Lincoln: A Photo Biography

Title: Lincoln: A Photo biography    

Author: Russell Freedman

Illustrator: Russell Freedman

Date of publication: 1987

Publishing Company: Clarion Books, a Houghton Mifflin Company imprint

Awards: Newberry Award (1988)

Genre: Non-Fiction

Subgenre: Biography

Theme: Photographs and informational facts about the 16^th US President, Abraham Lincoln

Primary Characters: Abraham Lincoln

Secondary characters: Lincoln’s parents, Mary (Lincoln’s Wife) and others that had interaction with Lincoln throughout his life

Classroom Use: Great informational book to read about a US president. This book is good to read during a history lesson. I could use the book when teaching about the Civil War, the US Presidents and Abraham Lincoln.

Summary: The book is a biography filled with facts and photos about Abraham Lincoln. The biography talks about his childhood years, life as a merchant, it follows Abraham Lincoln as he grew in population towards his winning of the 16^th presidency and even speaks about his fatal assignation.  

Dinosaur Days

Title: Dinosaur Days      

Author: Joyce Milton

Illustrator: Richard Roe

Date of publication: 1988

Publishing Company: Random House Children’s Books

Awards: n/a

Genre: Non-Fiction

Subgenre: Informational

Theme: Descriptions of different kinds of dinosaurs that lived millions of years ago

Primary Characters: several different dinosaurs

Secondary characters: n/a

Classroom Use: The book is good and informational about dinosaurs. It is an easy to read book for children that are transitioning from picture books into chapter books. Great way for kids to read and learn about dinosaurs and all about them.

Summary: The book gives lots of information, facts, and illustrations to various dinosaurs that lived on our planet many millions of years ago. It even has the pronunciations for each of the dinosaur names in the book. The books illustrations are also very well done. The illustrations allow us to imagine what they might have looked like. Overall, Dinosaur days is a very informational dino book!! 

Alphabet Rescue

Title: Alphabet Rescue        

Author: Audrey Wood

Illustrator: Bruce Wood

Date of publication: 2006

Publishing Company: The Blue Sky Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.

Awards: n/a

Genre: Fiction

Subgenre: Fantasy

Theme: Lower Case letters to the Rescue!!

Primary Characters: lower case letters of the alphabet

Secondary characters: capital letters of the alphabet

Classroom Use: Cute story about the lower case letters of the alphabet. It’s a good book to read while learning the alphabet or to even help with reintegrating the alphabet to the children.

Summary: Charley’s little letters take a vacation to Alphabet City, where they are from. While they are in the city they run into the capital letters & their big fire truck. The lower case letters are excited about the fire truck. They are so excited that they ask to help!! However, the capital letters tell them, NO, because they are so small. So, the lower case letters go on and then they stumble upon an old fire truck. The little letters decide to take the old fire truck and fix it up. Once they fix it they have their own fire truck and are ready to help!! Soon after strolling in their new truck they run into a few chances to help. They help and go on. Suddenly, they see a big fire!! They decide that they need to take off fast and help. When they arrive at the scene, it’s the letter factory that is on fire!! So, together the lower case and the capital letters they fight the fire and rescue the factory!! So with their teamwork & little fire truck they become the towns heroes!!!

How do Dinosaurs eat their food?

Title: How do Dinosaurs eat their food?   

Author: Jane Yolen

Illustrator: Mark Teague

Date of publication: 2005

Publishing Company: Scholastic Inc.

Awards: n/a

Genre: Fiction

Subgenre: Animal Fantasy

Theme: The silly question of using your imagination to think about how dinosaurs eat their food.  

Primary Characters: various Dinosaurs

Secondary characters: Humans

Classroom Use: Silly Dinosaur book to read to children!

Summary: A book about dinosaurs and the imaginative thought of them and how they eat their food. Do they have manners or not?! Do they like all of their food? All kinds of questions are answered and imagined as the different dinosaurs are introduced with great illustrations. It is a very cute book that children will like and all a part of a series of children’s books and dinosaurs. 

Me with You

Title: Me with You    

Author: Kristy Dempsey

Illustrator: Christopher Denise

Date of publication: 2009

Publishing Company: Scholastic Inc.

Awards: n/a

Genre: Fiction

Subgenre: Animal Fantasy

Theme: The loving bond between a daddy and his little girl.

Primary Characters: Baby bear

Secondary characters: Papa Bear

Classroom Use: Me with you… is a very loving and rhyming book about a Papa Bear and his baby bear. The book has very vivid and colorful illustrations also. It’s a good book that can be read about a loving bond between Daddies and their little girls.

Summary: The story is about the loving bond between a Papa bear and his baby bear. They have a great Daddy & Daughter relationship. The Papa Bear loves to spend time and play with his baby bear more than anything. His little bear completes him and loves her very much. Overall, it is a cute book about the love and bond between a daddy and his little girl.  

Mommy Mine

Title: Mommy Mine    

Author: Tim Warnes

Illustrator: Jane Chapman

Date of publication: 2005

Publishing Company: Scholastic Inc.

Awards: n/a

Genre: Fiction

Subgenre: Realistic Fiction

Theme: Mommies and their babies

Primary Characters: Various animal Mommies

Secondary characters: the different animal babies

Classroom Use: Cute book about different animal Mommies and their babies. Mommy mine is a very cute illustration and descriptive animal book. I could possibly read this book to my class when we are around the holiday of Mother’s Day.

Summary: A descriptive storybook about various animal mommies and their babies. The book has cute and great illustrations about animal mommies. It’s an easy to read children’s book about how children say “Mommy all mine”. 

