Tikki Tikki Tembo

Retold by: Arlene Mosel

Illustrated by: Blair Lent

Multicultural/Folk Tale

~This is a classic tale set in China about two young boys. At this time in China, it was custom for the first born son to be given a long and honorable name, while the second child was given a very short and not so honorable name. There was a mother who named her first born son Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo, meaning the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world, while her second born son was named Chang, meaning little or nothing. One day the two little boys were playing by the well and Chang fell in. Tikki tikki tembo went to tell his mother, and then got The Old Man With The Ladder to save Chang. The Old Man got to Chang, and pumped water out of him and put air in, leaving Chang as good as new. The brothers stayed away from the well for while until one day the boys played on the well again. This time Tikki tikki tembo fell in and Chang had to go tell his mother. Tikki tikki tembo's name was so long and Chnag was so out of breath she could barely understand him. Finally she understood and Chang went to get The Old Man With The Ladder. The Old Man was dreaming and Chang had to say Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo's name so many times for The Old Man to understand what was going on. Finally he realized what Chang said and they went to save Tikki tikki tembo, but by the time they got to him he had been there awhile and it took a long time for tikki tikki tembo to get back to normal. From that moment on, the people in China started naming all their children with short names.

~Tikki tikki tembo would be a great book to read to introduce children to Chinese culture. Read this book and then talk about Chineese customs and traditions, or have someone who is Chinese to come and talk to students about this. Later, have students research the Chinese New Year, and then celebrate that in the classroom.

Small Steps

By: Louis Sachar

Fiction

*I chose to read this book because it is somewhat a squeal to the book holes, in that it has two of the characters from the book, Armpit and X-Ray and how they are continuing their life after Camp Greenlake. One of the students in the field was reading it, and I loved the book Holes so I thought I would ready it. It talks about drugs in parts and has some young adult content so I would not recommend this books to younger grades.*

~This book was about a young man named Theodor or as his friends called him Armpit. He has gotten out of a juvenile correction facility called Camp Greenlake where his punishment was to dig holes all day long. He now works for a landscaping company digging holes, but he is good at it and likes making good honest money. He is going to summer school also because he wants to get his high school diploma and has to make up for the time he was at Camp Greenlakc. His therapist told him to just take small steps, one day at a time, and he does just that. One day his old buddy X-Ray, who was also at Camp Greenlake, comes by and wants Armpit to make some money by buying tickets to the Kiara DeLeon concert and selling the tickets for more than what they bought them for. Armpit reluctantly agrees and X-Ray sells all the tickets except for two. Armpit decides to take a girl Tatiana from school to the concert but she backs out last minute, so he takes his best friend and neighbor, Ginny who has cerebral palsy to the concert. Armpit didnt know, but X-Ray had given him 2 counterfeit tickets so he could make money off the two he was going to give to Armpit. Ginny ends up having a seizure and the police try to arrest armpit for counterfeit tickets and for drugging Ginny. Luckily, they finally listen to armpit and let him help her. They end up getting to meet Kiara DeLeon and they all become friends. They start a big investigation on the counterfeit tickets to catch the guy who sold them. Kiara starts to like Armpit and wants to have breakfast with him. They really start to like eachother and Kiara writes him letters. Finally Kiara offers to fly Armpit to San Fransisco to see her. While in San Fransisco, Kiara and Armpit get in a fight. He see's that her door is open when he gets back to the hotel and walks in to see her getting beaten with a bat by her manager and stepfather El Genius. He wanted to kill her so that he could take all of her money. Armpit stops El Genius and calls the police, everyone ends up being ok and El Genius is put in jail. Armpit does not here from Kiara but her new song "Small Steps" says everything.

~This would be a good book to do a character analysis of. Have students talk about Armpits character and if his actions reflect on his character. Also have students talk or write about whether or not they think X-Ray is a good friend to keep around. X-Ray seems to always find a way to get Armpit in trouble. Talk to students of how important it is to have good friends that are good influences on you. It would also be good to just do reading comprehension questions and have a book club conversations about the book. It has some good real life learning situations that would be good for students to understand.

