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

Orangutan Tongs Poems to Tangle Your Tongue

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: Jon Agee

PUBLISHER: Disney-Hyperion                 

PUBLICATION DATE: March 10, 2009

GENRE: Fiction                     

READING LEVEL:  Ages 6-10

BRIEF OVERVIEW: This is a series of poems by Jon Agee. The point of these poems is to be tongue twisters. It is very fun trying to read these poems and getting tangled up.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: I think it would be fun for the students to get in groups and create tongue twisters. I would then have them present them and have the rest of the class to try to say them.

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Emily Cribb, Valdosta State University

Today I Feel Silly & Other Moods That Make Up My Day

AUTHOR: Jamie Lee Curtis

ILLUSTRATOR: Laura Cornell

PUBLISHER: Harper Collins          PUBLICATION DATE:  2007

GENRE: Realistic Fiction                 READING LEVEL:  Grades 1-2

BRIEF OVERVIEW: In this book, a young girl takes you on a journey through her different moods throughout the day. She feels many ways such as happy, angry, jealous, and sad, which is something everybody can relate to!

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: Have students create a “Today I Feel” chart. Each one can make a different picture of a certain mood (angry face, sad face). Each day remind the students that today they are going to feel happy and have one of them put the square around the happy face.

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Tori Meyers, Valdosta State University