Utopia/Dystopia: Dintopia-First Flight

Title: Dinotopia: First Flight

Author & Illustrator: James Gurney

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers

Genre: Utopia/Dystopia, picture

Age Range: 3-6

Summary: A boy named Gideon is an orphan and finds trouble fitting in dinotopia. He finds a hurt pterosaur, Razzamult, and decides to escape the dinotopia. Gideon takes Razzamult and other pterosaurs with him by flying a skimmer. Gideon finally reaches the new world he wanted to reach and ran into triceratops in this island. All of these different dinosaurs helped him reach highnest on the island he had been looking for. As they reached the highnest they Gideon and the other dinosaurs were being attacked by Drones and people from Dinotopia where he used to live. Finally the people from Dinotopia brought the air scorpion out and caught Gideon. Gideon's friends (other dinosaurs) chewed up wires and caused the flying scorpion to ignite. The pterosaurs took Gideon and his friends back to land safely.

Response: I did not enjoy this book at all. It is very complex and uses so many imaginative ideas. I would not recommend this book, but it would be interesting for boys to read because of their creativeness and imaginative brains they have. The book made me feel bored and uninterested. I don't think I would ever read this book to my class, but I would leave it on the shelf for the students to read if they wanted to.

Science Fiction: The Diary of a Wombat

Title: Diary of a Wombat

Author: Jackie French

Illustrator: Bruce Whatley

Publisher: Clarion Books, 2002

Genre: Science fiction, picture book

Age Range: K-2

Summary: Diary of a Wombat is about a wombat that lives in Australia that eats and sleeps for a living. The creature looks like a bear, but it much smaller. The wombat sleeps during the day, but eats, scratches, digs holes, and asks for carrots at night. The wombat lives around a family, but he doesn't really come in contact with them till the end. The wombat begs for carrots everyday by banging on the metal trashcan, chewing its way to the house, or eating them out of the garden. He eventually gets tired of the carrots and receives oats instead. After several more days of carrots, the wombat sees how warming and nice the family it so he digs his hole under the house to be closer to the family and sleeps there.

Response: The book wasn't one of my favorites, but it was good for reading to younger children in classrooms. Teachers could use the moral of the story and talk about the importance of family and friends. The book made me feel speechless. I didn't really have an emotions or feelings after reading the book. It's one of those books that wouldn't effect you if you ever read it again or not. Teachers could integrate this book into their lesson when talking about animals or their daily schedules. The book presents the wombat's daily schedule by morning, afternoon, evening, and night.

Fantasy: Raising Dragons

Title: Raising Dragons

Author: Jerdine Nolen

Illustrator: Elise Primavera

Publisher: Silver Whistle, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1998

Genre: Fantasy, Picture Book

Age Range: K-2

Summary: A girl helps work on a farm with her mom and dad. She knew everything about raising dragons, just like her father knew everything about farming. She found this "rock" at Miller's cave and watched it for days. Finally the rock became an egg and cracked open with a baby dragon inside. The girl raised the dragon. She would feed it, read to it, play with it. Eventually Hank, the dragon got big enough and helped the farm out more than ever. The people wanted the "dragon vegetables" and "dragon popcorn". Hank grew older and knew it was time to leave. He went to a dragon island where there were many other dragons. Hank told the girl goodbye and left her with several more "rocks" and she lived her life raising dragons.

Response: This book was really interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The girl's imagination, curiosity, and determination were really interesting throughout the book. I would use this book in my future classroom and possibly even on days that the students are writing or learning to write. This book would help get the children's minds set on creativity or imaginative thinking. This book made me feel young again and wish that I was creative and could still play with imaginary things, like I did when I was little. Overall, its a great book for children to read and some will really enjoy it.

Fairy Tale: Fanny's Dream

Title: Fanny's Dream

Author: Caralyn Buehner

Illustrator: Mark Buehner

Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1996

Genre: Fairy tale, picture book

Age Range: K-2

Summary: Fanny Agnes has worked on a farm all of her life waiting for her dream to come true. Her dream was to marry a prince, which would be the mayor who is tall, handsome, and would give her everything she ever dreamed of. The night of the ball at the mayors house, Fanny waits outside for her fairy godmother to come and rescue her, but instead Heber comes. It was a short fellow who loved Fanny. Heber ended up being Fanny's prince and all that she dreamed of. She had a roof over her head, a wonderful husband, three children, and a farm. The fairy godmother arrives late and Fanny decides she already has her prince, she doesn't need the mayor.

