A Book Trailer: Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun

A Book Talk: Dirt On My Shirt

This hilarious collection of poems tells the story of the different people that live the narrator's neighborhood. The illustrations are light hearted, whimsical, and take you on a journey through the narrator's neighborhood the reader will meet unique characters such as Cousin Lizzy, Uncle Ed, and Aunt Foo Foo.

This would be a great book to introduce students to poetry because it is so much fun to read. I would use this book in a third grade classroom to assess students on their fluency. Fluency is something that a teacher needs to assess and sometimes it can be boring to students, but if you used interesting books such as this one the students would have much more fun reading for fluency
Book title: Dirt on My Shirt
Author: Jeff Foxworthy
Illustrator: Steve Bjorkman
Genre: Poetry
Number of pages: 32
Copyright year: 2008
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Standard Used: 21.B) Read on-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings. [RF.3.4b]

A Book Review: The Wolf Who Cried Boy

The Wolf Who Cried Boy takes a twist on the classic fable, The Boy Who Cried Wolf. This book is about a wolf who wants to eat a boy, and keeps telling his parents that there is a boy near by. Eventually his parents do not believe him and when a boy really does come his parents do not believe him. The illustrations in this book are in colored pencil, are very detailed, and aid in the visual aspect of the story.
I would use this book to teach about how there are different versions of many books. we would read both books and then use a venn digraph to compare and contrast the two stories.

Book title: The Wolf Who Cried Boy
Author: Bob Hartman
Illustrator: Tim Raglin
Genre: Traditional Fiction
Number of pages: 32
Copyright year: 2002
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Standard Used: 8) Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures. [RL.2.9]

A Book Talk: The Magic Hat

Book title: The Magic Hat

Author: Mem Fox

Illustrator: Tricia Tusa

Genre: Fantasy, picture book

Number of pages: 32

Copyright year: 2002

Publisher: HMH Books

Standard used: 4) Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song. [RL. 2.4]

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]