Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

This book was not what I expected. I was expecting it to be actual poems, and it's not. It just looks like poems. It even talks about this through out the book like on page 23 how poems have a distinct look to them and they may not be a poem but it looks like one because they are short and don't go all the way across a page. This was interesting to me. It is basically like he is writing in his journal to his teacher but making it appear as he is writing poetry. You can guess what her responses were because of his answers back but they aren't actually written. I kind of wish they were. At times he is also very blunt. At one point he says "And the other dogs in the cages get killed dead if nobody chooses them." What a morbid comment for a young boy to write. I like when he makes a picture poem of his yellow dog. I bet that took a lot of time for him.

Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi

I didn't like this book in comparison with So Far From the Bamboo Grove. I didn't think there was as much action, and it took a while to get into. It was a slower read for me than the other novel. However, it was interesting to see both sides of almost the same story, or atleast time frame. I think this would be great to teach in an upper grade class. I really liked reading both of the books and I would recommend this dual book project, it would be a great lesson on perspective. Sookan is a very strong character. I can't imagine being that courageous, leaving home, watching my grandpa die, taking care of my little brother, or pressing on while leaving my mother at the passport check. I also would be depressed to not be able to show my culture. Sookan can't speak Korean or dress how she wants, she puts on a complete act at school. In fact most of the children at that school do, they are repeating things they don't believe and getting hit with rulers if they don't abide by the rules. How awful! At ten years old Sookan was doing all of these things! These characters grow up so fast, but they had to it was there lifestyle and these things had to be done. Even though all of these things were happening to her she still had hope that she took from her Grandfathers words. ""Afer darkness, there will be light. The light cannot come without darkness. Better days are bound to come now.""

Duck Soup by Jackie Urbanovic

This book was only okay. It's about a duck, Max who is making his own soup for his friends to eat at dinner. I don't think kids would know what half of the foods and spices he is adding to his soup. I wouldn't have known what chives or parsley were at a young age reading this, but who knows maybe I'm not giving them enough credit. The pictures are pretty plain although the duck is really cute with his over sized chef hat on. The characters are quite dramatic in this story which I don't know if I like, but it would be easy to create a play from this book! Max's friends are hungry and ready to eat so they venture into the kitchen and can't find the Max. His pot of soup is still on the stove so they convince themselves that he fell into the soup. As they strain the soup in attempt to find Max they claim they see his eyeballs which are onions, his head which is a potato, and his feet which are carrots. After they are done straining and pouring the soup down the drain Max walks into the kitchen, he had run out to get more ingredients for his soup. They end up ordering pizza, which I think happens more often than not when people, or ducks in this matter, try to cook. I liked this book, but it wasn't one of my favorites I have ever read.

A Book of Sleep By Il Sung Na

Honestly I saw this book on the new books shelf and grabbed it because of the title. A Book of Sleep, and that's exactly what I wanted to do-go take a nap. It's very simple, and would be cute to read on a Monday morning to your class when everyone is tiered, or right before nap time to get the kids to wind down. The pictures are interesting. They use solid colors and then have designs in the animals skins like squiggles, flowers, and dashes ever so faintly. It's a cool idea. The pages are on a different type of paper than I am used to. It's a thicker paper and some pages almost feel rough, but it looks normal.

This book is about an owl who sleeps at the opposite time as all of the rest of the animals. This book shows how all animals sleep differently. Some animals sleep standing, some make noise, some are peaceful. The owl who does not sleep during the night like the others then sleeps during the day when the others are awake.

Tarra and Bella By Carol Buckley

I usually don't pick out picture books to free read that are fictional. I am more into using my imagination. However this book caught my eye because of the names of the characters. I want to name my next dog Bella, and that is what this dogs name is. The book is about an odd pair of best friends. A combination you don't come across- a dog and an elephant. What a sweet story? The two met and became best friends and Bella the dog gets hurt. Tarra is sad and waits for a few days in the exact spot where he had last seen Bella. After a while he starts to walk to go find her, strangely enough he walks directly to the building on the Sanctuary where Bella was being cared for. He sees her through the window and the care takers know then the best medicine for the two of them is to be reunited. The pictures are all real life photos and the background colors of the pages are lime green, blue, and white.