To Dance: a ballerina's graphic novel

By: Siena Cherson Siegel

Illustrated by: Mark Siegel

Realistic Fiction/Graphic Novel

~This was a really cute book about how a little girl followed her dreams to become a ballerina. The little girl in the book is from San Juan Puerto Rico and she loved to dance especially when there are big open spaces. When she was 6 the doctor said she had flat feet and so her mother enrolled her in dance lessons to help her flat feet. She was too young for ballet so she did more gymnastics in her dance classes. She the moved to Boston for a year when she was 9 and took ballet lessons there and loved it! She then moved back to Puerto Rico and got to perform in the Nutcracker there. That summer she flew to NY t attend the American Ballet Theatre summer program. She wanted more than anything to be a real ballerina. When she was 11 she auditioned for the School of American Ballet in NY and was accepted. Almost all she did all day was ballet and she finally got her first set of tap shoes but they hurt her feet so bad. She kept on dancing. She finally got into her first ballet and her feet were no longer flat. When she was 16 her mom and dad divorced, and dancing was all she had to keep her mind off things at home. Dancing was her entire life until one day she got hurt. She decided she should go to college and she did. But ballet was still in her soul. She still danced in open spaces.

~This would be a great book when studying character traits. The girl in this book never gave up on her dreams and that is an important trait to teach students. Have write about their goals in life and create an outline of how they are going to accomplish these goals. Then have them drawl pictures along with the outline of the steps towards their goals.

~This was a

The Family Under The Bridge

By: Natalie Savage Carlson

Illustrated by: Garth Williams

Realistic Fiction

This is a great book about an old hobo man named Armand who lives on the streets of Paris. He makes his home under a bridge, until one day he goes home to the bridge to find three children and their dog there. The children beg him not to leave and so he stays. The children's mother, Ms. Calcet, works during the day so the children are left under the bridge. The children beg Armand to take them with him during the day. They go to visit Armands friend who is dressed as Santa Clause, and they ask Santa for a house for Christmas. Armand has the children sing in the streets and he collects money to get them some pancakes for breakfast. When they get back to the bridge they tell their mother about their day. Ms. Calcet is very upset that her children begged for money, because she does not want her children to be beggars. Ms. Calcet makes Armand leave, but he decides to come back the next morning and finds the children terribly upset. Two rich woman came by and saw the children by themselves and was going to get someone to take them away to a proper home. Armand decides to take the children to a gypsy camp to keep them safe and he will go back to get Ms. Calcet when she gets done working. The children love the gypsy camp because there are other children, and they have a bed to stay in. The gypsys live in tents and and a house on wheels. The children decide they want a house on wheels and want Santa to bring them one. Armand tells them that Santa is going to bring them a house, but that it was being built and would not be ready in time for Christmas. The next day, they gypsys take off and leave because they thought one of the gypsys was going to get arrested. Then, Armand has to tell the children they are not getting a house, but tells the children he will get a job and he will help pay rent to get them a house. The children and Ms. Calcet clean Armand up and trim his beard to get him ready to apply for a job. He finds a job as a house keeper, which has live in quarters. So he found a job and a place for the children to live.

~This is a great book to teach children about socioeconomic diversity. Talk with students about what their lives would be like if they were suddenly forced to leave the places where they now lived. Where would they go? How would they find shelter? How would they prepare their food, clean their clothes, and do all of the other tasks that make up their daily life? Work with students to outline some of the most important problems to solve, then help them establish several likely strategies for dealing with those problems.

The Korean Cinderella

By: Shirley Climo
Illustrated by: Ruth Heller
Multicultural Literature
~This version of Cinderella is set in Korea, where an old man and his wife want to have a child. They planted a pear tree for good fortune, and sure enough they had a little girl and named her Pear Blossom. Pear Blossom was growing up beautifuly, but one year her mother dies. Herals father re marries a mean woman named Omoni who a duaghter named Peony. Omoni and Peony were jealous of Pear Blossoms beauty so they were mean to her and treated her as a servant. One day Pear Blossom was sent to fill a water jug that had a hole in it. They jug also had a frog in it who was majic and helped Pear Blossom fix the hole. The next day Omoni made Pear Blssom scatter a huge sack of rice over the courtyard and told her to polish each grain. Pear Blossom said "will no one in this world help me?" Then sparrows flew down and pecked the rice untill it was all polished and piled it into the corner. Next, the village was having a festival and Pear Blossom was allowed to go only if she weeded the rice patties. Pear blossom though " Who could do such a task?" and suddenly a huge black ox came through and weeded the rice patties. Pear Blossom hurried to the festival, but on her way she stopped to take her shoe off and get a rock out, when the magistrate came down the road. The magistrate yelled stop to his bearers, but Pear Blossom thought he was talking to her and she got frightened and ran down the road without her shoe. The magistrate was sturck by her beauty and went to find her. He found her at the festival and asked her to be his bride.
~This is a really gret version of Cinderlla with a Korean twist. This book contains a lot of Korean words that they use and define. This could be used during a multicultural study of Korea and talk about how this version differs from the traditional Cinderalla. You could also have students write down the Korean words that were used in the story and create their own story that contains these Korean words. Also have students compare the names of the characters and also the illustrations.

