Fossils Tell of Long Ago

Fossils Tell of Long Ago is a non-fiction/fiction hybrid by Aliki. This book is an incredible resource for teaching many reading strategies, such as reading dialogue bubbles, observing diagrams, and using illustrations to clarify the meaning of the text. There are also great science vocabulary words in the book, such as fossils, minerals, dissolved, swampy, imprint, ancient, and preserved. Students can learn how to use the characteristics of a non-fiction book to research a topic such as fossils. In the 'story' a group of young students go on an exploration of artifacts that teach them about what fossils are, what they tell scientists, and why they are important. This book can be the introduction of a science unit, followed by a trip to a museum and examining fossils in the class room. Aliki gives a fun activity idea at the end of the book for creating fossils by making a hand imprint in clay, then burying it outside for future scientists to dig up and examine.

The Van Gogh Cafe

The Van Gogh Cafe is a magical place run by Marc and his daughter in Kansas. They both know the magic that happens around them in the cafe, and they have come to expect the unexpected.

From day to day you never know what new stranger will go in for a cup of coffee, or what unexplainable things will happen right outside the cafe window. But you can bet no matter who comes in, or what goes on, magic is going to happen.

The Van Gogh Cafe is perfect for children just starting to read chapter books. The chapters and the sentences are short, and the words are big and clear. Every chapter leads to the next with the expectation that something new and exciting is going to happen. Young readers should use sticky notes to keep track of all of the events that happen at the cafe. When they finish the book, students can do a story sequence activity by putting all the events in order, first trying without the help of notes, then referring back to check their answers.

Constellations

Constellations by Chris Sasaki, illustrated by Alan Flinn is a beautiful guide to the stars. Each page tells the story behind a constellation of stars such as Ursa Minor, the little bear that holds the North Star. The stories are taken from ancient history at a time when people stared up at the sky and imagined the meaning of it all.

This book is great to incorporate into science as students learn about the universe beyond our planet Earth. As an extra special touch the stars in every illustration glow in the dark! Better yet, the last section of the book titled A Constellation of Activities provides three different crafts including, inventing a new constellation with black construction paper and a pencil, creating your own constellation with tracing paper and a pencil to trace one of the constellations from the book then drawing a new picture with the stars as a guide, and my personal favorite, building a box of stars with a shoe box, tracing paper, pencil, kitchen foil, pin, tape, and scissors.

After reading Constellations, the students will see a sky full of stories.

The Best Birthday Parties Ever!

The Best Birthday Parties Ever! A Kids Do-It-Yourself-Guide is the most fun book I have found thus far. There are twelve different party ideas including, a Three Bears Party, an Artist Party, a Bug Party, and an Outer Space Party. For each celebration there are step by step instructions on how to put together an awesome party using creativity and simple craft supplies. Author Kathy Ross gives clear, easy to follow instructions for making invitations, party hats, decorations, party favors, party crafts, and games.

This book is perfect for incorporating language arts into math because the instructions for every party include measurements such as, "cut green construction paper in 9 by 12 inch pieces" (15). Students can practice their math and organizational skills by writing their own how-to for anything they can think of doing. As an art extension students can vote on which party they would like to have in class, then follow the instructions to create all the items for their celebration! Parents will love this book as well. It can save them tons of money by making birthday party supplies rather than buy them.

The One Eyed Giant and other Monsters

The One Eyed Giant and other Monsters from Greek Myths by Anne Rockwell is a collection of ten myths about monsters and Greek gods. This book is especially interesting for boys who are attracted to the hideous illustrations of the monsters and intrigued by the tales of heroes who defeat them. The stories are written simply enough for students in third grade and above. The only difficulty is the hard to pronounce names. Teachers must explain to the students that the names of the gods and monsters can be sounded out without much effort because they usually sound just like they are spelled. If this book were used for a lesson the teacher and the students can sound out the names together before reading the story so that the students can read the myths without too much distraction.

The One Eyed Giant and other Monsters is a great book to get children motivated for creative writing. After reading the myths students can create their own monsters to write about. They will also have fun drawing illustrations of their monsters. The book is also a great introduction to a new genre in the class room; myths.

Goin' Someplace Special

Goin' Someplace Special is an inspiring book and a perfect resource to get children to view something from another person's perspective. The main character is 'Tricia Ann. She is an African-American girl living in the 1950's at a time when segregation was still common practice. 'Tricia Ann's grandmother allows her to venture out on her own for the first time to go to a place she only calls someplace special. But along the way 'Tricia Ann is confronted with prejudice as she sees signs everywhere stating "whites only". She almost turns around to go back home, until she remembers her grandmother's words; "You are somebody, a human being, no better, no worse than anybody else in this world" (25). 'Tricia Ann found the strength to continue her trip to that special place; the library, that displays a sign reading, "Public Library: all are welcome" (31).

The author of Goin' Someplace Special is Patricia Mckissack. On the last page she has written an author's note explaining that the story has been taken from her own life as a little girl in Nashville, Tennessee during the 1950's when Jim Crowe was the loud voice of segregation. The author's note makes this story all the more important for children. It gives them the opportunity to understand that many stories are inspired by an author's real life, and this particular story creates a feeling of empathy.

This book is perfect to have in a classroom library as one of many which should motivate multi-cultural education. Of course, it is also a good resource during Black History month, to break away from the old routine of just Martin Luther King and Harriet Tubman stories. But Goin' Someplace Special should be accessible to students through out the year. It is brief enough to use for a read aloud and students can discuss and write about how the author's note at the end changed how they thought and felt about the story.

Midsummer Knight

Midsummer Knight by Gregory Rogers is an illustrated story. Another words, there aren't any words, just pictures. One might wonder why I would include a book with no words to a reading list. The reason is because this book is an incredible resource for letting the kids become the authors. It beneficial for both reading and writing lessons. The main character in Midsummer Knight is a big, cuddly, brown bear. Bear is shown riding in a little wooden boat flowing lazily down a calm river until, BAM! He crashes into land. Being curious, Bear gets out of the boat and wanders into the woods where he discovers a bee hive in a tree. As expected from a big, hungry bear he sticks his hand in to retrieve some honey. But the bees weren't too happy about that. They chase him until he reaches a huge tree with a door on it. Bear goes in the door, down a long hall, and comes out a door on the other end. He finds himself in magical woods where everything, trees, flowers, animals, are humongous. Then a giant bird snatches him up and drops him in her nest. Bear falls out and is saved in the nick of time by a fairy boy. The fairy takes Bear to the fairy village and on to the fairy Kingdom to meet the king and queen. But the king and queen are missing! Come to find out they've been betrayed by one of their own men and the knights. The king, queen, fairies, and Bear devise a plan to get the kingdom back. There is a huge battle, and in the end Bear captures the traitor. The king then knights Bear and gives him a medallion. After all the excitement the fairy boy brings Bear back to the big tree with the door on it. They hug goodbye and Bear goes home with a giant smile as he looks upon his gold medallion.

Midsummer Knight allows for a creative and fun writing opportunity. The students can use the pictures and their imaginations to write the story in their own words. First, they must decide on character names, plot, and descriptions of the settings. Then they can begin to write the story, complete with dialogue. Students who do well artistically can make a whole new illustrated story by drawing pictures. Also, the children can put on a dramatic production to reenact the story of Midsummer Knight.

The pictures in the book are adorable, and will catch the eyes of children. The illustrations make it easy to understand exactly what is going on in the story. This lesson could be done with any grade from kindergarten through fifth. Of course younger students will not be writing a full story to accompany the pictures in the book, but the lesson can be adjusted for any age group.