This is a very informational story. I would most definately read this to my class if we were doing a unit on elephants, best friends, elephant sanctuaries, or zoo's. Believe it or not there are these elephant sanctuaries in the United States. I had figured they were in a different country but this took place in Tennessee!

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book? By Lauren Child

I loved this book!! It's a little advanced. There are a lot of words on each page and they are kind of all over the place, but that is what makes it so interesting. The text size and font change frequently throughout the story too. It started off with Herb who loved to read but he wasn't actually a good reader so he mostly looked at picture books. Even this first page would be wonderful to read as a class because many of your students may like to read but not be good at it and feel that they are not reading when they just look at pictures. One night Herb falls asleep looking at his books and falls into a fairy tale. He wakes up inside the story of Goldilocks and the Three Little Bears, and then travels into Cinderella. The pictures are so intriging. A few times I had to put my finger up to the page to see if it were flat. The pictures are created from layering cut outs of real life pictures, drawings and paper. One page has opens up to make the picture larger which I think is fun for kids, and an other page has a hole cut out of it which is part of the story. There is even a page that is written upside down, you literally have to turn the book around to read it and look at the pictures. You will not get bored reading this book!

That's Why We Don't Eat Animals By Ruby Roth

Wow. I found this book because it has been talked about a lot in my classes and from students in my classes, so I decided to take a look to see what all the fuss was about. This is probably the most controversial book I have read this semester even though we already read all of our books on controversy. Whether or not I believe in eating meat from animals, I would not use this book in my classroom. I'm not saying I wouldn't allow it in my classroom, but I think I would cause an uproar by reading it aloud. It is so incredibly one sided, and infers that people who eat meat are bad people.
I also didn't particularly care for the pictures. The animals look funny, having big bodies and super skinny legs. Also, the snouts on the animals such as the cows are square and also don't look like any cow I have ever seen. The art work is good, don't get me wrong but I think they are trying to exaggerate some things like the way we feed ducks to make them fat so they can't fly so the pictures show huge ducks.

My Big Dog By Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel

This book is a good one for animal lovers. It is about a cat and a dog living in the same house and not getting along because the cat was there first and doesn't want to share. This book could also be related to a child who is getting a new baby brother or sister. They are the only child in the family and they need to get used to the idea that they will soon have to share their belongings and time with their parents. I like the pictures in the book. Behind each picture is a solid color splash of a background. It really makes the illustration pop. The book is all in color except the humans, whom are black and white. I thought this was interesting. Why do you think the author would chose to do this? Did he want to make the race neutral? I also like how the title of this book tricked me. I really thought it was going to be about a child and how they loved their pet dog. Instead it is from the perspective of the cat, and it is her big dog. Not the path I thought it would go, but I liked it. I brought it for my child study because she loves books about cats and dogs.

Melvin Might? By Jon Scieszka

Although some people would be offended by the fact that Scieszka specifically writes for boys and writes about boys topics which may not be liked by all little boys I think he is doing a fantastic thing. He's getting boys interested in reading! He is writing about what they want to read and what they are interested in. Sure not all boys like trucks, being dirty, and talking about bugs but it is a fact that in a lot of cases they do! That is how our society works and I have a feeling it will be like this for a while to come. He isn't pressing upon that boys have to read these books and he's not being exclusive by saying that only boys can read these books. He simply is doing the best he can to encourage young boys to enjoy reading! This book is also in the Trucktown series geared towards preschool aged boys. The characters are the same, but this time they have a different adventure. In most picture books there are not series of books so I think this is a cool idea. Series of books start coming into play more with chapter books. The colors again in this book are very bright and fill the entire page. The text is scattered around the pages and changes size depending on the expression. Another fun thing about this book is that there is a pull out page. It folds out once so you are looking at three pictures at a time. Interactive things in books are always fun!

Smash! Crash! By Jon Scieszka

This book by Scieszka was made especially for preschool boys. My nephew is two years old and I really think he would enjoy this book! It's about trucks, now what two year old boy doesn't like a book about trucks!?! The pictures are good they use a lot of primary colors. The pictures take up the whole page which is a great thing for preschoolers who may not know fully how to read yet. So looking at the big pictures would be beneficial and enjoyable for them. The trucks have faces on them which I thought was cute because everything is "real" in a little boys world at that age. Everything to them has a name and feelings. The text changes and gets big when they want to stress something like the trucks crashing or yelling. The font is also a large and fun looking. Some letters look like a child write it like the "g" doesn't sit on the bottom of the line like normal "g"s should.

