, is that the humor is right in your face it's hard not to laugh.

I have found that using Runny Babbit has helped to lift a dark cloud in my classroom when a dose of humor is needed.

Flying Jake by Lane Smith was published in 1988. While I was working on my author study of Jon Scieszka, I started looking into many of the works by Lane Smith since the two of them coauthored many books.

I came across this book! It's not a graphic novel, but a graphic children's book! I was so ecstatic to discover this as an introduction for my students to graphic novels. Where most graphic novels have bubbles for the characters to speak; Smith avoids any text in this piece.

Students would be able to incorporate writing into this book by creating their own stories to accompany Lane Smith's book Flying Jake.

The story itself is about a boy who has a pet bird. One day the bird gets out of the cage and flies away. Jake flies after it, playing his harmonica. Throughout the course of the story you can see the adults are annoyed. The birds of the world join with Jake to find his pet. Very interesting and great for inferencing as well!

Waiting for NOrmal by Leslie Connor is about a young girl whose mom is very irresponsible. Often the mom, affectionately called, "Mommers," leaves Addie alone, without food and in terrible living conditions. The beginning of the novel starts with Mommers and her current husband Dwight separating. Dwight drops the two off at a trailer home and says it's all set up for them.

Dwight says he doesn't want to leave Addie, but he's not her biological father and Mommers holds that over him stating he can't take Addie away from her too. Dwight does have two younger daughters with Mommers and so he elects to keep the girls away from their mother.

The novel shows Addie fending for herself. She perseveres and makes friends with a local convenient store owner and her husband. Addie's afternoons are spent there while her mother is out abusing drugs and is often no where to be seen.

Dwight continues to keep in touch with Addie and even takes her for some visitation. Mommers then starts to refuse to let Addie go causing more friction and negative feelings. Who wouldn't feel resentment?

Mommers and Dwight divorce, she quickly meets another man and is pregnant. While out one night, the trailer burns down and Family Services steps in, finally realizing just how bad things have been for Addie. She is temporarily placed with her paternal grandfather. The caseworker asks Addie what she wants and she responds, "I just want normal. I want to live with my sisters and my Dwight." Months later, Dwight brings adoption papers to Addie and the novel ends.

I could not put this book down. Adoption has touched my life as we have adopted children. While reading this I thought about how many children spend years fending for themselves, like Addie, before someone steps in on their behalf. Even then, other things have to happen for adoption to occur.

In my new teaching assignment, I think of the many things my 9 and 10 years have to do to take care of themselves.

Another realistic fiction piece I love is Kimichi & Calamari by Rose Kent. The novel is also about adoption, but a teen who was adopted as an infant from South Korea. Joseph Calderaro is the main character.

He is interested in finding his Korean birth family and through some internet social networking sites, thinks he has stumbled on to a relative here in the U.S.

Joseph struggles with his identity as many teens do, whether adopted or not. He also tries to figure out the fusion of his worlds: Korean vs. Italian. He writes some pretty hurtful things while blogging that his parents discover.

The tumultuous time in his life does lead Joseph to an understand that it is not one heritage against another, but two beautifully fused into one.

I like this novel because for me it is personal and I can easily relate. It provides perspective when my own children may one day question or struggle with their identities and a desire to find their birth families. As a mom, it gave me insight to help my children navigate this time in their life if it happens to arise. Not all adoptees struggle with identity.

As a teacher, this provided insight into how some of my students may feel if they are adopted. Sometimes when we assign things like a family tree, we forget how some students started with roots in one spot and were transplanted to another spot.

I chose to read the graphic novel format of The Lightning Thief. Having read the original works by Rick Riordan, I was perplexed by this other book.

While the graphic novel version is a quick read, I found it hard to follow. Maybe it would have been different if I had not already read the other book. What I found difficult is that the picture frames did not flow left to right. Sometimes they went top to bottom, left to right and a mixture! It made me a bit dizzy.