Esio Trot

By:Roald Dahl
Illustrated by; Quentin Blake
Fantasy
~Esio Trot is a fun little book about a man, Mr. Hoppy who is in love with the widow who lives beneath him, Ms. Silver. Mr. Hoppy's balcony over looks Ms. Silvers' and everyday he sees her but cannot bring himself to ask her to come upstairs. The only problem with Ms. Silver is that she gives all her love to her pet tortiose Alfie who lives outside in a little house on her boucany. One day, Mr. Hoppy is out on his boucany and Ms. Silver is out on hers feeding Alfie, she says to Mr. Hoppy that she wishes Alfie would grow! Mr. Hoppy gets a briliant idea. He writes some silly words on a piece of paper and tells Ms. Silver to recite this to him three times a day and he will grow. See tortioses speak backwards language so what Mr. Hoppy wrote was all backwards, like Esio Trot is tortoise backwards. Mr. Hoppy goes out and buys no less than 140 tortoises that are of all sizes that look like Alphie. While Ms. Silver is at work he trades Alfie out for a tortiose that is 2 ounces heavier. He does this every week for 8 weeks, making the "Alfie" grow by two ounces every week. Untill he reached 27 ounces and cannot fit in his house anymore. For this, Mr. Silver writes another saying in tortoise language and "Alfie shrinks" just enough to fit into his house. Ms. Silver cannot believe it and thinks Mr. Hoppy is the most briliant man in the world. Mr. Hoppy asks Ms. Silver to marry him, and they do and live happily ever after.
~Not only is this a fun read for students, but it can also incorporate some writing. Have students work on de-coding sentences that are written backwards, or even write their own and have students partner up to try and figure out what is said. You could also have students make predictions about what they think is going to happen in the story. For instance, how they think Mr. Hoppy will make Ms. Silver fall in love with him.

Going North

By: Janice N Harrington
Illustrated by: Jerome Lagarrigue
Historical Fiction
~This is a great historical fiction book about a black family leaving the south and moving up north. It is from the little girls point of view and she talks about how her parents say life will be better up north because her daddy can get a better job and they will be treated nicer. The book talks about their trip up north. They see black people working in the cotton fields, and they have to only stop and negro gas stations as they are heading through the south to the north. The family finally makes it to Nebraska and they see no more cotton fields and the land is green and full of opportunities. They finish they book by saying that they are poineers and will have a better life there in Licoln Nebraska.
~This would be a great book to use when teaching students about civil rights. I like this book becuase it allows students to see civil rights issues from a childs point of view. It also would be good to talk about the difference between the north and the south during that time and that black people were treated better in the north than the south. Be sure to foccus on issues like segregation and how the book shows this when they were running out of gas and were only allowed to get gas at certain places.

Jump! from the life of Michael Jordan

By: Floyd Cooper
Biography
~This is a great childrens book about the life of Michael Jordan. Michael grew up in Wallace North Carolina with his parents and 4 brothers and sisters. When Michael was 7 his family moved to a bigger home in Willmington NC. He always looked up to his older brother Larry and was always trying to do everything he did, for this, Michael got the nickname "rabbbit." Michaels dad put up a basketball goal at their new house, and him and Larry would spends hours playing eachother, but Larry was still better than Michael. To get better, Michael knew he had to practice and play as much as possible, and he did, every chance he got. When he hit Junior High michael was growing taller, doing well in school, and even led his team to a championship in baseball. Still he wanted to be better at basketball so he played on the blacktop every day to get better. When Michael got to hight school he tried out for the Varsity basketball team that his brother was on, but somehow he did not make it. However, the coach saw something special in Michael so he put him on the Junior Varsity Team and worked one on one with him every morning. That next summer Michael went to basketball camp and shot up four inches! When he got home he played a pick up game with his brother Larry, and finally Michael beat him, even out dunking his brother. Michael grew to be one of the best basketball players of all times, through his perserverance and hard work.
~This would be a good biography to use during black history month as a book report on someone who was influential in histroy. It would also be a good book for teaching character traits such as perserverance and not giving up. Michael failed at basketball many times, but he wanted it bad enough and worked hard and made his dreams happen. Students could also have a special connection with Michael Jordan becuase he is from North Carolina.

