A Book Review: New Shoes

New Shoes is set in Alabama after the Jim Crow segregation laws had been past. The main character, Ella Mae, goes with her mother to buy some new shoes and questions why the white child gets help before her even though she was there first. When it was finally her turn to get to pick out her shoes she isn't even allowed to try them on. They end up being too small. Ella Mae and one of her friends decide to work some small jobs to save up money so they can buy some shoes to sell. She wanted everyone to be able to try on shoes before they bought them. With vividly realistic drawings the illustrations, capture the feelings of the story.

I would read this book in a fourth grade social studies class to discuss the Jim Crow Laws and how they impacted African Americans. By using this book students would not only learn about what the law did and how it impacted people, but how it felt like being segregated.

Book title: NewShoes

Author: Susan Lynn Meyer

Illustrator: Eric Velasquez

Genre: Historical Fiction

Number of pages: 32

Copyright year: 2015

Publisher: Holiday House

Standard Used: 10) Analyze social and educational changes during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for their impact on Alabama. *Explain the Jim Crow Laws (Fourth Grade Social Studies)

A Book Review: Song and Dance Man

Bright and colorful pencil illustrations give life to the story about three children who follow their grandpa into the attic, where he becomes the song and dance man. He tell them about the days before T.V. back in the good old days. Grandpa begins to tap dance like he used to when he was a performer. The children are transported to the Vaudeville Stage, where Grandpa used to dance. When Grandpa is done with his performance the children hug him and tell him that they wish they could have lived back in the old days, but he smiles and tells them that he wouldn't trade his time with them for anything.
I would use this book to teach the students about making connections between literature and history in a fourth grade class. The students would write about what happens in the book and would connect it to things that they research about song and dance during that time period. At the end of the week we would put on a class talent show to let the students perform just like the song and dance man did.



Book title: Song and Dance Man

Author: Karen Ackerman
Illustrator: Stephen Gammell
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Number of pages: 32
Copyright year: 2003
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Standard Used: c. Link ideas within categories of information using words and phrases (eg., another, for example, also, because). [W.4.2c]

A Book Review: El Deafo

This graphic novel tells the true story of Cece Bell. A girl who has a giant hearing aid has been in a school where everyone is deaf, but now she is moving to a new school and she will be different. Cece is scared to start a new school with new kids. All of a sudden, she realized with her hearing aid she will be able to hear the teacher anywhere, even in the teacher's lounge. She believes that this is a superpower and names herself 'El Deafo' listener for all. Will her new found superpower be able to help her make friends?
I would use this graphic novel in a fifth grade class, where after reading the novel the students would analyze the illustrations and tell how they contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of the text.

Book title: El Deafo
Author: Cece Bell
Illustrator: David Lasky
Genre: Nonfiction, Biograghy, Graphic Novel
Number of pages: 233
Copyright year: 2014
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams

Standard Used: 7) Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of the text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem). [RL.5.7]

A Book Review: Oh No! Not Again! (Or How I Built a Time Machine to Save History)

One of the books from the Oh! No! Not! Again! series, this book tells the story of an extreamly smart little that builds a time machine and travels back in time to the year 33,000 B.C. all to make an A on her history test. How will changing history to to make an A on a test impact everything else? And how will she fix it? Find out in the funny sci-fi book Oh No! Not Again! (or How I Built a Time Machine to Save History).

After reading this book in a third grade classroom, one of the activities that I would have the students do is answer the question that the girl got wrong. They would do research on cave painting and even create a cave painting replica of their very own.

Book title: Oh No! Not Again! (or How I Built a Time Machine to Save History)
Author: Mac Barnett
Illustrator: Dan Santat
Genre: Science-fiction
Number of pages: 40
Copyright year: 2012
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Standard Used: 9) Identify and explain how and where different cultures record and illustrate stories and history through art. (Third Grade, Art)

A Book Talk: A Butterfly is Patient

Book title: A Butterfly is Patient
Author: Dianna Hurts Aston
Illustrator: Sylvia Long
Genre: non-fiction, picture book
Number of pages: 28
Copywrite year: 2011
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC

Standard used: 6) create representations to explain the unique and diverse life cycles of organisms other that humans (e.g., flowering plants, frogs, butterflies), including commonalities such as birth, growth, repreoduction, and death. (Third Grade, Science)

A Book Review: Peter and the Starcatchers

An exciting and adventurous prequel to the well-known story of Peter Pan. With detailed hand-drawn cover art, the first book in the series takes the reader on a journey to Never Land with Peter and the lost boys on a ship carrying cargo that could possibly be "the greatest treasure on earth." Is it gold or something far more? Read Peter and the Starcatchers to find out.

This would be a great book to use in a fifth grade literature class. After finishing the book each student would choose a chapter of the book. The students would analyze the chapter and write about how they believe that chapter contributed to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.

Book title: Peter and the Starcatchers
Author: Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Illustrator: Greg Call
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction, Adventure
Number of pages: 452
Copyright year: 2006
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Standard Used: 5) Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot. [RL.6.5]