The Misfits

Novel
Title: The Misfits
Author: James Howe
Age Level: 10-14
Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary
This book was about a group of 7th graders, or The Gang of Five, who are Bobby, Addie, Joe, and Skeezie.  The story is told from the perspective of Bobby Goodspeed and tells of the experience that these 7th graders have.  They each have grown up being called many names and decide to try and put an end to name calling by starting a No Name Party for their student government.

Opinion
This has been one of my favorite novels that I have read so far.  I remember, briefly, reading this novel growing up but reading it a second time made me love it even more. Howe does a wonderful job at discussing an issue that is so relevant to middle school and junior high school children.  The way he presents the text is one where readers can really put themselves in the shoes of the characters and relate what the characters are going through to events and experiences in their lives.  This book also tackles some tough topics to teach such as sexuality and racism.  I think that Howe does so in a way that will not make children uncomfortable when they read this novel.  This novel really made me think back to grade school and how so many people, even myself at times, were called names for no reason.  This book is a great eye-opener for children to see the affects of name calling and the ways in which you can stand up and stop an issue if you really believe in it.  The No Name Calling Week is something that I think would be really beneficial to implement in schools today.  Making children aware of the affects of name calling is very important.  Name calling needs to be stopped in all schools and Howe provides a plan that works for the story of the book and I think it can be used in real life as well.

I hope to teach first or second graders so I would not use this particular book with that age group, however, if I were to work with upper elementary students, this book would definitly be read in my class.  I think that there are so many important issues discussed that children should read about.  I would use this book in a way to spark discussion on ways children have been called names before and the need for sticking up for whats right.

http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-29-spring-2006/totally-james

Henry's Freedom Box

Multicultural Picture Book
Title: Henry's Freedom Box
Author: Kadir Nelson
Age Level: 4+
Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary
This book tells the story of Henry Brown, a slave in the South.  Henry gets separated from his family and put to work in a warehouse dealing with tobacco leaves.  Henry meets a woman, Nancy, and marries her and has children but he is devastated again when his wife and kids are sold at the slave markey because their master has lost a great deal of money.  He realizes what he needs to do is mail himself to the North to his friends in Philadelphia, where he can finally have a birthday and be free.

Opinion
I found this book to be very powerful and something that many children can learn from.  This book was definitly a window book for me and I thought it was a very uplifting story about how important freedom really is and how devasted people were when they didn't have it as slaves.  This book dealt with a behavioral level of culture because it was about slavery in the South and the treatment that African Americans were given just because they were a different skin color.  This is something that I think is very important for children to learn about because it was something that was very common in the past and shaped how lots of people believed they should act, and in some cases, how they still think they should act today.  The illustrations in the book were beautifully done and the expressions on the characters faces were very descriptive and made you feel the emotions that the character was feeling.  I think that this book was done from a socially conscious perspective because the story portrayed the social problems that African Americans faced in the past by not having any freedom and their yearn for justice.

This would be a book that I would keep in my classroom library and use when units about this topic came up.  I think this book will pose lots of questions for students and form the starting point for a rich discussion on this issue that was dealt with.

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collateral.jsp?id=32442

St. Patrick's Day

Multicultural Picture Book
Title: St. Patrick's Day
Author: Anne Rockwell
Age Level: 3-6

Summary
This story told the tale of students in Mrs. Madoff's learning about St. Patrick's Day.  The story covers many Irish tales and traditions and who St. Patrick really was and his adventures he had.

Opinion
This particular book was a mirror book for me because I am Irish and am very familiar with many of the Irish traditions and tales.  My grandparents are from Ireland so growing up I would always hear stories about life back in Ireland and how beautiful it is. I thought that this book was a culturally conscious book because it portrayed many traditions that Irish people find important and relevent to their own background and ancestry.  This book showed girls Irish dancing and I was easily able to relate to this because I was an Irish dancer for five years while growing up.  Some people may not have even heard of Irish dancing or what the significance of Irish dancing is.  I think that this book is a great book for children because it talks about the roots behind St. Patricks Day and what all is involved in this holiday.  In my opinion, it is fun learning about holidays that you may not understand completely or relate to and I think that children will find this interesting as well.  This book deals with the concrete level of culture as well as the symbolic because topics such as music and clothing are talked about as well as the customs and beliefs that are behind the holiday.

This is a great multicultural book to have in the classroom so that kids are able to learn about different holidays and traditions that they may not be familiar with.  I would definitly bring this book out around the time of St. Patricks Day because I think children will enjoy hearing the tales and traditions behind the holiday.

Hello World: Greetings in 42 Languages Around the Globe!

Multicultural Picture Book
Title: Hellow World: Greetings in 42 Languages Around the Globe!
Author: Manya Stojic
Age Level: 3+
Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary
This book goes through 42 different languages that you will find around the globe and expresses how you greet people in each of those languages.