A Ballad Of the Civil War

By: Marty Stolz
Illustrated by: Sergio Martinez
Historical Fiction
~This book is an account two young twin boys Jack and Tom Rigsby growing up in the South. Jack and Tom lived on their fathers plantation where they had slaves as housekeepers and farmhands. All growig up, a young slave by the name of Aaron helped raise the boys and as far as they were concerned was basically their brother. Aaron was allowed to play with the boys and even stay up at the house instead of in the quarter with the other slaves. Then, one day when Tom and Jack turned 9, there father, Mr. Rigsby banished Aaron to the quarters and to work on the field with his father. Aaron was no longer allowed to see Tom and Jack because Mr. Rigsby thought he was getting too "upity" and that could cause problems with the other slaves. Tom was heartbroken. He loved Aaron as a brother and was not even allowed to see him to tell him that it was not his fault. Jack on the other hand thought it needed to be done becuase they shouldnt be playing with the colord folk anyhow. As the boys got older, they began realizing more and more their different feelings towards slaves. Tom always thought it was wrong for white folk to own slaves and buy and sell them as if they were cattle. Jack on the other hand thought that they had a right to own slaves. When the boys turned 19 the Civil War had began. Jack couldnt wait to get out there and fight for their right to own slaves nad protect their way of tlife. Jack thought for sure Tom would join him, but Tom had plans to join the Union army to help free the slaves. When Tom told his family he was heading North to fight with the Union, his family felt very betraye, but Tom felt he had to fight for what he thought was right. The story begins with Tom riding his horse and finds a rebel soldier on the side of the road, then it cuts into the story of them growing up. The story then catches back up with Tom finding the Rebel soldier on the side of the road and Tom thinks it is his brother Jack. Unfortunately it is not jack, but Tom still pulls the man to safety.
~This would be a great book to use in the classroom for a study on the Civil War. It is only a 50 page book and would be good for most reading levels at 4th or 5th grade. The book gives a different view about how children precieved slavery.Discussion could be fascilitated on how Tom felt being against slavery when his whole family depended on it. The book ends kind of abruptly as well, so you could have students each write their own ending to the book. Be sure to talk about how this happened to many familys. This war was a brothers war becuase the North and the South are part of the United States and it almost tore our country apart, just as many familys were separated because of diferences in opinoin about slavery.

Agent Boo

By: Alex De Campi
Illustrated by: Edo Fuijkschot
Science Fiction/Graphic Novel
~This is a fun story about a little fourth grade girl named Boo. She lives in Space City which is one of the multiuniverses. The multiuniverses are protected by a group talented people called The Agents. The Agents have come to Boo's school to pick three new agents to replace those that were lost in combat. Each Agent has a companion, which is an animal. The companion is the one who picks the new agent that they will work with. The people who are picked are usually seniors and have great talents. The first two companions pick Asano, and Kira. Pumpkin the cat was up next to pick the last Agent. Out of no where he picks little fourth grade Boo! The three new Agents then head off to the training center to start their training, when they are interupted by their first mission to stop Queen Misery in snow city. Unfortunately they make Boo stay behind becuase she is so young. After the agents leave, Queen Misery actually comes to Space City. Boo has to protect Space City! She first hides in a closet and the mirror of futurereflection can answer three question. Boo asks if the egg timer will help her defeat Queen Misery and before she can answer Queen Misery enters the room. The egg timer will grant three improbably wishes, so boo wishes for Queen Misery to fall into a crater, but nothing happens. Then she wishes that giant pirate space monkeys come flying in, wearing kilts. The egg timer goes off, and the giant space pirate monkeys come a defeat Queen Misery. Boo has saved the day, and now Boo is taken seriously and is now a real Agent.
~This would be a good begginers chapter book for students. It is an easy read, and is a graphic novel as well containing comic book strips that explain the action going on in the book. It would be fun for students to create their own small graphic novel either from this story plot, or from one that they make up on their own.

The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses

By:Pail Goble
Multicultural Literature
~This book is a book based on Native American culture. It has beautiful, colorful illustrations. The book portrays a young Native American girl who lives in a tribe where the people follow the buffalo. She has a special connection with the horses and often spent most of her time in the meadows with them. One day, she falls asleep in the meadow. A storm came up quick, she awoke to thunder and spooked horses. The girl grabs hold of a horse and tells them to stop, but the horses can't hear her above the thunder, so she holds on as the herd gallops on. Finally, the thunder was behind them, but the girl did not recognize her surroundings, they were lost. When she woke the next morning, a beautiful spotted stallion was there and told her he was the leader of the wild horses here, and that she and her herd were welcome to live here. Her people did not know what happened to the girl and their horses. A year later, two hunters saw the girl riding a colt, beside a beautiful wild spotted stalion. They tried to get to the girl but the wild spotted stalion was protecting her, until her colt stumbled and she fell off. The hunters took the girl back to the village. She was happy to see her parents but missed the stallion and her wild horses so much she became ill. Finally, her parents agreed that she should go back and live with the horses so she would be happy. Every year she cam back to see her people and brought her parents a colt. Then one year she did not come back, but hunters saw a beautiful mare with the wild stallion and they believe the girl finally became a wild horse.
~This would be a good book to use when studying Native Americans. Have students go through the books illustrations and write down all of the things they see that they usually associate with Native Americans. Have older students pick 2 or 3 of these subjects or objects to research and see if Native Americans really did use these objects and in what ways.