I also didn't care for this because the graphic novel left out KEY POINTS in the entire plot! Even with a condensed version, the vocabulary was challenging so I do not think my struggling readers would really be able to truly comprehend the key points of the story.

Overall, not a fan of this version of The Lightning Thief, I will stick to the original!

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis is a wonderful book that not only ties to Historical Fiction, but also fills the need for culturally relevant literature.

The novel is written by African-American author Christopher Paul Curtis, who is also the author of The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963.

Curtis penned Bud, to fit into the Great Depression. Images of shantytowns made from cardboard boxes or Hoovervilles as they were called clearly reflect our nation struggling at the time. Other parts include characters standing in line for the soup kitchen, children being orphaned by families, and men "riding the rails" to look for work.

I also love this novel because it depicts a 10 year old African American boy who is orphaned when his sickly mother dies. Bud doesn't know who is father is and the only clue he has is a flyer with Herman E. Calloway's name listed. Bud thinks this is his father and sets out to find him, running away from his foster home. The students in my classes find this novel funny, but on a more serious note, they are able to genuinely relate to Bud and his experiences.

There is also a huge influence of Jazz throughout the book, also allowing me to familiarize my students with a great genre of music. I give this book a 2 thumbs up!

A second Historical Fiction novel is Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs. This is the story of a young boy, he's 15, who's lives in Mexico. Victor, the main character, is faced with a decision of the failing farm causing his family to starve.

Victor ultimately decides to "cross the wire" at the border between Mexico and the United States so he can look for work and then send money he's earned back to his family.

The novel is frightening when thinking about a young boy trying to provide for his family and basically facing the uncertainties of trying to survive in the desert and trust criminals.

A thought provoking book causing us to examine the issues of illegal immigrants and border issues our nation has faced since September 11. This is a piece of history, but as a reader, I was able to see the other perspective we often forget.

While I think this novel is great, it is not one I would read with my fourth graders. I think students need to be more mature to handle some of the imagery and scenes written by Hobbs depicting Victor's struggles. Seventh and eighth graders would be a good match for this topic, possibly mature (and I mean mature!) sixth graders. The novel does have beatings that illegals face when trying to cross the border, and some descriptive death from those who just couldn't make it in the desert once they came to the U.S. Overly sensitive students would not be able to handle this book.

Bruce Lansky's Mary Had A Little Jam is a hilarious collection of poems. Lansky takes traditional poems and puts a spin on them! My family accidentally discovered this book and my two sons have spent hours repeating the poetry through fits of giggles.

I think this would be a great book to get reluctant readers reading poetry simply because of the humor factor. I am thinking of using them in my current classroom of fourth graders, but honestly, I think they will lose control!

My own mother cannot even read these to my kids without laughing. My 5 year old daughter is now asking to read Lansky's book and likes it so much, we have purchased two more of his books: Oh My Darling Porcupine and Peter, Peter Pizza Eater.

Check out Lansky's site: www.gigglepoetry.com

Bruce Lansky

Shel Silverstein's Runny Babbit

The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies is a novel about siblings: Evan and Jessie. Evan is a struggling learner who is going to be in fourth grade. Although he doesn't have "book smarts," he does have "people smarts" and is a likable guy who everyone wants to befriend. Jessie, his younger sister, is a gifted learner and the complete opposite of her older brother. Jessie and Evan are truly best friends, but when Evan finds out that Jessie is skipping a grade he is upset, and more so when he finds out Jessie will be in the same class. Their sibling love is tested when a Lemonade War ensues. Jessie has no idea why Evan is really mad, she just thinks he wants to make the most money at his lemonade stand.

I loved this book so much I read it aloud to my class! It was a great way to tackle beginning of the year fears of school and address bullying. My students loved the book so much that when they found out Jacqueline Davies had written a sequel, they begged for more.

This novel is also really great for kids to make connections. My students were interrupting me with connections they had to the characters that at one point, I said, "No more connections until the end of the chapter!" The Lemonade War was the first book in my class this year that really connected us as our own little family.