Opinion
I thought that this book was a great example of a multicultural book that deals with a melting pot.  This book combined a bunch of different languages together in one book to show that we all use greetings even though they may not all sound the same.  There is also a picture of a child from the particular country that corresponds with the language being represented.  I really enjoyed this book because it brough so many different cultures together and gives children the chance to learn something new about a different cultures language that they may not have known before.  This book was definitly a window book for me because there were some languages represented in there that I have not even heard of so I was able to learn something new from this book as well.  The level of culture that this book would fall under would be behavioral because it does deal with different languages around the world and how they use their language to greet people.

I would use this book in my classroom on a unit on different cultures.  I think that this is a great introductory book on how diverse our world really is and how many different languages we have out there.  I think that children will find this book to be really engaging as they try to repeat the greeting in the different languages that they are reading about.

http://www.allbookstores.com/Manya-Stojic/author
http://biography.jrank.org/pages/1103/Stojic-Manya-1967.html

My Woodson Experience

Novel
Title: The House You Pass on the Way
Author: Jacqueline Woodson

Reading the novel, The House You Pass on the Way, was definitly a new kind of reading experience for me.  I don't usually pick up books that deal with such heavy topics such as race or sexual identity so this book was definitly a window book for me.  It was interesting to read about a young girl who struggles with the problem of finding her sexual identity and also dealing with the fact that she is mulitracial. I think that finding your identity and understanding who you are and where you come from is something that a lot of middle aged school kids can relate to.

I found that there were some similarities in her writing of this book and other novels.  It is apparent that she likes to tackle the topic of race and family in some her novels because these were relatable issues found in both the book, The House You Pass on the Way, as well as the book, Hush, which I discovered during our classroom discussion about these books.  I think that these are really big and important issues she talks about that are relevant to many peoples lives and can be relatable by many, but these are also issues that are highly controversial.  I know that when I am a teacher, topics like sexual identity will be difficult to cover in the classroom primarily because there are so many differing opinions about it.  I would use these books if topics like this did come up because I do think Woodson addresses them in an appropriate way.

The Authors Website
http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com/

Utterly Otterly Day

Picture Book
Title: Utterly Otterly Day
Author: Mary Casanova
Illustrator: Ard Hoyt
Age Level: 3-6
Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary
This book follows a young otter through his very busy and adventurous day.  He thinks that he is old enough to do things on his own in a carefree, unabashed manner but he gets himself into some sticky situations such as almost getting eaten by a cougar.  He soon realizes that its always nice to have people who care about you around to help in case you need it.

Opinion
I was drawn in to read this book because otters are my favorite animal and I thought it would be a really cute book, which it was.  The language used within the text was a lot of rhyming and descriptive words which made the reader able to really connect with the story and feel like they were really on the adventure with the otter.  A lot of the descriptive words were a little advanced for the age level that the book was specified for, in my opinion.  I think that some young readers will have a really hard time reading some of the words in this book and it might become frustrating for them.  I did think the book was a very cute story though and I think that children will enjoy reading it because it is something that they will be able to engage in while they read.  I also thought that the message that was sent from reading this story was one that children will appreciate when they read it.  The story portrays the message that even when you think you are all grown up and don't need any help from anyone, including your family, it is still okay to ask for help from them because they will always be there for you.  This book will be comforting for children because it deals with these family topics that they may be dealing with themselves, such as growing up and wanting to be independent.

I would use this book in my classroom during a unit on family or even during a time when we were learing about the importance of descriptive words in writing.  I would start off by doing a mini-lesson on using descriptive detail in writing.  Then I would read this book to my class followed by having them write a story using as many descriptive words as they could to help bring a lot of character and depth to the stories they are writing.  I would then ask some students to share what they wrote to the class.

http://www.marycasanova.com/pages/books/bk_utterly.html

Papa, please get the moon for me

Picture Book
Title: Papa, please get the moon for me
Author/Illustrator: Eric Carle
Age Level: 5-8
Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary
This book is a story about the love a father has for his daughter, Monica.  Monica wants to play with the moon but she cannot reach it.  Her father then gets a very long ladder and climbs up to the moon, but the moon is too big for him to take. So he waits for the moon to get smaller and smaller and takes it back to his daughter for her to play with.

Opinion
I think that this is just another wonderfully written and illustrated picture book by Eric Carle.  His work is always done so well and I still love reading his books today, as well as my child study student.  The illustrations in this book are very vibrant and unique.  The background of each page is done in a blue/green color that looks as if he just swiped his paintbush across the page which makes for a really appealing look.  I also loved how the book had some pages where you could open the page even further to see illustrations and parts of the story that were supposed to be expressed much more dramatically than the others.  I read this with the student I work with and she absolutley loved this book.  She was so excited every time she came to a page where she had to open it up and see what was inside.  I also think that the story is relatable to children because it has to do with the relationship that a son or daughter has with their parent and how their parent will try and do whatever makes them happy.

I would definitly keep this book in my classroom library along with all my other Eric Carle books because I think that children really enjoy reading them.  This book is very appealing and may give children the creative mind to try and create an Eric Carle book just like this with the pop-up pages and everything.  This may be a fun activity for students and a way for them to really experience creating their own work as an author.


http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/66985.aspx