A Story A Story

A Story A Story
Retold and Illustrated by: Gail E. Haley
Multicultural Literature
~This is and African story about how stories themselves came to be. Once, all the stories belonged to the Sky god Nyame. Ananse, the spider man, wanted to buy the stories from Nyame, so he builds a web to the sky. Nyame told Ananse that the price of the stories would be Osebo the leopord of-the-terrible-teech, Mmboro the hornet who-stings-like-fire and Mmoatia the fairy whom-men-never-see. Ananse tricks Osebo into playing a game with him, and Ananse ties him up. Then, Ananse tricks Mmboro into flying into his calabash. Finally, Ananse catches Mmoatia by carving a doll covered in sticky latex gum, holding a bowl of pounded yams. Ananse set the doll by the flamboyant tree where the faries dance and tied a string to it, while he hid behind a bush. When the fairy slapped the gum doll she stuck right to it and Ananse had captured the fairy. Ananse spun a wed around Osebo, Mmboror, and Mmoatis and spun a web back to the sky to bring his captives to the Sky god. Nyame the Sky god was true to his word and gave Ananse the spider man his stories, now called "spider stories." Ananse took the golden box of stories back to Earth and to his village people. When Ananse opoened the box, the stories spread to all corners of the world.
~This can be used during a lesson on African culture. This book is a great example of an African tale that has great illustrations. I would not use this book as your primary source for studying African culture but would be a great addition to a multicultural study. Before reading the book get out a map and shoe students where Africa is located. Also, have students make predictions about this story and how they think Ananse will obtain the three things he needs to get the stories. Students can make a story web about how Ananse tricks all the animals.

To Fly: The Story of The Wright Brothers

By:Wendie Old
Illustrated by: Robert Andrew Parker
Biography
~This is a great biography about the Wright Brothers who were the first in flight. The book starts off talking about how the brothers grew up in Daton Ohio and being very interested in flight. They started off making kites as selling them to friends for extra money. During high school Orville started a print business to make money as well. Orville and Wilber not long after, started getting into the new fad of bicycles. They began designing, and creating bicycles, and moved their print shop upstairs and the bike shop downstairs. The book goes through and talks about how the Wright Brothers began tinkering with gilders and trying to make controlable. The Wright brothers took their gliders to Kitty Hawk North Carolina to try out their inventions. They tried and failed many times, having to go back to Ohio and re work their calculations. Finally in 1903 Orville and Wilber finally got it right. They flew the first maned air craft in Kitty Hawk North Carolina and were known as the pioneers of flight.
~This would be a great book to use during a study of North Carolina history. It is important for students to know important historical events from North Carolina, and this event is one that changed the world. To apply this in the classroom I would have students make a timeline of theWright Brothers liffe and how they came to invent the first manned flying machine. Students can do this on the computer, and add pictures, or they can do it on paper and draw their own pictures.

Fantastic Mr.Fox

By: Roald Dahl

Illustrated by: Quentin Blake

Modern Fantasy

WORDLE

~This is a great beginning chapter book for students. It is a cute clever book about a fox who outwitts three mean, rich farmers. The first farmer, Boggins, was a chicken farmer with thousands of chickens. The secone farmer was Bunce and he was a duck and goose farmer. The third farmer, Bean, was a turkey and apple farmer. To feed his family Mr. Fox used to steel from the farmers. One day, the farmers got tired of Mr. Fox stealing their animals, so they decided they were going to stake out atMr. Foxes hole, and shoot him when he came out. The three farmers shot Mr. Fox's tail right off, but he survived and went back in his hole. The farmers decide to dig Mr. Fox and his family out, first with shovels then with machines, but Mr. Fox had the idea to keep digging deeper so they would not get them. When the three farmers got tired of digging, they decided just to wait outside the hole becasue they knew he would have to come out sometime for food or else they would starve. The farmers had all their farmhands with guns and flashlights all over the land to be sure the fox's did not dig through the other side. Unfortunatly this affected all the other digging animals like Badger, Weasel, and Rabbit, becuase these men shot at anything that dug out of the ground. Mr. Fox had a great idea. So him and his son's dug a whole up and into Boggin's chicken coup, Bunce's stock house of plucked and ready to eat duck and goose, and Bean's secret cider cellar. They told all of the starving digging animals to come to a feast, so Mrs. Fox prepared a grande meal with the Badgger family, the Rabbit family. and the Weasel family. Mr. Fox decided there was never a reason for anyone to leave because they had everything they needed right here.

