Challenge Book

Title: Where The Wild Things Are

Author: Maurice Sendak

Illustrator: Maurice Sendak

Publisher: 1963, 1991 Harper Collins Publisher

Genre: Challenge, picture fiction **Caldecott Award**

Age Range: K-2

Summary: Max always seemed to be in a lot of mischief and was forced to go to his room without supper because of it. That night his room became a forest with real vines and trees. He was provided a private boat and sailed for almost a year to find where the wild things are. As he arrived, he saw the wild things and they were roaring, gritting their teeth, and showing their claws to show they were wild. Max forced them to be still and became the most wild thing of all. All of the other wild things allowed him to be the king of all wild things. They played till they were tired, bored, and hungry. Max left the wild things and sailed back for over a year till he was back in his room with supper waiting for him.

Response: I love this book and always have since I was little. I think this book still entertains children today, even though it is considered to be a challenge book. The book made me feel young again and I enjoyed every minute of it. This book provides children with imaginary lives and experiences they should have in their minds as a young child. For example, I used to imagine there being monsters and we would hide in the tree house and fight them off. If I can use this book in my classroom, I will definitely use it and present my class with my own experiences reading the book. I would use this on days where my students are doing writing and use their creative ideas to complete their writing.

Picture Book-Primary

Title: Out of the Ballpark
Author: Rodriguez, Alex
Illustrator: Morrison, Frank
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, 2007
Genre: Fictional Picture Book
Age Range: K-2, Primary

Summary: Alex was born to be a baseball player. Since he was a little kid he would wake up before the sun was up, practice before school, practice after school, and practice on his free time. He was dedicated and determined to become a good ball player. Alex's teacher noticed his mind was on baseball more than his schoolwork. Alex struggled during the first two games and made more errors than anybody, but when the championship game came up, he hit a home run into the pool. Alex won the game for this team.

Response: I thought this book was alright. It was my least favorite of all the picture books, but it did have a good moral to the story. I wouldn't recommend it too much, but if a child is struggling at something he enjoys, this would be the book to give to him/her. The illustrations were really good and used great detail to give the story more support. The book made me wish I was playing softball still, but then also boring. There wasn't enough excitement throughout the story to keep me entertained.

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Picture Book: Primary

Title: Duck on a Bike
Author: Shannon, David
Publisher: Blue Sky Press 2002
Genre: Fiction Picture Book
Age Range: K-2, Primary

Summary: Duck on a bike is about a duck being brave and trying something new. All of the other farm animals thought it was pointless, that the duck was just showing off, that it was cool, or that they wanted to eat it. Well, the duck didn't care what anyone else thought and he just went right ahead and rode his bike. A bunch of kids showed up on bikes at the house. While they were inside the other farm animals decided they wanted to ride like duck. By the end of the day the duck had everyone riding the bike around the house and farm. And everyone enjoyed riding the bike and thought that the duck was cool.

Response: This book is definitely for younger ages and could be used for teaching about animals, teaching about being a leader, and teaching children not to worry about what other people think. I enjoyed reading the book and the illustrations were amazing. They were bright, big, and exciting. It drew my focus towards the book when I picked it out. The book made me feel young, happy, and relaxed because of the motivational story behind the duck wanting to ride the bike. The duck didn't care what anyone else thought.

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Picture Book-Intermediate

Title: River Day
Author: Mason, Jane B.
Illustrator: Sorensen, Henri
Publisher: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1994
Genre: Fiction Picture Book
Age range: 3-6, Intermediate

Summary: River Day presents a special relationship between a grandpa and his granddaugther. They spend a day out on the river canoeing and hoping to spot a bald eagle. Alex is so excited that she could hardly wait to get down to the river. "Grampa" is what Alex call him and he let her be the scout for rocks and shallow water. Needless to say those weren't the only things she spotted. Alex found rainbow trout as well and as they were canoeing back Alex and her grandfather spotted the bald eagle they were going to see. Alex thought she wasn't going to get to see the bald eagle and then all of the sudden it flew down to the water and caught a fish.

Response: I enjoyed this book because of the special love that you receive from grandparents. There isn't anyone else like it and when you get to spend time with them, its special and something you will remember forever. This book made me feel happy and wish that I got to see my grandparents more often. I still have all of those memories as a child when they took me to special places like this. The books illustrations are great and shows great detail in each of them. I would use this book in my classroom when holidays are close by that relate to love, family, and being close to people. When I was in elementary school, we always had grandparents day and they would come and eat lunch with us. I really enjoyed that and this book could be used near that special occasion.

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Picture Book

Title: City of Snow-The Great Blizzard of 1888
Author: High, Linda Oatman
Illustrated by: Filippucci, Laura Francesca
Publisher: Walker and Company, 2004
Genre: Nonfiction Poem and Picture Book
Age Range: 3-6, Intermediate

Summary: A blizzard comes through New York for days right as spring had begun to roll around. It snowed for 3 days straight causing power to go out, people to run short on bread, milk, and meat, and for a girl to possibly miss "The Finest Assembly of Trained Animals Since Noah". There was so much snow that horses couldn't get around, no one would come outside, they couldn't see any sidewalks or roads, and no newspapers. The girl begged her father and mother to walk her to Madison Square to see if the show was still going to happen and it was. The girl saw lions, tigers, bears, girls on trapeze, and clowns. It continued to snow for days, which is why that snow storm is called the Great Blizzard of 1888.