Response: I loved this book and I think all female young readers should read this. This book has an excellent moral behind it and I think all girls should read this. Girls do not need a prince to live happily ever after. This book is a great example of that. I would definitely use this in my future classrooms. I really enjoyed it and it made me realize that I don't need a fairytale ending with a prince. Overall, the book wouldn't be so much for boys, but the girls would really enjoy it and understand that life isn't about waiting for a fairy tale to happen.

Traditional Literature: The Ugly Duckling

Title: The Ugly Duckling

Author & Illustrator: Hans Christian Anderson (adapted & illustrated by Jerry Pinkney

Publisher: Morrow Junior Books 1999

Genre: Traditional literature, picture book

Age range: K-2

Summary: A mother goose lays 5 eggs. The ugly duckling happens to be the odd egg out of the group of eggs. He is the last one born and the one that is left behind because of hunters. The ugly duckling suffers because no one will take him in except for a lady, hen, and cat, but he leaves there after a while because its not the kind of home he needs. He barely survives the winter because of lack of food and a home to live. Finally he finds his home and looks just like all the other birds, except his colors and beak is shinier. He has a family and is no longer the ugly duckling.

Response: I remember reading this book when I was younger. I always felt sad about it, but it really has a good moral behind it. I would use this book in my classroom has an example of students including everyone. There isn't a ugly duckling, everyone puts on their pants the same way. I really enjoyed this book and it makes me feel happy and want others to realize that people should include everyone. Growing up I experience these situations and noticed some people that were the 'ugly duckling' in the classrooms and honestly I would include them majority of the time. My parents raised me on the quote "everyone puts their pants on the same way" so it wasn't a big deal to me.

Traditional Literature: The Three Billy-Goats Gruff

Title: The Three Billy-Goats Gruff

Author: Paul Galdone (rewritten by Scholastic)

Illustrator: Ellen Appleby

Publisher and Date of Publication: Scholastic 1984

Genre: Traditional Literature, Picture Book

Age Range: K-2

Summary: Three billy-goats named Gruff wanted to move to a mountain where they could get fat. In order to make it to the mountain they had to cross a bridge. The youngest gruff goat went across and ran into a troll. The troll wanted to eat him, but the goat told the troll that the next goat was much bigger, so the troll decided to wait for the second goat. The second goat came across and did the same thing that the first goat gruff did and told him that the third goat was the biggest, so the troll let him by. The third billy goat gruff came across the bridge and the troll threatened to eat him, but the goat told him that he would used his spears and crushed his body into bits. Then all the goats were on the mountain and lived happily ever after.

Response: This book wasn't what I thought it would be. It was a typical book that wouldn't effect me if I read it again or not. The book was really good for younger children to read. It provided larger font in bold that represented the goats stomping across the bridge and it got bigger as the goats got bigger. I thought that was a great example for the children to understand the noise difference. I would have this book in my future classroom for my students to read and understand that there are different stories behind the titles. There were very many versions of this book and some of the children may enjoy it, while others don't.

Historical Fiction: Following the Drinking Gourd

Title: Follow the Drinking Gourd

Author & Illustrator: Winter, Jeanette

Publisher: Dragonfly Books, 1988

Genre: Historical Fiction, Multicultural, Picture Book

Age Range: K-2

Summary: Follow the Drinking Gourd is based around the Civil War and slavery. Slavery was very popular back then and they worked on farms for farmers that owned all of these plantations. Peg Leg Joe did all he could do to help free all the slaves. He would sing them a song that was based on following the drinking gourd. He would travel from plantation to plantation singing this song in front of slaves hoping they would listen and pay attention to the worlds. When it came time for a slave to be sold a family sang "Follow the Drinking Gourd" for weeks till they arrived safe in Canada. They were not the only families that Peg Leg Joe had taught that song too. There were many families running away from these farms across the Ohio river to free themselves from slavery. Peg Leg Joe saved many families and helped them get out of slavery.

Response: Follow the Drinking Gourd was an excellent book. I would recommend this book for all classrooms studying the Civil War and slavery. It provided fiction based around the historical event that helps children learn more about history. I highly recommend this book, especially for younger ages when they are just starting to learn about history. The book even provides the song in the back of the book for the class to sing. This book made me feel happy and grateful that my family hasn't ever had to experience anything like that before. This book doesn't relate to my own experiences, but I am sure it does to many other families. This is great multicultural book to share with the classroom when demonstrating the racism and slavery that took place in our history of the United States. Children's minds will be pulled into this book and will understand more about the situation because of the illustrations and involvement of children their age and families.

Historical Fiction: Following the Drinking Gourd