~You could start off a classroom application for this book by working on reading comprehension. Have questions for students to answer at the end of each chapter to be sure they are understanding the reading. You could also have students make a problem/solution chart and think of different solutions that the Fox's could have done to remain safe from the farmers. Also, have students make a three fold venn diagram to compare and contrast the three farmers.

~Students could also create a wordle. Have students write a short summary of the book and then paste the summary into wordle to come up with a neat word diagram that focuses on the most used words in the summary. This is another fun way for students to portray their comprehension.

Cinderlily

By:David Ellwand and Christine Tagg

Fairy Tale

~This is a really cute book that puts a unique spin on the tale of Cinderella. Instead of people, the book has the characters as flowers and Cinderella is portrayed as a Lily, with worn, tattered, and dried out petals as her dress. The tale follows the same story line with two mean sisters who order Cinderlily around doing chores. While her sisters go to the Sultan's ball Cinderlily is stuck at home, unntil a magical fairy comes a long. The fairy turns Cinderlily into a beautiful flower so she can go to the ball and dance with the Sultan. Cinderlily goes to the ball in a coach pulled by butterflies. The Sultan falls in love with Cinderlily but she runs off and has to be home by midnight. Cinderlily leaves a petal behind and the Sultan tries to find her through her lost pedal. Finally the Sultan finds Cinderlily and asks her to be his bride.

~This would be a good book to study when doing variations in fairy tales. You could take the traditional version of Cinderella and compare and contrast the two versions in a venn diagram. Students would have fun reading this book and looking at all the interesting flowers and how they are portrayed as humans.

The Talking Eggs

By: Robert D. San Souci
Illustrations By: Jerry Pinkney
Fairy Tale/Folk Tale
~This is a fun and silly tale about a young girl named Blanche who lives poorly with her widowed mother and mean sister Rose. Blanches mother and sister were very mean to her and made her do all the chores around the house and cook all the meals. One day Blanche is summoned to go get some cool drinking water from the well. While she is there, an old woman with a black is terribly thirsty and asks for water. Blanch gives the old woman some water and heads back to the house. By the time she got there, the water was not cool anymore and Blanche was beaten and scolded by her mother and sister. Blanche runs off crying in the woods, where she meets that same old woman again. The kind woman offers Blanche a place to stay for the night and some supper. Blanche and the old woman set off in the woods. As they travel along, the old woman tells Blanche not to laugh at anything she sees. While Blanche thought this was an odd thing to ask, she does what the woman says. As they reach the womans house, she sees a two headed cow with twisted horns, dozens of chickens of every color running about with multiple legs. Blanche obeys the woman and does not laugh when she sees these silly creatures. They continue into the womans house where she asks Blanche to start a fire, and a stew with a tiny bone. While Blanche doesnt think this will make a hearty stew, as soon as she drops it in the water it turns to a thick delicous stew. The old woman then asks her to grind one grain of rice, as she does the single grain turns into plenty. Blanche and the old woman eat their supper, then the woman takes off her head to brush her hair! Blanche still does not laugh. Blanche heads for bead and the next day she does everything that woman asks her to do. She tells Blanche to go to the chicken coop and only take the eggs that shout "take me" and leave the ones that say "leave me here." She goes to collect the eggs, and all the fancy eggs covered in jules and gold were saying "leave me." Blanche instead takes the plain eggs that said "take me." The old woman told her to hurry home now and before she gets home to toss the eggs over her left shoulder and she will get a surprise. She again listens to the woman and they eggs become jewles, gold, fancy clothes, a carriage, and even a horse to draw the carriage. Blanche heads home with all of her new fine things and her mother and sister are very jealous. The mother tells Rose to go find the old woman and get fancy things so they can leave Blanche and head to the city. Rose meets the old woman, but laughs at her animals and does not obey her. Rose then takes all of the fancy eggs and when she throws them over her shoulder they turn into, frogs, wasps and even a great grey wolf, that chase Rose and her mother out of town. When they returned back to the cabin, Blanche had left with her fancy things to start a better life in the city.
~I love this book becuase it teaches a lesson about being kind to others and how you will get things in return if you are. It is fun and silly and would be good to read to a classroom. For older students i would write the different characters on index cards and give students a role. I will have split up the book into roles and have them written out. Students will then do a readers theatre on the book and read their roles aloud to work on reading fluency and get to experience an enjoyable book.

