Insect Invaders

This is a Magic School Bus book. If some of you were living under a rock during childhood and never read one of these great Magic School Bus Stories then you were missing out. Throughout the book Ms. Frizzle takes her children on her magical school bus which transforms the world her and her schoolchildren are inhabiting. In this book the children are taking a closer look at insects. The books are great because they have scientific information in the book in the form of notes written from different students. I recommend these small chapter books for 3/4 graders because they are still a little hard to read, but the material is geared toward younger students. It would also be a wonderful series to introduce science experiments or a lesson, because there are tons of different topics that the series covers.

Love That Dog

Hate this Book. Well maybe not so much. I accidentally read The Misfits instead of reading this one so I felt like I had to go back and look through it. It kind of reminds me of my post about the book The Dot. Kid thinks he's not good at something, teacher thinks otherwise and praises kid, kid then realizes it's easier then he thinks and ends up being wonderful. I will give the book a lot of credit for putting the actual poems that were referenced in the back. This gives children a chance to read more great poems and to be able to compare and contrast them on the spot. I guess the more I am actually writing about this book the more it is kind of growing on me. I have seen it in a lot of classrooms so most likely you will see it in mine.

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

Sylvester loved collecting pebbles of unusual shape and color. One day he found a special pebble, a flaming, red, shiny, and perfectly round, like a marble. He discovered it was a magical pebble as he held it and the rain stopped when he wished it. He was excited about the possibilities of getting everything he and his family wanted. But when a lion approached, he change himself into a rock. However, he was unable to change back because the pebble was next to him. In order for the magic to work, he needed to be touching the pebble. His parents and friends looked and looked for him. This caused his parents a lot of sorrow. One day, while eating lunch at the rock (Sylvester), his parents saw the pebble and placed it upon the rock because it reminded them of their son. When he realized he was touching the rock, Sylvester changed himself back and three were reunited. He knew that this is what he and his family wanted more than anything. Wasn't a big fan pf this book, don't know why just didn't really standout.

The Listening Walk

This is one of my favorite stories that I have rad so far. It is a story about a girl, her father and her dog, who take walks. While they walk, the girl listens to the sounds of the neighborhood. The story is great because you can have the kids do the sounds as you read. Would e more for a younger class, but I read this when I did my Science out at School of the Wild and all the kids who were 6 up to 12 really participated. Its a great story to have a lot of fun with, so really let your kids get into it.

The Hello, Goodbye Window

The Hello, Goodbye Window is a book about a young girl who spends time with her Nanna and Poppy at their big house. It looks like a regular window but it’s not. The large window is in the kitchen and becomes a focal point for family activity and interaction. It is a window to make silly faces in or tap on and duck under. It is a window where the three look out at the stars in the evening. From the window Nanna can be send spending time in the garden, and Poppy will play his harmonica. When Mommy and Daddy pick up the girl, the window is where they stop and blow kisses to Nanna and Poppy s they leave. The family is multicultural so would be a great diversity book to read to the class.

Heather Has Two Mommies

Obviously the story of lesbian parents. Great picture on page two of one of the mom's wearing a No Nukes shirt, very cliche I think. Granted the majority of people who support Gay and Lesbian rites are Liberal and most likely don't believe in Nuclear war (obviously) , but the whole shirt was just a little over the top. The book goes on to describe how different Heather is with her two mommies and she feels sad because she doesn't have a daddy, which is not true, because every child has to have a mom and a dad, but that would just be too confusing to explain in a children's book about lesbians, which in itself is difficult to explain. I didn't really find this book too controversial. At the program I work at we had siblings who had lesbian parents, and they would come and pick up the kids and even after hearing other kids ask, "You have two mom's?" The kids would answer yes and it would be left at that. No one really cared, I'm sure kids talked about it, but I never overheard anything and it seemed like maybe a big deal for all of 5 minutes. I also have a child who was adopted by two guy's, and I have never even heard a word mentioned to him before. Now this could all be due to the fact that we live in the most liberal town in Iowa, but for the record the students I see have done a fantastic job of minding their own business and not being mean to the students who do not have the traditional family. I'm catholic and when people ask me about gay marriage my response is, "If gay people want to be just as miserable as married people why not let them."

Mississippi Morning

Wow....you could kind of see this coming, but didn't want to believe it. Great story about a white boy growing up in 1933 Mississippi where racism runs deep. James hears from a "colored" friend of his LeRoy about a hanging tree, and he hears about the Klan (KKK) from his white friend Red. He asks his father about it and his Dad says they should be minding his own business. You kind of feel the tension start mounting in the story when James asks his dad about the Klan, and that's when you think "wellllll.....mayyybbe his dad...no couldn't be" then the last page. I don't really want to write anything more about it because it's kind of like an episode of a T.V. show where they leave a huge cliffhanger and you're all like "WHATT!"...sorry if this doesn't make much sense, I just really think you should check this book out on your own...Great story! Definitely my favorite book I have read so far.

