Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

TITLE: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
AUTHOR: Judi Barrett
ILLUSTRATOR: Ron Barrett
PUBLISHER: Atheneum Books for Young Readers PUBLICATION DATE: 1978
GENRE: Fiction/Picture Book READING LEVEL: Ages 8 years
BRIEF OVERVIEW: In this book, the people of the small town of Chewandswallow depend on the sky for providing them with all of their food. However as the food gets bigger, messier, and more dangerous, they are forced to relocate to another city.
INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: Assign your students a creative writing assignment where they have to create another town that gets their food not from stores, or the sky, but another way. This should be just a few paragraphs.
REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Brandi Tompkins, Valdosta State University ECSE)
LABELS: Made into a movie, food, creative

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

Ella Enchanted

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: Gail Carson Levine 

PUBLISHER: Harper Collins          PUBLICATION DATE:  1997

AWARDS: 

Newbery Honor Book Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award (Vermont) Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award

California Young Reader Medal Iowa Teen Award Arizona Young Readers’ Award

GENRE: Fantasy     READING LEVEL:  8-11 years

BRIEF OVERVIEW: Ella is given the "gift of obedience" as a newborn baby from a fairy named Lucinda.  Throughout her life, she must do anything that she is told to do. Ella goes out on a search for Lucinda in order to reverse this gift. 

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: Before reading the book, students will discuss with their teacher the elements that make up a fairy tale. After reading the book, students will write and illustrate their own fairy tale, 2-3 paragraphs depending on age level. 

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Morgan Rigsby, Valdosta State University

Madeline

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: Ludwing Bemelmans 

PUBLISHER: Pengin Group         PUBLICATION DATE: 1939  

AWARDS:  Caldelott Honor Book Award

GENRE: Classics      READING LEVEL:  3-8 years 

BRIEF OVERVIEW: Madeline is a story about a young girl in France who lives in an orphanage for girls. She is so fearless, that not even a visit to the hospital can scare her!

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: Students will study a lesson on the Eifel tower and learn facts about when it was built, who built it, and what reason it was built for. 

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Morgan Rigsby, Valdosta State University

The Polar Express

TITLE:  The Polar Express

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: Chris Van Allsburg

PUBLISHER:                         PUBLICATION DATE: 1985

GENRE:   Made into a Movie               READING LEVEL: 3rd grade

BRIEF OVERVIEW:A little boy gets on a train that takes him to the North Pole. While he is there, he receives the first gift of Christmas, which was a bell. Every year he can hear the bell ring because he continues to believe.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: Students would be given construction paper cut outs of a train. They would have to create the train with all the parts given. They would use a sheet of directions to put every part in the right place. This would teach how to follow directions, shapes, and colors.

 

Where the Wild Things Are

TITLE:  Where the Wild Things Are

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: Maurice Sendak

PUBLISHER: Harper Collins Children's Books  PUBLICATION DATE: 1984

GENRE: Non-Fiction  READING LEVEL: 9+ years

BRIEF OVERVIEW: This is a classic story of a young boy who is searching to find where he belongs. He stumbles across some scary monsters, who actually are very friendly and help him on his journey. Along the way, he learns about life, love, and caring for other people. The book is a short story, only about 45 pages, but the movie was made into an over hour long production. The movie did a nice job of portraying the book, but there is really nothing like creating your own vision of the book in your head while reading. Overall, the children's story is a fantastic tale to share with children of all ages.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: To summarize the book, students will be doing an interactive and oral activity. Students will be split up into groups of about 5, and will rotate in centers throughout the room. Each center will be a different dance, or physical activity that correlates with the book. For each center, they are to discuss what happened during that part of the center. For the beginning center of the book- students are to run a short amount of time in a straight line to recreate the voyage of Max to the wild things. For the middle, they are to play a game of “Simon Says” with only dance like moves to recreate Max being the King of the Wild Things. For the ending, students are to play “Dance Freeze Tag,” (instead of freezing when tagged, child has to dance until someone frees him/her) to recreate Max trying to leave the Wild Things and their dislike for his departure. As a closure to this activity, students will describe what happened in the story and how each dance center portrayed that.

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Patricia Price - VSU Teacher Candidate - LITR 3110 A

Corduroy

TITLE:  Corduroy

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: Don Freeman

PUBLISHER:  Viking Press              

PUBLICATION DATE:  1968

AWARDS:  Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children, Top 100 Picture Books

GENRE: Children’s Picture Book made into a movie                      READING LEVEL: Ages 4-6

BRIEF OVERVIEW: This story of a teddy bear that lives in a department store but no one ever buys him. One day a little girl wants to buy him, but her mother points out that he is missing one of the buttons on his overalls. That night he decides to explore the store in order to find a button. Unfortunately, he doesn't find a button, but the next day he does find love and a home.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: Students will think about their own personal experience to the book and how they may have been hurt and when someone they loved made them feel better. They will have 2 minutes to brainstorm and then they will write it down in their journals and create a drawing of them and the person they love.

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Tayler M. Graves

LABELS: Children's book, picture book, pre-K, Made into a Movie