How Animals Saved the People: Animal Tales From The South

Retold by: J.J Reneaux
Illustrated by: James Ransome
Folk Tale
~This book is a collection of Southern folk tales, which begins with a bio told by Reneaux about the South and where the stories in this book came from. The first tale is from the Appalachain Mountains and is called the Golly Whumper. It is clever and funny, filled with southern words and will definately get a kick out of the students. It is about old Aunt Molly who picked a gourd that was too green. The gourd chased her out of her house so she tries to run to her neighbors to take cover. On the way, all the nice critters try to stop that old golly whumping gourd from hitting Aunt Molly on the behind.The groundhog tries, the panther tries, but no one can stop the golly whumper. Untill Bear comes along and smashes it to pieces. Aunt Molly wants to repay her critter friends for their good deeds, so she takes them to her mean rich neighbor and lets them eat from his farm.
The next tale is called "How Miz Gator Lost her Pea-Green Suit." This is an african american tale about how the alligator got its lumpy brownish skin. Miz Gator had a beautiful silky smooth pea-green suit that she always doted on. One day Br'er Rabbit runs by Miz Gator but doesnt have time to talk becuase he says he just ran into trouble and needs to get back to his hole. Miz Gator has never met trouble before and asks Br'er Rabbit to introduce her. He says to meet him in the middle of the dry cornfields at high noon. Miz. Gator comes along with her babies and Br'er Rabbit says he will go fetch trouble. The mischevous Br'er Rabbit sets the corn stalks on fire and the Gators have to run through the fire and into the Mississippi. Now from the fire, they have lost their beautiful silky pea-green suits and are stuck with scorched, lumpy, greenish brown hide.
These two stories were two of my favorites and ones that I would share with my class. The book contains 6 other great stories that could be told as folktales to students as well.
~Since we live in the South, this is a great book of tales that came from where our students live. This can make students feel an automatic connection to the book. A good activity would be to use "How Miz Gator Lost her Pea-Green Suit" and have students make up their own folk tale about how an animal got a certain trait. Have students write the story, drawl a picture, and then share it with their classmates.

Abraham Lincoln

By: Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire
Biography
~This book is all about Abraham Lincoln, how he grew up and eventally became president. I think it does a great job of folowing Abe Lincolnes life starting when he was first born on his parents Kentucky farm in 1809. Abe, his mom, dad and sister sally lived on this farm untill they moved to Little Pigeon Creek Indiana when Abe was 7. The book talks of all the hardships Abe's family had to go through and how they lived off the land. When Abe was 9 his mother passed away. His dad re married not long after, and she brought with her 3 more children. Abe's new stepmother pushed him in his school work and encouraged his reading and writing. Then, when Abe was 21, he helped his family move to New Salem Illonios, then decided to start a life of his own there. He worked in a store where he got a long great with the town folk. Everyone started calling him "honest Abe" becuase he was always so true to his word. The town folk thought abe should be elected to go to the capitol, so Abe went around telling speaches and before he knew it he was on his way. Abe decided after this that he wanted to become a lawyer, but he had no way of doing so. Then one day someone dropped a barrel of junk off at his store, where he found a book of Law at the bottom. Abe began studying this book and taught himslelf. Soon after, he set off for Springfield, the capitol of Illonois. When he got to Springfield he stopped in a store and met a wealthy man by the name of Joshua Speed. Joshua beleived in Abe and made him a great lawayer. After this, Abe married a witty young woman names Mary Todd, and they had three young boys. Abraham had never been much of a politician. But many years later Abe went to congress, where all the politicians were arguing whether or not to abolish slavery. Abe thought slavery was cruel and wrong. He believed that " all men are created equal" and faught to end slavery. All of the northern states wanted to elect abe as president, and sure enough they did just that. abe wanted to re-unite the North and the South, so with a heacy heart, he sent northern soldiers to fight the South, to begin the Civil War. Abe gave one of his most famous speeches, The Gettysburg Address to the norther soldiers. Abe tried to make friends with the south,even tried to buy the slaves freedom, but they wouldnt budge. Abe ended up signing the Emancipation Proclamation to free all slaves. Abe was a great president and worked hard to bring the United States back togetehr.

