Someday

AUTHOR: Eileen Spinelli    Illustrator: Rosie Winstead

PUBLISHER: Dial                 PUBLICATION DATE:  2007
GENRE: Fiction/ Picture Book  READING LEVEL: 2nd gr BRIEF OVERVIEW: A young girl tells about her big dreams of being an artist, a gymnast, and a geologist. She also follows up with her current life and how happy she is in the here and now.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY:  Have students write a short story sharing what they want to do when they grow up. Each day a different student will get the chance to share his or her story. The students will dress up as the career he or she has chosen whenever he or she presents the story to the class.

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Brittany Chastain, Valdosta State University ECSE

Secret Pizza Party

TITLE:  Secret Pizza Party
AUTHOR: Adam Rubin   Illustrator: Daniel Salmieri
PUBLISHER: Dial                 PUBLICATION DATE: 2013

GENRE: Fiction/ Picture Book              READING LEVEL: 2^nd grade

BRIEF OVERVIEW: The main character, a raccoon, loves pizza. The narrator decides that the raccoon should have a secret pizza party so no one will chase him off with a broom. The raccoon ends up at a masquerade pizza party and blends in for a short amount of time. The raccoon gets out of control with so much pizza around and ends up getting chased away with brooms.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: Ask the students to think about what his or her absolute favorite food is. Then ask them to find the nutrition value of the food he or she chose. Print off a sheet with specific nutrition values to give the students more direction. The sheet should have things like: how many calories per serving or how many grams of sugar per serving?

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Brittany Chastain, Valdosta State University ECSE

Late for School

TITLE:  Late for School

Author: Steve Martin  Illustrator: C.F. Payne
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing     Publication Date: 2010

Genre: Realistic Fiction            Reading Level: 3rd grade

BRIEF OVERVIEW: A boy woke up late for school. He missed the bus and ran the whole way to make it on time. He made it just in time only to realize it was Saturday.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: Have each student write one paragraph describing what they did the past Saturday.

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Brittany Chastain, Valdosta State University ECSE

 

Rainbows Never Ends and Other Fun Facts

TITLE: Rainbow Never Ends and Other Fun Facts

Authors: Laura Lyn DiSiena and Hannah Eliot
Illustrator: Pete Oswald

Publisher: S.&S. Little Simon       Publication Date: 2014

Genre: Nonfiction/ Informational   Reading Level: 2^nd grade

BRIEF OVERVIEW: This story begins by telling how a rainbow is actually a full circle even though we can only view half of it. The book goes on to tell other interesting facts about the sun, the moon, the snow, etc. At the end it discusses rain forests which brings back the idea of rainbows. Each fact discussed is somehow connected.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: Each student will receive a slip of paper with moon, sun, snow, rain forest, etc on the paper. By following the book the students will link each slip of paper together in order. The students will then go around the room telling how their part is linked to the one next to them.

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Brittany Chastain,Valdosta State University ECSE

 

Eloise in Paris

Title:  Eloise in Paris

AUTHOR: Kay Thompson
ILLUSTRATOR: Hilary Knight

PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster       PUBLICATION DATE: 1955

GENRE: Picture Book/Comedy/Made into a movie       READING LEVEL: grade 4.8

BRIEF OVERVIEW: There is an Eloise book for every occasion! This particular one tells the story of a young girl named Eloise and her nanny receiving the opportunity to travel to Paris. Eloise describes every hilarious detail of her trip throughout the book.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: Ask the entire class who has ever received the opportunity to travel. Ask where each student would like to travel to one day. Have each student decide on a place (a state or country). Then take the class to the library, and ask the students to find a book about the place they would like to travel to. In one week each student will share about the place they chose.

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION:  Brittany Chastain, Valdosta State University ECSE