Chapter Book #5 Write-Up

Author: Jennifer Dussing

Title: Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

Illustrator: Jennifer Dussing 

Genre: Non-Fiction

Subgenre: Informational

Theme: Learning about all the different types of bugs.

Primary/Secondary Characters: Beetles, Caterpillars, Dragonflies, Hornets, Kissing Bugs, Mosquitoes, Butterflies, Spiders, Stinkbugs, Thorn Bugs, and Wood Ants

Award(s)/Publication Year: no awards presented/1998

Publishing Company: DK Publishing Inc.

Brief Summary/Book Usage: This book contains a ton of information about bugs and insects. It talks about how their appearances help them survive and what makes them dangerous or acceptable in society. I would use this book in my classroom when discussing bugs and insects in a science lesson. Reading this book to the children would help them understand the different types of insects and their environments.

Picture Book #16 Write-Up

Author: Alan James Brown

Title: Love-A-Duck

Illustrator: Francesca Chessa

Genre: Fiction

Subgenre: Picture Book

Theme: The feeling of just wanting to be loved.

Primary/Secondary Characters: Love-A-Duck, Jane, John, the mother, and Buster

Award(s)/Publication Year: no awards presented/2010

Publishing Company: Holiday House

Brief Summary/Book Usage: This book starts out with Jane taking a bath with her favorite toy Love-A-Duck, when Jane gets done playing and is clean her mom helps her out of the tub and places Love-A-Duck on the windowsill so he can dry and get all the water out. Since Love-A-Duck is filled with water he falls over and out of the window and into Jane’s brother John’s baby carriage outside. Minutes later Jane, John, the mother, and Buster the dog come out and walk to the nearest park. When they get to the park Jane’s mother gets John out of the carriage and knocks Love-A-Duck on the ground, Buster then grabs him and takes off running around. When Buster sees a duck in the nearby pond he drops Love-A-Duck to bark, Love-A-Duck falls into the pond with the real ducks. One of the ducks notice him and they begin to throw mud on him and pick on Love-A-Duck. Then Jane’s mother yells to her it is time to leave, just as Love-A-Duck thinks he is going to be forgotten and left behind Buster comes and gets Love-A-Duck and carries him home. I would use this book in my classroom by telling my students that everyone has feelings and wants to fit in and be loved.

Picture Book #15 Write-Up

Author: Paulette Bogan

Title: Lulu-The Big Little Chick

Illustrator: Paulette Bogan

Genre: Folk Tale

Subgenre: Picture Book

Theme: You are never too old to need help in your life.

Primary/Secondary Characters: Lulu, Momma, Mrs. Pig, the sheep, the horse, the cow, and the crow

Award(s)/Publication Year: IRA Children’s Choice/2009

Publishing Company: Bloomsbury

Brief Summary/Book Usage: Lulu is a little chick tired of being treated like a baby, she decides that from now on she is going to go far away by herself and will make her own choices. As she walks she first comes upon the pigs who cover her in mud, because she was so small they never saw her, she continues walking next she comes upon the sheep, they almost squish her because she was so little. Lulu’s mother the whole time is within seeing distance of where Lulu is so she decides to continue on her journey, next she comes upon a horse who almost steps on her, then comes across a cow who almost ate her because she was in his grass. Then, Lulu is finally so far away she does not see anything or anyone she knows and she hears something scary she has never heard before, it is a crow and the crow gets closer and closer until Momma runs to Lulu’s protection and keeps her safe from the crow. When Lulu gets back home she tells her mother next time she goes anywhere she wants to always take her with her. I would use this book in my classroom by teaching the children that you are never too old to ask for help, and your family will always be there to help you along the way.

Picture Book #14 Write-Up

Author: Teresa Batemen

Title: Harp O’Gold

Illustrator: Jill Weber

Genre: Fantasy

Subgenre: Picture Book

Theme: Be careful what you wish for because you might just get it, and it might not be what you expected.