~This book would be great to use during a study of Abraham Lincoln and his life. This book is filled with great facts about Abe's life, but remains child friendly. You could have students go through the book and write down three interesting facts that they did not know about Abraham Lincoln, then have students think, pair, share and share what they learned with a partner. You could also have students do a crossword puzzle, to help them organize the facrs from the book.

Missing May

By: Cynthia Rylant

Realistic Fiction

~This is a great book about a young girl named Summer. Her parents passed away when she was very younge, and she was passed from household to household becuase no one really wanted her. Then, one day Aunt May and Uncle Ob came along and decided they would take her home and raise her in West Virginia, even though they were already an older couple. May and Ob took Summer in and loved her like she was their own daughter. There was so much love in that house, untill one day May passed away while she was in her garden. Summer and Ob are in so much pain becuase they just dont know how to live life without May. A little boy who lives down the road, Cletus, started coming around and he made Ob feel a little better. Summer, Ob, and Cletus try to find ways to reach to May on the other side. All of their attempts fail and Summer is afraid she will loose Ob forever. Then on the way back from their last adventure to reach may, something in Ob changes, and he decides he will be able to go on without May. Ob takes Cletus and Summer to the Capitol building and shows them around which Summer sees as a sign that Ob will be ok.

~This book is all about Summer and Ob missing their loved one, May. It is about how they finally come to terms with her death, and realize that she will always be with them, but they must move on with their lives. To use this in a classroom you could apply it as text-to-self and have students make connections to the story about a time in their life when they were upset about something or lost a loved one. They can write a journal entry, or paper on how they coped with this like Summer did in the story.

The BFG

By: Roald Dahl

Illustrated by: Quentin Blake

Modern Fantasy

MIXBOOK

~The BFG is an exciting and funny book with lots of adventure and silly words. It is about a little girl named Sophie who is an orphan living in an all girls orphanage in London. One night she cannot sleep and looks out her window and see a big giant peeking in through windows and carrying a trumpet like contraption. She watches him take the trumpet and stick it in every window, then going on to the next. Suddenly the giant start heading towards her and he snatches her right out of her bed! The giant runs and runs with Sophie in his hand for a long time untill they finally reach giant country. Here he lets sophie go and tells her he is sorry he had to take her but he couldnt risk her telling people she saw her. This giant introduces himself as The BFG, The Big Friendly Giant. He tells her all about himself and how he catches dreams and blows them into peoples ears at night so that they can dream. Thats what he was doing in London. Sophie goes with the BFG to dream country to catch dreams for his dream collection. The BFG has thousands and thousands of dreams he keeps in jars with small descriptinons on the side so he can remeber what each one is about. The BFG also eats disgusting snozzcumbers becuase there is nothinge else for him to eat in giant country, but he does have a wonderfully tasty fizzy drink he loves called frobbscottle. Unfortunately, The BFG is not the only Giant. There are 9 other horibble giants that live in giant country with names like "Fleshlumpeater, Bloodblotter, and Childchewe," who eat "human beans" (humans). Sophie is so distraught of the idea of these terrible giants going off and guzzling human beans every night, she feels like she has to do something to stop them! Sophie and The BFG devise a plan to make a horrible terrible dream about the 9 giants going to England and guzzling up all the children from the orphanages. They will take this dream and The BFG will blow it into the Queen of Englands ear. When she wakes up from her aweful nightmare Sophie will be on her window sill to tell her it is true and not just a dream. Sophie and The BFG's plan works perfectly. The BFG, Sophie, and the whole English army head to giant country to trap the giants. The army men tie up the sleeping giants and take them back to London where they have dug a huge whole in the ground to keep them in. The giants are stuck here forever, eating only the disgusting snozzcumbers. The Queen builds The BFG and Sophie houses right beside hers. The BFG decides he wants to write a book about his adventures with Sophie, so he does, and thats how the book "The BFG" was written.

~The BFG was one of my favorite books growing up, and definately one that I would want to use with my fourth or fifth grade students. This book has a lot of intersting language in it. The BFG does not quite us proper English and makes up a lot of words. This is a great book to encorporate students imagination. What I would do with students, is have them all create their own dream jar. It can be filled with anything they like. Maybe, sparkles and blue water, or anything they want. Then they have to write a narrative story about their dream. The students also name their dream some silly made up word like one from the book.

~Another great thing to do in the classroom with this book would be to have students create a mixbook. The mixbook would contain a summary of the book and pictures that students felt went along with the summary. It could also contain some character information, or any way the student wanted to portray their comprehension of the book.

http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/education/the-bfg-4703999