Jose! Born to Dance By Susanna Reich and Illustrated by Raul Colon
This story was about a boy named Jose who moved from Mexico to America as a kid. Before he moves it shows the different ways of dancing that he saw and dreamt about that were part of the Mexican culture. I picked this book because I love to dance and have seen flamenco dancers before which are shown in this book. Jose was not able to speak English when he arrived and kids in his class made fun of him because of this. This encouraged him to strive harder and pursue his dreams in America. This is based on a true story of the founder of the Limon Dance Academy. It is another story about accomplishing the American dream, starting with nothing moving here and becoming successful.
The illustrations were simple but still very appealing because of a textured, grainy look. The book uses some Spanish phrases like “si” and “ole” on each page. Just enough to enjoy but not get confused as to what it means, you can pretty much figure out the translation through the context clues. I liked this book because it showed another culture besides American and the main character was a male dancer instead of a girl which is unusual. It was a refreshing change.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Yummy! Eating through a day Poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and Illustrated by Renee Flower
Yummy! Eating through a day Poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and Illustrated by Renee Flower
This book was very cute, and the illustrations were great. All of the objects like the bowls, eggs, and cheese, had faces on them which is actually great for kids because they think everything has feelings and that everything is real life like dolls and toys. You have to use your imagination while reading this book. The illustrations use bright colors and a lot of design which creates a textured look. The people in the illustrations have green skin which is a unique but neat idea.
Each page has a poem written by a different person. They are all about foods, starting with breakfast and ending with dinner and desert. There is a good variety of poems, some are long and some are very short. The rhymes flow well which calls for a great read aloud book. My favorite poem was called Jell-o Cups. It was about jello jigglers dancing. It was a descriptive and fun poem.
This book was very cute, and the illustrations were great. All of the objects like the bowls, eggs, and cheese, had faces on them which is actually great for kids because they think everything has feelings and that everything is real life like dolls and toys. You have to use your imagination while reading this book. The illustrations use bright colors and a lot of design which creates a textured look. The people in the illustrations have green skin which is a unique but neat idea.
Each page has a poem written by a different person. They are all about foods, starting with breakfast and ending with dinner and desert. There is a good variety of poems, some are long and some are very short. The rhymes flow well which calls for a great read aloud book. My favorite poem was called Jell-o Cups. It was about jello jigglers dancing. It was a descriptive and fun poem.
Leaf By Stephen Michael King
Leaf By Stephen Michael King
This book is suited for ages four and older. It is a semi wordless story. It is open to interpretation which I believe is much like most wordless books. Leaf would be a good book to inspire a writing activity for students to see what they thought happened or what certain things represented. The pictures to me weren’t phenomenal, which I thought they should have been because there was very few words. There was a common color hue throughout the entire book. Only brown, greens, and blues, were incorporated. The characters were simple with beady eyes and had one simple line for their mouth.
To my understanding, the mom shares her knowledge and experiences with the little boy, probably her son, which is actually a seed that then starts to grow on the top of his head. He still goes on doing his own thing but is guided by his mother because she has instilled her values and morals within him in this seed. He carries it with him until he’s older and he shares it with his kids.
This book is suited for ages four and older. It is a semi wordless story. It is open to interpretation which I believe is much like most wordless books. Leaf would be a good book to inspire a writing activity for students to see what they thought happened or what certain things represented. The pictures to me weren’t phenomenal, which I thought they should have been because there was very few words. There was a common color hue throughout the entire book. Only brown, greens, and blues, were incorporated. The characters were simple with beady eyes and had one simple line for their mouth.
To my understanding, the mom shares her knowledge and experiences with the little boy, probably her son, which is actually a seed that then starts to grow on the top of his head. He still goes on doing his own thing but is guided by his mother because she has instilled her values and morals within him in this seed. He carries it with him until he’s older and he shares it with his kids.
Give Me a Kiss By Ron Van der Meer
Give Me a Kiss By Ron Van der Meer
This book is suitable for ages 4-8. It started right away on the first page, there were no title pages or anything. Give Me a Kiss is a good interactive book because you get to ring the doorbell on every page to see who’s on the other side of the door and the doorbell actually makes noise every time.
It is a very basic beginner fairytale, with only about five words per page. There are repetitions of phrases on each page which is good for new readers. These phrases were bolded on each page so if you were reading this to someone they could pick up on the line after the first few pages and read with you at those points in the book. It seemed kind of bland to me and not very exciting but my child study student wanted to read it last week and it was one of her favorites we read that day.
