This summer, I am taking a class called Children's Literature. I am not sure why it is only a requirement to those with a Language and Culture minor, but, for whatever reason it is. I thought this class was going to be like beating a dead horse because we have had so many literature/English language arts classes already. Luckily, I was wrong thus far; I am enjoying the class. The assignment I am most excited about is our book report assignment. We are required to read 70 picture books -- out of these 70 books, 10 have to be non-fiction and 5 have to be poetry -- and we also have to read 5 chapter books for children. Because most of my friends are either education or English oriented, I thought I would share my book reports on my blog, also. This way, those who may need book ideas for their classroom library can find a few reviewed books, and hopefully I can get some suggestions on good children's literature also.
I will post book reports as I do them so that there are not 75 short posts, or one huge post. My first haul from the Teacher Materials Center consisted of seven books (mostly related to cats, I hate to admit): Binky the Space Cat, Princess Super Kitty, Magic Thinks Big, Vivaldi and the Invisible Orchestra, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, Paint Me a Poem, and Earth Magic; however, I have lacked the motivation to read the last two yet, so I will post those in the next haul. I will include the cover art with a link to their page on Amazon if anyone is interested. Without further ado, here is my first set of reports:
Author: Ashley Spires
Illustrator: Ashley Spires
Genre: Graphic novel, fiction, humor
Date Published: 2009
Awards: None
Brief Summary: Binky has never left the house and, to him, everything outside of the house (or space station, in his mind) is outer space. He protects his family from alien invaders (bugs to us inferior humans). He gets his letter from F.U.R.S.T. to welcome him as a space explorer. Stealing items from his humans, he builds a rocket ship in his litter box. As he is counting down to blast off, he realizes that he forgot to pack two very important things -- his humans! He jumps out of the ship just as it takes off and stays home to keep his family safe.
Ideas for Use: Being in Huntsville, anything space related is usually relevant to children's interests. Many children do not know how to read graphic novels, so it would be a good place to start, especially since Binky is the beginning of a new series.
Book Title: Princess Super Kitty
Author: Antoinette Portis
Illustrator: Antoinette Portis
Genre: Fiction
Date Published: 2011
Awards: None
Brief Summary: Maggie is a little girl with a huge imagination. She begins the day as a kitty, telling what it is that a kitty does and how she tweaks things a little ("Kitties only eat fish. And peanut butter and banana sandwiches"). Soon, she grows bored with being a regular everyday kitty, so she transforms into Super Kitty! Super Kitty is stronger and braver than regular cats, she explains giving examples. Eventually, she gets bored with being plain old Super Kitty and helping everyone, so she turns into Princess Super Kitty. Princess Super Kitty doesn't do things like open jars, but she is nice and allows her brother to play with her. When it's bath time, she realizes that kitties don't like water, so she has to change once again...into Water Lily Hula Porpoise Princess Super Kitty of the Sea.
Ideas for Use: This book uses a lot of compare and contrast ideas, such as when she changes into someone/something else and explains the differences. It could also be used to help with sequencing. It also shows a female super hero.
Author: Elisha Cooper
Illustrator: Elisha Cooper
Genre: Fiction
Date Published: 2004
Awards: None
Brief Summary: Magic the cat is trying to decide what he wants to do in a manner that is similar to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. He plans out his next move by using cause and effect with a layout of "If I do this, then this or that could happen." In the end, he decides that it would be best for him to just wait and let his next move find him instead.
Ideas for Use: I'm not entirely sure. It has beautiful artwork, though. Also, it is based on a real cat that is huge and loves blueberries.
Author: Stephen Costanza
Illustrator: Stephen Costanza
Genre: Fiction
Date Published: 2012
Awards: None
Brief Summary: Every morning, Vivaldi has a new piece of music written and ready to be rehearsed. It is the job of a little orphan girl named Candida to copy enough of the music for all the musicians. As she copies, she daydreams and visualizes the music. Eventually, she scribbles her poetic daydreams in between the lines of music on accident. At first, the musicians find this laughable, but Vivaldi stops them as he finds it inspirational. The next day, Candida goes to Vivaldi to find music written for her to copy with her same little poetic daydreams scribbled between the lines. The music was inspired by her.
Ideas for Use: The art in this book is amazingly beautiful; I wish I could post every page of it on here! I strongly suggest going to the Amazon link and flipping through the preview. It incorporates a lot of Tier 2 words and a few Tier 3 words. I would definitely suggest this book to anyone going into music.
Author: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Dave McKean
Genre: Fiction
Date Published: 1997
Awards: None
Brief Summary: This is the classic story of swapping things without permission and the long, tiresome trail of trying to get it back. He swaps his dad for two goldfish that his neighbor has, and when his mom comes home, he gets in trouble. Going back to his neighbor, he finds that his dad has been swapped for a guitar. Then he was swapped for a gorilla mask and finally for a huge rabbit. The girl that owned the rabbit mentioned that his dad didn't make a good rabbit. "He's not meant to be. He's a very good daddy."
Ideas for Use: Young kids love to swap things and often times when their parents find out that their child has swapped an item, they get mad. This could be a good book to help prevent this type of thing going on in a classroom. The art style is beautiful and somewhat reminiscent of a graphic novel with speech bubbles at times; it could serve as a good introduction of this style of book.
June 3, 2012
Children's Literature :: Book Reviews 5 of 75
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