It's Perfectly Normal

Well this book is helpful in explaining the body and sexual changes that occur throughout young age into adult hood. There are some pictures that will get a chuckle.... and I'm sure roaring laughter from children, but I would not read this to a class. It has pretty detailed pictures, not of actual sex organs, but cartoon drawings of sex organs. At first glance you might think that this book could help explain puberty to a young adult, but it kind of just dives right into sex. This book is actually kind of comical as I read through, a picture of a kid with a "boner", they actually call it that in the book, during class, that got a laugh out of me. They talk about male wet dreams and how your sheets get dirty, but its OK according to the book that just "means that washing machines are busy during puberty".....too funny.....well all in all I could see this book being controversial. Definitely up tight parents would not be reading this to their kids, while parents who allow their kids to "express themselves" will probably give it a thumbs up. I will mention that they do use scientific terms throughout the whole book and there are some great notes and details, but I would not recommend this for a classroom, but definitely to parents who are OK with this detailed of information.

Here is a great review that actaully explains it a little better than me

Be Boy Buzz

The first thing that stands out to me is the awful english being used. That may sound dumb, but to say, "I be boy." what kind of sentence is that. And then to say "be boy talking way to loud" so all boys talk loud? My last point here, and then I am going to be done, because I really didn't care for this book, is that to sum it all up read the back jacket flap of the book, first line, " A world-renowned cultural critic, feminist theorist, and intellectual, Bell Hooks......" So the author of a book about what it's like to be a boy is written by a feminist girl?....sound more like a plot to a soap opera then a children's book.

The Un-Wedding

This book was alright. I have never had to deal with divorce in my family, but have friends who's parents are divorced. It just seemed kind of silly to me that these kids would celebrate parents being divorced. Then to show that the parents built two separate houses on the same land and the kids use a secret tunnel to go back and forth also provides a false sense of what it will be like when families divorce. I didn't really find this book controversial as much as I found it extremely unrealistic. Obviously it's for younger kids and they try to make divorce seem like a good thing, which in some cases it can be, but they do not show the kids feeling's at all in this book. The cover shows it all with the two kids smiling while they cut the cake in half. Maybe you could read this to super young children, but for kids in 2nd grade and above, it would really give them a false view of what divorce is.

When Zachary Beaver Comes to Town

Toby is a child living in hard time in Antler, Texas. His girl is dating his buddy, his best friends brother is serving in Vietnam and his mom is off chasing her dreams, but something great is about to happen. Zachary Beaver, "the fattest boy in the world" is on his way into town. Toby and his best bud, Cal stir up trouble when their curiosity begins to get the best of them. As the boys start to see Zachary as not much of a sideshow freak , rather a boy just like them, they begin to grow.
I like this book a lot because when I was teaching a fifth grader who was reading at a 2nd grade level, we would read this book together. I would read the majority, while he would chime in here and there. He wasn't fat or overweight, yet I could see that he was relating to how Zachary felt when people would laugh at him for not being at the other kids level in school. He would never raise his hand or try and read in front of the class for fear of being made fun of, and it was tough on both of us, because I just wanted him to try. As it turned out the reading of the book was one of the times he most looked forward to during the week, and I used the viewing of the movie "When Zachary Beaver Came to Town " as motivation for him for the last half of the school year. I got him to read in front of the class, just a paragraph, and he did just fine. So we watched the first half on a Friday and the second half the next Friday. This was a great book and a nice movie for anyone who may feel different, whether it be body, size, looks, smarts or anything else.

Reflection

I am not going to sugar coat it. When you said we are starting a blog, I thought that meant I had to start getting Starbucks every morning and smoking Camels. When I think of blogging I picture writers with black rimmed glasses, sitting in Internet cafe's, typing away at their laptops in New York, and then I start to think "ughhhh". Yet this experience has changed me. Not in some" Oh my God the earth is ROUND!!!!" type change, rather in a minute sort of way that has opened me up to another wonderful attribute of technology in today's world. To be able to make these posts without having to grab a #2 pencil and a sheet of boring lined paper, gives me just a little more comfort in knowing that I will be able to type this stuff out and publish it instead of shoving it in my notebook and trying to not forget it before class. For future teaching reference, I do not know if I will be using this exact blog for show, but I do know that since it is soooo easy, I will be using a classroom blog of sorts. To be able to post activities that the class has done throughout the week and maybe homework that will be due. it will be so nice to pop in the blog update assignments for the week, maybe posts some picture's of what our class has been up to will really open the classroom up to the parents. So after careful deliberation I guess blogging isn't as bad as i thought it would be.

Time Train

Time Train, I feel , is like a toned down version of the Magic School bus. Almost like Polar Express meets A Night at The Museum. A class of grade schoolers take a trip on a train that mysteriously travels back in time. Along the way the train picks up historical figures such as Civil War soldiers and insects from the dinosaur age. It is a great book that does shine light upon the past, but in my opinion a little too bland. I'm still a sucker for the Magic School Bus.