The main character, the frog, gets very beat up for simply asking for a kiss at each animal’s door. This was a little bit disturbing just because the frog was covered in band aids and black eyes at the end of story. It’s almost kind of sad, and then when he reaches the last door it is a princess who accepts. She turns into a frog too and they live happily ever after. You can’t help but learn the classic way to tell a fairytale as young as possible.
This book is suitable for ages 4-8. It started right away on the first page, there were no title pages or anything. Give Me a Kiss is a good interactive book because you get to ring the doorbell on every page to see who’s on the other side of the door and the doorbell actually makes noise every time.
It is a very basic beginner fairytale, with only about five words per page. There are repetitions of phrases on each page which is good for new readers. These phrases were bolded on each page so if you were reading this to someone they could pick up on the line after the first few pages and read with you at those points in the book. It seemed kind of bland to me and not very exciting but my child study student wanted to read it last week and it was one of her favorites we read that day.
The main character, the frog, gets very beat up for simply asking for a kiss at each animal’s door. This was a little bit disturbing just because the frog was covered in band aids and black eyes at the end of story. It’s almost kind of sad, and then when he reaches the last door it is a princess who accepts. She turns into a frog too and they live happily ever after. You can’t help but learn the classic way to tell a fairytale as young as possible.
Alia’s Mission Saving the Books of Iraq By Mark Alan Stamaty
Graphic Novel
Alia’s Mission Saving the Books of Iraq By Mark Alan Stamaty
I’ve never read a graphic novel before. I have read comics in the newspaper but not in a book form. This genre was new to me, I liked it. I wasn’t sure if I would or not because usually I am not into a lot of science fiction or hero stuff but this was interesting to me because it was based on true events.
Alia’s Mission is about Alia, a librarian, who is a superhero but not an ordinary superhero. Alia is so concerned with her library being destroyed in the war and the government won’t do anything about it so she starts stealing books out of the library to save them. The whole town helps get the books out and that night the library went up in flames. They saved over 30,000 books in this brigade.
It is based off of a true story and is based in Basra, Iraq. It looks as though it is an older book, but was written in 2003. The pictures are done in pencil and there is no color. There is quite a bit of diversity and learning about other cultures in this story. It doesn’t adhere to our societies stereotypes which I liked. I didn’t know they were so much like us in America. It shows televisions, cars, and phones in the illustrations. These are not objects I would normally think about being common in the Middle East. I think this would be a good book for older elementary students.
Alia’s Mission Saving the Books of Iraq By Mark Alan Stamaty
I’ve never read a graphic novel before. I have read comics in the newspaper but not in a book form. This genre was new to me, I liked it. I wasn’t sure if I would or not because usually I am not into a lot of science fiction or hero stuff but this was interesting to me because it was based on true events.
Alia’s Mission is about Alia, a librarian, who is a superhero but not an ordinary superhero. Alia is so concerned with her library being destroyed in the war and the government won’t do anything about it so she starts stealing books out of the library to save them. The whole town helps get the books out and that night the library went up in flames. They saved over 30,000 books in this brigade.
It is based off of a true story and is based in Basra, Iraq. It looks as though it is an older book, but was written in 2003. The pictures are done in pencil and there is no color. There is quite a bit of diversity and learning about other cultures in this story. It doesn’t adhere to our societies stereotypes which I liked. I didn’t know they were so much like us in America. It shows televisions, cars, and phones in the illustrations. These are not objects I would normally think about being common in the Middle East. I think this would be a good book for older elementary students.
Goldilicious By Victoria Kann
Goldilicious By Victoria Kann
This is a new book published in 2009. It is very much geared towards girls, which is why I think I liked it so much. Because it focuses on pink and supposedly only things that girls can appreciate, it may not be good for a whole class share, but I would definitely recommend it to an elementary aged girl. It just doesn’t pertain to and make connections with enough students.
Pinkalicious, the main character, has an imaginary unicorn Goldilicious aka Goldie although she thinks Goldie is real. Goldie runs away and Pinkalicious looks everywhere for her. At the end of the book Goldie turns out being in Pinkalicious’s dreams when she closes her eyes and goes to bed safe and sound.