Primary/Secondary Characters: Tom, Sean O’Dell, and the King

Award(s)/Publication Year: no awards presented/2001

Publishing Company: Holiday House

Brief Summary/Book Usage: This book is about Tom, a poor musician that dreams of becoming rich, having nice silk clothes and a white horse. He has an old broken down harp and wears worn old clothes with holes in them but everyone he knows enjoys hearing him play. Although this brought happiness to Tom he wanted more, he wanted to be asked to play for the rich and one day Sean O’Dell granted him that wish, he told Tom he would give him a brand new harp made of gold in exchange for his old harp, Tom jumped at this offer. Within the next couple of days Tom had exactly what he wanted his old clothes were thrown into the bottom of his bag and he was now playing for all of the wealthy folks around. One day Tom was called to the palace, the King had heard about all his wonderful music and wanted to keep Tom in his procession to play whenever he wanted him. Although Tom had everything he ever wanted he was unhappy. He now had no freedom, he was to only play what the King wanted to hear so one day he took out his old clothes put the harp in his bag and fled the palace. When Tom was back to town he went back to the same spot Sean granted his wish and made another wish to have his old harp back and it was done, Tom was back to his happy self once more and realized that nice things do not make you even happier then you already were. I would use this book in my classroom by telling the children to be thankful for what they have and that the grass is not always greener on the other side although it may look appealing.

Picture Book #13 Write-Up

Author: Mac Barnett

Title: Billy Twiters and his Blue Whale Problem

Illustrator: Adam Rex

Genre: Fantasy

Subgenre: Picture Book

Theme: You should always do as your mother and father ask of you.

Primary/Secondary Characters: Billy Twitters, the Blue Whale, his parents, and the kids at school

Award(s)/Publication Year: Bank Street Award/2009

Publishing Company: Disney-Hyperion Books  
Brief Summary/Book Usage: This book is humorous and tells a story about a little boy who does not listen to his parents. His parents tell him over and over again, “Billy if you do not clean your room we are going to buy you a blue whale, Billy if you do not eat all your peas we are going to buy you a blue whale.” Billy thought he was smarter than that, for he knew how large a blue whale was and he knew you just could not up and have one delivered to your house. So instead of listening to his parents he did nothing. The next morning for school Billy rushed to the front door to leave, as he opened the door he noticed he could not get out because there was a large blue whale merging from the door. His parents had indeed gotten a whale delivered over night by “Fed Up”. His parents told him he must take his whale everywhere he goes so he had to put the whale on his skateboard and pull him to school, once in class Billy tried his hardest to hide the whale from his teacher, but you know the teacher saw him. Then the cowboy movie they were supposed to watch in class was cancelled to learn about blue whales. Billy classmates were not happy with him at all. After learning about whales all day Billy finally headed home, once home his parents gave him his whale’s owner guide before he went to bed he had to wash, wax, and check the whale for barnacles. Just when Billy thought he was done he had to feed his whale, so he went down to the sea and gathered plenty of water in his buckets. He then went back to his whale and poured the water into his mouth. While doing this he noticed how much room the whale had in his mouth, it was definitely big enough for his room, so he moved himself in. Inside he noticed he would not have to see his bossy parents or friends from school that had been making fun of him. I would use this book in my classroom and I would tell the children to respect and listen to their elders. I could also use this book to teach about whales, because it has a lot of factual information inside.

Picture Book #12 Write-Up

Author: Claire Babin  

Title: Gus is a Tree

Illustrator: Olivier Tallec

Genre: Fiction

Subgenre: Picture Book

Theme: Trees during the season of Fall and how the leaves change color.

Primary/Secondary Characters: Gus, his father, and school friends

Award(s)/Publication Year: Wisconsin Great Lakes Book List 2010-2011/2008

Publishing Company: Enchanted Lions Book
Brief Summary/Book Usage: This book is about a little boy who loves trees, instead of playing at recess he sits under the only tree in the playground yard. He likes to touch trees and to smell them. As he sits there he daydreams and remembers back to when he and his father went walking in the woods. He remembers hearing them crunch the leaves that had recently fallen and then he is off into a deep sleep. He dreams he is a tree,  he is a large beautiful tree with beautiful colored leaves ready to fall; around him are other trees, Birches, Oaks and Beeches. It is so peaceful he thought and as night began he was not even scared, night brought another day for a tree, he saw and heard owls and bats. The only thing Gus did not like about that night was it was cold; he shivered and watched many of his leaves fall to the ground. Then a rain storm comes through and Gus hears something, someone in the distance calling his name, he wakes up to all his classmates pushing on him trying to get him to get inside before he gets soaked. I would use this book in my classroom during the time Fall season is about to start and it also talks about different types of trees and has an insert in the back that tells you information about all the trees and how you could tell them apart.

Picture Book #11 Write-Up

Author: Diane Adams  

Title: I Can Do It Myself

Illustrator: Nancy Hayashi

Genre: Non-Fiction

Subgenre: Picture Book

Theme: The struggles of growing up and learning how to do things on your own.