Animals Born Alive and Well

This book is great for a teaching lesson to younger students about animals and their characteristics. It is definitely geared for younger readers, but older readers could use it to visualize what different animals look like. There is a wide variety of animals, some are well known and some not so much. It gives the name of each animal and then may put them in groups with other same type species. The visuals are OK, but this is definitely not a "bedtime story". It is more geared towards learning names and seeing different types of animals. I recommend this book for learning purposes, but the casual reader may enjoy it as well! Most definitely for the nature lover in all of us.

The Misfits

The Misfits in my opinion is a book version of "The Wonder Years" I can hear the guy's voice as I read this book. The narration is speaking to the reader and this is what gives me this feeling. After reading the first half of this book I get the feeling that this is a very cliche book. The stereotypes in this book are very standard. The fat kid, the sceezy dirty guy, the loud prominent girl and the gay kid. I just get the feeling that while reading this the author picked out the characters that were most stereotyped in junior high and overplayed them. after hearing about how controversial of a book this was, I was kind of disappointed. The only thing really controversial to me would by the Joe kid who was of a different sexual orientation and even then, what ks are watching on T.V. and the video games (Grand Theft Auto) kids are playing, who really cares that this kid is gay. I went to a Catholic school and for me it should be a huge culture shock with a gay kid in a book, but to tell the honest truth my parents raised me well enough to not even give a shit about someones orientation, skin color, nationality or anything else that could be different about them. And after these years of growing up and maturing I think it's more odd to meet someone who HAS a problem with difference then someone who doesn't.

Spoiler ALERT!!!

After reading the rest of the book....I am really glad the kids didn't win the election......wouldn't be the Misfits if they were winners.

Stellaluna

Stellaluna is an Abby award winner and is a lovely story about a fruit bat who is orphaned very young after an owl attacks their family. Stellaluna then finds herself in a bird's nest where sh is taken in as family and starts to act as if she was a bird as well.....sleeping at night and hanging by her hands, not upside down. Stella the comes upon some of her fellow bats who marvel at how different Stella is. This is a cute story that is accompanied by some beautiful pictures. In the end Stella brings together the birds and the bats. This can teach children to put differences aside.

There is a Bird on Your Head

There Is a Bird on You Head begins with a rather studious looking elephant sitting next to his friend a pig. All of a suddenly a bird lands on this head awaking him. He asks Piggie, “Is there is something on my head?” The pig nonchalantly responds that there is. This silly situation builds as two birds land and frighten the elephant. They fall in love, and build a nest on the elephant’s head. Soon they lay eggs which hatch. Before you know it the elephant had three chicks, two birds, and the nest on his head. He is at a loss as to what to do. Piggie tells Elephant to ask
them to leave which he does. He thanks Piggie for his advice. Piggie responds rather gloomily that his friend is welcome, as we see the birds have transferred over to Piggie‘s
head and the elephant smiles in relief.

Inch by Inch

Inch by Inch is a book about a clever inch worm who uses his brains to sneak away from a robin who had captured him. “Don’t eat me. I am an inch worm. I am useful. I measure things." With this valuable skill, the inch worm measures different birds. He measures the beak of the toucan and the legs of a huron. The robin wants him to measure his song and threatens to eat him if he will not. The inch worm realizes it is a matter of time before his usefulness runs out and he slowly but surely inches away to the safety of the deep grass. This could be a great book to introduce a lesson to younger students about measurement.

The Caverns of Time

"Do you go down the dark path.....turn to page 45" or "Do you turn back and head to the mansion......turn to page 76"

Many of us may recognize the similarty of the first sentence. They make us choose. Which brings me to what I remember as the ultimate "FUN" book when I was younger was the classic genre "Choose Your Own Adventure" or CYOA for short. These classic's really allowed for a more interactive style of reading, granted you would alway's save your last page with your pinkie in case of an errant misfortune on page 45 or 76, but that is what made these books enjoyable. I went to a Half Priced bookstore recently and was aware of the lack of CYOA books for sale. After asking the salesperson, I was shocked to be told that these books are actually still very popular and can be difficult to obtain. And why not, they are AWESOME. Hope this brought back a little bit of your excitement from when you used to turn the page.


Here is a link of choose your own adventure books that never made it to print (CAUTION: some of these were inappropriate and are very tastless!!)

Aliens For Breakfast

Aliens for breakfast is a pretty good sci-fi thriller for younger readers. Richard, an elementary school student eats his breakfast and discovers that an alien, Aric has found his way into his cereal. Aric needs help and enlists Richard as his comrade. The two must work together to foil Dorf, an evil alien from the planet Ganoob, who is masquerading as the popular kid in school's, evil plot. Of course this story is fun and entertaining, but it also allows kids to understand that people aren't always what they seem. As we follow Dorf, who is portrayed as the cool, popular, perfect student through his routine at school, we realize that he isn't what he portrays to be. There are a couple other stories in the series and are always fun to pick up and read.