It is an extremely imaginative book. There is the color pink drenched on every page, which is probably why I loved it so much. The illustrations use the whole page, and they start to get very creative as the story goes on. On one page Goldie and Pinkalicious are dancing in the front yard and if you look closely there are music notes and written music in the background. The grass, the houses, and the leaves on the trees all have these notes. The first time I read through this book I didn’t even notice because it is so very subtle so it’s easy to look right over the details like that. From that point in the book on there is this same idea on each page but in the background only. When I first noticed these music notes, I thought am I missing something? Is this supposed to be sung aloud? I didn’t understand the meaning of this visual music everywhere. After reading the back flap, I figured out that this story was performed as a musical in New York City which I assume then is what represents the notes.
Pinkalicious has brown hair which was actually surprising to me because usually princesses and little girly girls are portrayed as blondes with long, curly, perfect hair in most books. Pinkalicious has stick straight, brunette hair that are in pigtails. They stick straight out from under her pink pointed princess hat. The unicorn on the other hand has a perfectly curly blonde flowing mane.
This book was absolutely adorable!
This is a new book published in 2009. It is very much geared towards girls, which is why I think I liked it so much. Because it focuses on pink and supposedly only things that girls can appreciate, it may not be good for a whole class share, but I would definitely recommend it to an elementary aged girl. It just doesn’t pertain to and make connections with enough students.
Pinkalicious, the main character, has an imaginary unicorn Goldilicious aka Goldie although she thinks Goldie is real. Goldie runs away and Pinkalicious looks everywhere for her. At the end of the book Goldie turns out being in Pinkalicious’s dreams when she closes her eyes and goes to bed safe and sound.
It is an extremely imaginative book. There is the color pink drenched on every page, which is probably why I loved it so much. The illustrations use the whole page, and they start to get very creative as the story goes on. On one page Goldie and Pinkalicious are dancing in the front yard and if you look closely there are music notes and written music in the background. The grass, the houses, and the leaves on the trees all have these notes. The first time I read through this book I didn’t even notice because it is so very subtle so it’s easy to look right over the details like that. From that point in the book on there is this same idea on each page but in the background only. When I first noticed these music notes, I thought am I missing something? Is this supposed to be sung aloud? I didn’t understand the meaning of this visual music everywhere. After reading the back flap, I figured out that this story was performed as a musical in New York City which I assume then is what represents the notes.
Pinkalicious has brown hair which was actually surprising to me because usually princesses and little girly girls are portrayed as blondes with long, curly, perfect hair in most books. Pinkalicious has stick straight, brunette hair that are in pigtails. They stick straight out from under her pink pointed princess hat. The unicorn on the other hand has a perfectly curly blonde flowing mane.
This book was absolutely adorable!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
CAN YOU COUNT TEN TOES?
Evans, Lezlie. CAN YOU COUNT TEN TOES?
Can You Count Ten Toes is about counting to ten in ten different languages. This is a great way to incorporate learning about other languages. The students should master English numbers first, because English is not accounted for in this book. I don’t know if the students would be able to learn all of the other languages, but it would be a fun activity to learn a few of the numbers. One of the cool things about this book is the languages that the author chose to use. To me, the languages used are very unique dialogs that we don’t often hear about such as Zulu, Hindi, and Tagalog.
Each page counts to ten using different items such as toes, hats, and lightening bugs. There is a poem at the top of each page and it acknowledges which language is going to be used. Then numbered in English is one through ten and next to that is the featured language one through ten and also in parenthesis how to pronounce it. The font is large and spaced out so it is easy to read.
I don’t care for the pictures in this book because they are too simple and use very dull colors in my opinion. The characters have beady eyes and not much detail is put into the drawings.
Can You Count Ten Toes is about counting to ten in ten different languages. This is a great way to incorporate learning about other languages. The students should master English numbers first, because English is not accounted for in this book. I don’t know if the students would be able to learn all of the other languages, but it would be a fun activity to learn a few of the numbers. One of the cool things about this book is the languages that the author chose to use. To me, the languages used are very unique dialogs that we don’t often hear about such as Zulu, Hindi, and Tagalog.
Each page counts to ten using different items such as toes, hats, and lightening bugs. There is a poem at the top of each page and it acknowledges which language is going to be used. Then numbered in English is one through ten and next to that is the featured language one through ten and also in parenthesis how to pronounce it. The font is large and spaced out so it is easy to read.
I don’t care for the pictures in this book because they are too simple and use very dull colors in my opinion. The characters have beady eyes and not much detail is put into the drawings.
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