The Book That Jack Wrote By Jon Scieszka

This book kind of reminds me of the book There Was An Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly. It sort of goes backwards. It starts with one thing- the book that Jack wrote- and then each page adds one thing that's in the book that Jack wrote, that's in etc. It's a very simple read since it repeats everything from the page before and then only adds one line. This would be great for beginning readers. I think this would be a fun read aloud book to the class. I think the class would have fun creating images in their heads about the things inside the book that Jack wrote. The pictures themselves are very detailed but do not take up the whole page. They are set in the center and have a border around them. The picture is always on the right page and the writing is always on the left.

Cowboy and Octopus By Jon Scieszka

This book is so cute! The pictures are cut outs from different textures and designs to give a very unique style. Also, on the top of every couple pages is a sort of a title. It's made out of what looks like magazine letters. They are like mini stories always with the same two characters but about different topics and things they do. I like the humor in this book. The characters are kind of sarcastic which isn't something you usually see in childrens books. You can also learn some things such as how to be a good friend, and that octopus have eight tentacles.



I did this author for my API and I really enjoy him as an author. He has a ton of different genres like picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, and books especially made for preschoolers. He has books for all ages and he is unique in the fact that he writes specifically for boys!! Since boys often times are not as into reading Scieszka makes it a point to write books specifically geared towards their interests. He also has two fabulous websites that I encourage you to visit. The first website is about him and his books, it is his official website, and then the next website is solely for boys. This website gives many recommendations for other books by different authors that boys of all ages would enjoy.

Anticipation Set for So Far From the Bamboo Grove

What does it mean to have courage?

"And inspite of my anguish I smiled at him, I was so happy at the way he spoke. "Keep smiling," he said, and went away."


Controversy: Japanese crimes being white washed. What do you think?


What do you think this sword represents? How do you think this will fit in the book?

"She gave me a harsh look, "Just shutup and keep on walking.""

"Why can't you be strong and good like your honorable sister?"

Korea under Japanese rule

Where does this all take place?

By: Kyley Bussewitz, Kaitlin Moulin, Ashley Tate

So Far From the Bamboo Grove

I really liked this book. It was a quick read, and it kept my interest the whole time. It was extremely sad and heartwrenching. I can not imagine going through things that this little girl and family went through. Not eating for days, seeing people get killed in front of their eyes, being hurt and infections for weeks without getting help. It is absolutely unreal. This is a very inspirational book that I think maybe older elementary or intermediate age kids could read in their classroom. I think there would be many great discussions that could come out of this reading. This book really made me think about how life could be and has been in the past during wars. We are in a war right now, and I can barely tell. It's so different from this story! I don't know much about the Korean or Japanese culture so it was interesting to take in the facts such as about their food like eating misu soup or that on New Years they celebrate their birthdays instead of on the date of their actual birthday. The one thing I didn't really care for in the book was the ending. It was too abrupt. All of a sudden the girls meet with their brother and immediately it's over. I wish it had been dragged out a little more to wrap up everything that had happened. Although I understand because it is a book for a younger audience the length probably could not have afforded to be much longer. I would suggest this book to read in a lit study group as long as it had time for discussion. I really believe you have to have discussion with this book because there is so much going on and because of the hardships these people faced. There is too much to think about and let sink in.

semester reflection

I have really enjoyed this class so far. We get the freedom to read the books we want to, as well as having some guidance on certain weeks. Blogging is a new experience for me, and so far it has been a positive one. I think it's a great thing to learn because technology is such a huge part of our society. I have a feeling it will become more of a common thing used in schools over the next few years. I like how there aren't certain things that we are required to write about each book. It encourages us to become creative in the items we want to discuss. I feel like I have become better acquainted with both the public library and the curriculum lab because of this class and also with authors of children's books. It's been so long since I have sat down to read and really think about picture books. I now have a checklist of things I tend to look for in good books as well as to know if I am not going to enjoy it. It's a great break from the text books we read in college!!