The Curious Garden

 

TITLE: The Curious Garden

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: Peter Brown

PUBLISHER:  Little, Brown Books for Young Readers   PUBLICATION DATE:  2009    GENRE: Picture Book         READING LEVEL: Ages 3-6

BRIEF OVERVIEW: Small boy discovers a struggling garden and decides to try and bring the garden back to life.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: The students will go outside and discover something that is growing. The students will write about how they think this living object ended up where they found it.

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Curtis Watson, Valdosta State University ECSE

LABELS:  Community, Gardens

I Need My Monster

 

TITLE: I Need My Monster

AUTHOR: Amanda Noll ILLUSTRATOR: Howard McWilliam

PUBLISHER: Flashlight Press    PUBLICATION DATE:  2009              GENRE: Fiction Picture Book  READING LEVEL: Ages 5-8

BRIEF OVERVIEW: This story is about a little boy who unlike most children is not really afraid of the monster under his bed, but he needs his monster to sleep.  Unfortunately his monster has gone fishing.  Several new monsters show up but none are good enough for the little boy.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: After the read aloud students will draw their favorite monster.

Awards:  Golden Sower Primary 2011-2012

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Curtis Watson, Valdosta State University ECSE

LABELS: Award-winning, Fiction, Monsters.

Whose Ears Are These?

 

TITLE: Whose Ears Are These?

AUTHOR: Peg Hall ILLUSTRATOR: Ken Landmark

PUBLISHER: Nonfiction Picture Books     PUBLICATION DATE:  2011 GENRE: Non-Fiction    READING LEVEL: Ages 2-4

BRIEF OVERVIEW: This is an informational text about different animal ears and the specific things they use their ears for.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: Matching activity – students will match the picture to the clue regarding the different animal ears from the text.

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Curtis Watson, Valdosta State University ECSE

LABELS: Senses, rabbit 

Honestly, Red Riding Hood was Rotten

 

TITLE: Honestly, Red Riding Hood was Rotten

AUTHOR: Trisha Shasken ILLUSTRATOR: Gerald Guerlais

PUBLISHER: Picture Window Books  PUBLICATION DATE:  2011  GENRE:Traditional Books (Euro.)             READING LEVEL: Years 4-8

BRIEF OVERVIEW: The story of Little Red Riding Hood as told by the Wolf.  The wolf’s side of the story is much different than Little Red’s side.  He says that she wasn’t a very nice little girl.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: Students will compare and contrast this story to the original using a graphic organizer/ story maps.

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Curtis Watson, Valdosta State University ECSE

LABELS: Point of View, Comparison

The Elves & the Shoemaker

TITLE: The Elves & the Shoemaker

AUTHOR: Jacob Grimm ILLUSTRATOR: Jim Lamarche

PUBLISHER: Chronicle Books                 PUBLICATION DATE:  2003

GENRE: Traditional Books (Euro.)         READING LEVEL: Grade 1-3

BRIEF OVERVIEW: A poor shoemaker and his wife are visited by two elves during the night. The elves make many beautiful shoes for the shoemaker to sell and become rich.  The shoemaker and his wife return the favor by making clothes for the elves.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITY: After the read-aloud students will tell a partner about a time they did something nice for someone without expecting something in return.  Students will then write about their experience.

REVIEWER’S NAME & AFFILIATION: Curtis Watson, Valdosta State University ECSE

LABELS: Helping, Fantasy.

 

 

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