Primary/Secondary Characters: Emily Pearl, her mother, Ted, and her cat

Award(s)/Publication Year: no awards presented/2009

Publishing Company: Peachtree Publishers

Brief Summary/Book Usage: This book is about a child growing up. She is learning how to take care of herself; she can tie her shoes, brush her hair and teeth, feed herself, and many other things. If her mother even asks Emily if she needs help she replies, “I can do it myself”. At the end of the book we see the child can take care of herself however there are things she would rather have help with. She asks her mom before bed to read her a book and leave the light on because she is scared. She also asks for her mom to hold her tight. I would use this book in my classroom by telling my students it is alright to ask for help, it does not mean you cannot accomplish it on your own. Asking for help is never a bad thing, and everyone at some point needs help with something.

Picture Book #10 Write-Up

Author: Jan Brett  

Title: The Umbrella

Illustrator: Jan Brett

Genre: Non-Fiction

Subgenre: Informational

Theme: Exploring the rainforest and discovering all the different animals that live there.

Primary/Secondary Characters: Carlos, Father, and all of the rainforest animals

Award(s)/Publication Year: no awards presented/2004

Publishing Company: G.P. Putnam’s Sons  

Brief Summary/Book Usage: This book begins with a young boy named Carlos leaving home to explore the rainforest, he tells his father he is going to see the jaguar, monkey, toucan and kinkajou, so he grabs his umbrella and off he goes. Once in the rainforest Carlos see nothing he decides to climb a tree, maybe he can find the animals he is looking for up there! So he lets down his umbrella and heads up into the tree. Soon after a beautiful frog lands in his umbrella, what a wonderful spot to be thought the frog, there is no one around and there is just enough water for him to sit in. Then something falls into the frogs water, it was a fig, and guess who comes to get the fig? The toucan, the frog tells the toucan he cannot stay here but he refuses to leave. Then something slides down the tree and falls into the umbrella with the frog, it is a kinkajou, the frog tells him you cannot stay here but the kinkajou is just getting comfortable and does not plan on leaving.  Next, a monkey swings down and grabs the umbrella he throws it into the nearby river and jumps in, the frog exclaims that monkey never thinks before he acts and now they will sink. The animals all fuss because now they are getting cramped, hearing the commotion the jaguar pounces into the umbrella and it sinks further into the water. As the animals try to stay afloat a hummingbird sees the top of the umbrella handle sticking up and decides to take a rest on it, the other animals warn the bird not to rest on the umbrella because it is full, the bird does it anyways and causes the umbrella to sink completely. The umbrella washes back to shore and Carlos did not see any animals so he heads back down from the tree and grabs his umbrella and heads home. I would use this book in my classroom because it has gorgeous pictures that show the environment of a rainforest along with all the different animals that would live there. It gives many adjectives to help visualize the atmosphere. I would use this book when teaching about the rainforest, it also has many words in Spanish throughout the book you could use it to express different cultures.

Picture Book #9 Write-Up

Author: Sharon Addy

Title: Lucky Jake

Illustrator: Wade Zahares

Genre: Non-Fiction

Subgenre: Comedy

Theme: The power of luck and hard work pays off in the end.

Primary/Secondary Characters: Jake, Dog, Nanny, and Pa

Award(s)/Publication Year: no awards presented/2007

Publishing Company: Houghton-Mifflin Company

Brief Summary/Book Usage: Jake and his Pa panned for gold daily looking to strike it big time and one day they just did. When Pa found a nugget of gold he and Jake headed over to town to buy some food with this trade. Jake had always wanted a dog so as soon as he got to the market after buying up all the groceries they needed Jake asked the attendant if she had any dogs she said no all she had was a pig, so a pig it was. Jake named this pig "Dog", Jake was very lucky to have such a great friend. While Jake tried to teach Dog to fetch he noticed Dog would do nothing but sniff at his pocket so he reached down in his pocket to see just what he had that Dog wanted, as he pulled his hand back out he had a couple corn seeds. He planted the seeds and watered them daily. Eventually, Jake had his own little garden full of corn, he was very lucky. The next day Jake went back to his corn and noticed some of the corn had been eaten, he then decided to guard the corn all night to see just what had been eating it. That night Dog woke up Jake and Jake heard an animal he jumped and caught the animal eating his corn it was a goat. With this goat Jake and Pa were able to have milk, this was very lucky. Jake and Pa were able to open their own store and make flapjacks from the corn and goat milk, they were so lucky. I would use this book in my classroom to discuss with the children that hard work pays off. Although, you get lucky sometimes in life, working hard will always get you far in life.