A Book or Two: Children's Literature Reviews

Find a perfect children’s book to share or read, and information on new, classic, and favorite children's literature, reviewed by university professors, teachers, librarians, graduate students, and teachers-to-be! Browse A Book or Two by title, genre, or topic! HAPPY READING! This is a closed site, to prevent inappropriate postings. You won't be able to add your own comments. Communication should be sent to the site organizer, Dr. Deb Marciano (dlmarciano@valdosta.edu).

Showing posts with label challenges. Show all posts

10/21/14

How to Hide a Lion

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: Helen Stephens

PUBLISHER: Alison Green Books PUBLICATION DATE: 2014

GENRE: Fiction READING LEVEL: Age 6

BRIEF OVERVIEW: A girl named Iris has to hide a kind lion who is feared by the community and her parents.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: Students will think of moments when people made false assumptions about them or someone they know of. They will then share with the class about how it made them feel and/or write about it in their journals.

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: (Quiana Nicole Childs, Valdosta State University ECSE)

LABELS: challenges, stereotypes, Lion

10/19/14

Were Going on a Bear Hunt

Publisher: Walter Books Ltd
Publication Date: September 7, 2009
Genre: Children's Fiction
Reading Level: 2nd grade

Overview: A brave family goes on an adventure through different landscapes to find a bear. They face obstacles in each of the different places and figure out how to overcome them. After they find the bear, they refuse to go on a bear hunt again.
Integrated Idea: Put students in groups and ask them to act out their favorite adventure from the book.
Affiliation: Bree Wells Valdosta State University ECSE

9/14/14

How To Catch A Star by Oliver Jeffers

author and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
Copyright: 2004 Reading Level: PreK-4th grade

Book Description: How To Catch A Star is a captivating story about a young boy with a dream to own a star of his very own. He sets out on a mission to retrieve a star and is determined to hold one in his hand and take it home. Right when he is about to give up, he discovers that sometimes things are not where, or what, we expect them to be.

Integrated Ideas: Students will use the words within the text as well as the illustrations to describe the star found by the boy at the end of the book verses the star he was determined to capture at the beginning and throughout the book. After the book is read, the students will be asked to mimic the teacher as they make objects using only their bodies (e.g., a star, a rocket ship, and other objects incorporated within the story). The students will then create a map of their state using various items and place a regular star in the place of their city/town of their state. Students will also place starfish on the outline of the state that borders the ocean.
Reviewer's name and affiliation: Bethany A. Loggins, Valdosta State University

Stuck by Oliver Jeffers

author and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
Copyright: 2011 Reading Level: PreK-3rd grade
Book Description: A book about a boy who gets his kite stuck in a tree. He continues to throw objects into the tree to retrieve the previous object thrown, because strangely enough, each and every object seems to get stuck in the tree. Surely there must be at least one object he can throw up in the tree to get the objects unstuck. Integrated Idea: Think about the different sizes of the items that Floyd throws in the tree. How long / tall / heavy is each one? How could you measure them? What units of measurement would we need to use? Could you make a list showing the measurements of each item and use these to make a graph?

Reviewer's Name and affiliation: Bethany A. Loggins, Valdosta State University