The Castle in the Attic

Title: The Castle in the Attic     

Author: Elizabeth Winthrop

Illustrator: Elizabeth Winthrop

Date of publication: 1985

Publishing Company: Holiday House

Awards: n/a

Genre: Fiction

Subgenre: Fantasy

Theme: The fantasy and magic within a castle, a knight and a little boy

Primary Characters: William

Secondary characters: Sir Simon, the Silver Knight

Classroom Use: Great fantasy book to read with the class and could take part of a unit lesson on the middle ages.

Summary: His housekeeper, who is about to move away, gives William a castle. She gives him the castle as a going away gift on her behalf. The castle is in all reality to a real model of what a castle would look like. The castle also comes along with a little silver knight. One day when playing with the castle, William realizes that the silver knight and castle comes to life. The silver knight is Sir Simon who will then tell William all about the castle, the adventures of the land, about the evil wizard and the dragon. Through out the story, William will become a part of the castle and embark on a journey with Sir Simon to protect the castle from the evil wizard and the dragon. Lots of magic and fantasy take place throughout the entire book. 

Let it Shine

Title: Let it Shine   

Author: Ashley Bryan

Illustrator: Ashley Bryan

Date of publication: 2007

Publishing Company: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Awards: Coretta Scott King award winner (2008)

Genre: Fiction

Subgenre: hymns/ Religious Stories

Theme: 3 traditional well-known hymns

Primary Characters: n/a

Secondary characters: n/a

Classroom Use: Good book that brings culture into a classroom

Summary: The book has vibrant illustrations to go with 3 well known hymns that Ashley Bryan brings to life in his “Let it Shine” book.

Star of the Week—A story of love, adoption & brownies with sprinkles

Title: Star of the Week—A story of love, adoption & brownies with sprinkles    

Author: Darlene Friedman

Illustrator: Roger Roth

Date of publication: 2009

Publishing Company: The Bowen Press- An imprint of Harper Collins Publishers

Awards: n/a

Genre: Fiction

Subgenre: Realism (families)

Theme: Love & adoptions between families

Primary Characters: Cassidy-Li

Secondary characters: her family

Classroom Use: Just a cute book to read about adoption and the love of a family.

Summary: Great storybook about a family’s adoption and all the love they have for her. Cassidy-Li is adopted into her family and for school she is chosen as the star of the week. The star of the week is a student that gets chosen and brings a poster all about them. Cassidy-Li is all excited to bring her poster, but however, when she is doing her poster she realizes and gets sad that she doesn’t know her birth parents. She starts to wonder if her classmates will make fun of her and all. Her parents reassure her that all will be ok and that they love her and her birthparents very much. She then decides to draw a picture of her birthparents for her poster. She gets excited at school and does very well in presenting her poster. Overall, she had an awesome day as the star of the week!! 

Quest for the Tree Kangaroo- an expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea

Title: Quest for the Tree Kangaroo- an expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea      

Author: Sy Montgomery

Photographs by: Nic Bishop

Date of publication: 2006

Publishing Company: Houghton Mifflin Books

Awards: Robert F. Sibert Honor Book

Genre: Non-Fiction

Subgenre: Informational

Theme: A photographic journal searching for the rare tree kangaroo in New Guinea

Primary Characters: Sy Montgomery

Secondary characters: the crew

Classroom Use: good photographic book of a search through New Guinea’s rainforest looking for the rare Matschie tree kangaroos and the strive to help them from becoming expired.

Summary: The book gives a pictorial journey/memoir of the author and her crew’s adventure into the Cloud Forest of New Guinea. They travel through the forest to find Matschie tree kangaroos. They hope to capture, study, exam, and release them back into the wild. They also tag them with monitors so that they can be tracked in case of emergency and give them help if needed. Their goal is to help them from being extinct. Very informational.

Two Peas in a Pod...

Title: Two Peas in a Pod      

Author: Annegert Fuchshuber

Illustrator: Annegert Fuchshuber

Date of publication: 1998

Publishing Company: The Millbrook Press, Inc.

Awards: n/a

Genre: Fiction

Subgenre:

Theme: all mothers love their babies no matter how many they may have.

Primary Characters: Twin boys, Paul & Peter

Secondary characters: other mothers that have children

Classroom Use: Cute book about Mothers loving their children. the book also incorporates the use of numbers 1-10 and the numbers 50 and 100.

Summary: People say that every mother loves their children, no matter if they have 1 or 5 or more. A lot of people tend to say that children are like peas in a pod, when in reality they are all different and uniquely special in their own ways. Even those that have twins, triplets, even quadruplets are each into their own special manners. No two children/babies are alike.Everyone one is special in their own way.

Mercy Watson goes for a ride...

Title: Mercy Watson goes for a ride    

Author: Kate DiCamillo

Illustrator: Chris Van Dusen

Date of publication: 2006

Publishing Company: Candlewick Press

Awards: Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book

Genre: Fiction

Subgenre: Animal Fantasy

Theme: Imagination! Lots of imagination. = )

Primary Characters: Mercy Watson, the pig

Secondary characters: Mr. and Mrs. Watson

Classroom Use: Cute book to use and read aloud with the classroom. Plus, it comes in a series of Mercy Watson adventure chapter books.

Summary: The Watson’s have a pet pig named, Mercy Watson. They love her very dearly as if she were one of their own. Every Saturday, Mr. Watson & Mercy will go on their usual car ride and each time Mercy is dying to drive!! It is this one particular Saturday that they take their stroll…that an unexpected passenger comes along and Mercy takes the wheel!!! Mercy jumps into Mr. Watson’s lap and the adventure begins. They end-up having a police chase them for speeding, an unexpected rider in the backseat, and Mr. Watson stuck underneath Mercy… not able to get a hold of the wheel. It’s one funny adventure for Mercy as she has the time of her life driving away. In the end, they get control of the car and are able to stop it, they don’t get into too much trouble with the officer, and they all end up back home having dinner together.