Response: This book was very interesting and used great illustrations to make the story even better. I think this book should be read in the winter time to classes and talk about snow. It was really good and I don't recall ever reading a nonfiction story-poem type of book. It was based on the Great Blizzard of 1888 allowing it to even have somewhat of a historical background to it. As I read the book, I noticed the rhyming. When you glance at it, it doesn't look like a poem or any form of poetry. This book made me feel cozy and anxious for the snow to get here. Snow creates a lot of good memories and activities to do.

Easy Reading Book

Title: We Go in a Circle
Author: Peggy Perry Anderson
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Genre: Nonfiction picture book
Age Range: K-3

Summary: We Go in a Circle is about everyone being a winner. A racehorse used to be the best one out there till he broke his leg. The horse knew that once he left, his career was over, and he would be at a new location. But, he didn't know that he could be a winner at this place. The horse providing riding, enjoyment, and often a change in these children's lives he let ride on him. The horse became a therapy horse, in which he rides children around that are handicapped, mentally ill, autistic, blind, etc. The horse then knew that he was a winner no matter if he was the slowest of fastest.

Response: I really enjoyed this book because of the real life situations that children and adults are in with the illnesses they have. I myself have seen Therapy Riding places and there is one close to my hometown. A boy went and rode there one day, who was very autistic and never said anything before. And this boy said his first words at the age of 13 while riding a horse at a therapeutic riding center. I feel like this book also provides a lesson in life, which is that everyone is a winner. This book made me feel happy, blessed, and just amazed at what life can bring you at any moment. This book wouldn't really be involved with a curriculum that I know of. It could just be interesting for children to learn about the difference in people and how good their life is.

Predictable Book

Title: The Very Busy Spider
Author: Eric Carle
Publisher:Philomel Books
Genre: Fiction
Age Range: K-3

Summary: A spider seems very independent and busy with making her a spider web. Many pets, farm animals, and an owl come up to the spider asking her to do something with them, but she never did till she caught a fly. I think that meant that the spider was all by itself till the right person came along and its a lesson for readers of the book. The spider turns down everyone and never says anything back to none of the animals because she was very busy, even in her sleep.

Response: This book is for younger children so that they can engage on the sound the animal makes and also predict on that the spider is "busy". I think its really cute and appropriate for younger elementary because it has a lesson about how to talk to everyone and not leave everyone out, as well as animal sounds, names of animals, and short sentences. Young readers would love to be able to sound the animal noises out and that helps them pay attention and actually try and read the book. The book made me wish I was young again and had a life without stress. I would love to be back in kindergarten or first grade and be able to yell out animal noises. It was fun and an enjoyable book to sit and read. I would use this book when it came to learning about animals such as their names and what sounds they make. This could also be a way to calm children down by allowing them to make the sounds and be noisy.

Counting Book

Title: Aaron and Gayla's Counting Book
Author: Eloise Greenfield
Illustrator: Jan Spivey Gilchrist
Publisher: Writers and Readers Publishing
Genre:Fiction-Multicultural
Age Range: k-3

Summary: A boy and girl are going out to play and they count everything they see, such as 1 boy, two boots, three steps,etc. The children walk in the rain, walk to the library, walk to the playground, and walk back home, but provide counting in all there traveling with different objects. Greenfield used a story, but added counting within the story. This book illustrates a variety of people, reading, playgrounds, and nature. It allows readers to experience different objects, words, and numbers. Children can count the amount of pictures there are to show the quantity of the object, read the sentences, learn new words, and even have hands-on activities with it. This book also provides a song at the end for when teachers, parents, or students finish they can sing and count as an overall summary of the book.

Response: As I read the book I noticed the story besides the counting. I do not recall reading a counting book where the author provides a story with it. I think this might interest more children into reading the book, as well as learning to count, spell, and pronounce words. This book made me feel more energetic. I was excited to see the next object we would count and what the illustrations would be like. This relates to my own experiences by reminding me of when I was learning to count. I would just get dolls out and count them, or I would count my fingers, toes, shoes, and how many toys I had. It was fun learning how to count and once I did it gave me confidence. Teachers could easily integrate this into their classrooms by providing a multi culture book, learning to count, learning to read, and possibly learning about rain.

Alphabet Book

Title: The Alpha Kids Alphabet Book
Author: Alpha Kids
Publisher: Houghten Mifflin Company
Genre:
Age range: Preschool, K-1)

Summary: The Alpha Kids Alphabet book uses multiples words with different meanings throughout all the letters in the alphabet. It shows children interacting with the letters such as, "Kim is in the Kitchen" (Alpha kids 2000). It names food, names, activities, objects, and animals to allow younger children mainly in kindergarten and first grade apply these in communication, reading, and writing. Some children could learn their own names, learn names of foods, learn names of objects, and any word they have never heard before. Illustrations are shown in the book to help the children have a better understanding of what the word means and what it is. This book is a little more challenging than some of the ABC books I have read before. It has complete sentences, which makes it challenging for kindergarten, and possibly right at first grade level.

Response: I think this book would really help children at young ages. It could possibly be used for advanced Kindergartner's and possibly slower first graders. It uses many words for one letter, then provides a sentence to allow a broader learning experience for young readers. At the end of the book it provides short "Alpha jingles" that teachers could sing to provide letter sounds, more words, and sentence structure. I noticed that it was more complicated than most ABC books that a typical preschool or kindergartner student would read. It made me laugh, relax, and also think back to when I was reading ABC books and how now I am at college reading ABC books. This would definitely fit into younger elementary curriculum with the pronunciation of words, spelling, sentences, etc. I think its a good book to use for younger children.