Annotated Bibliography

Hopefully teachers and parents alike will find this bibliography a great tool in selecting a few new books for their students or children.  This list is broken down by genre and appropriate grade level for easy selection.  You will find a summary, my personal response to the book, and activity ideas for the classroom.

Historical Fiction/Non Fiction Activity

As a child I remember feeling disinterest in history lessons, partly due to the required memorization of dates and the only learning coming straight out of the textbook. Historical fiction picture books are a wonderful way to introduce interest in actual events that took place in history. I like to think of these books as a teaser that draws the child into history through illustrations and interesting stories.  Once the students are intrigued, an introduction of a non fiction book on the same topic could be read to teach the accurate accounts.  An example I will give is the life of Emily Dickinson.  This would be a great language arts/social studies integration lesson, possibly done in April for National Poetry Month.

Historical Fiction Picture Book                     Non Fiction Book

Emily by Michael Bedard                              Emily Dickinson: A Biography by Milton Meltzer                    

In the book Emily a little girl moves across the street from a yellow house. In the yellow house lives a woman the neighborhood calls "The Myth".  The little girl becomes intrigued with the woman in the yellow house.  The woman is Emily Dickinson and the girl's mother goes to the house and gifts Emily with lily bulbs and receives a poem in return.  The story is about the little girl intrigued yet fearful of meeting the woman and the realization that the woman may be equally scared.  In the back of the book the author gives a brief biography of Emily.  

In comparison Emily Dickinson: A Biography is a narrated biographical account of Emily's life and time.  There are actual family profile pictures and drawings of Emily's town.  The biography gives a real life glimpse into who Emily was, her inspirations for her poetry, and ideas on her reclusive nature.  

Activity:

Grade: 5

Teacher would read aloud Emily to the class and host a discussion of thoughts on the book.

After the read aloud students would break into groups of four and read selected passages out of the Emily Dickinson Biography.  The selections would be predetermined and would give an overview of her life from birth to death.  Students would be asked to write down interesting facts about Emily they find in their passage on a large sheet of paper or poster board.  Each group will present the information they found in their passage with the class.  In the end as a class we could do a Venn diagram and compare and contrast characteristics found about Emily in the read aloud and the biography.  The students could independently write an acrostic poem about Emily using her first name as a closing piece to the lesson. 

                    

Nonficiton Selection: Almost Gone: The Worlds Rarest Animals by Steve Jenkins

For this post I was required to read a non fiction selection and chose the book Almost Gone: The World's Rarest Animals.  Steve Jenkins is a favorite in our house.  Steve writes about animals in such an interesting, child appealing way.  He writes about facts that seem to be plucked right out of a child's brain.  The way a child can ask the most abstract questions like why do lizards tails break off, Steve will answer and additionally tell you how many other things a lizard does with its tail.

In this book Steve addresses extinction, which for some children is an issue that has never entered their mind.  Steve writes about the animal, its location, how many are left, and what the possible reason for their impending extinction might be.  He also provides a map in the back of the book so when the child reads about the animal’s location he/she can reference the world map and see where that location is.  Most of the animals mentioned are animals I had never heard of like the Iriomote Cat or the Tasmanian Wolf.  Steve's illustrations are what drew me to his books to begin with.  He uses what looks like a layered paper effect to give depth and cool angles to the animals in his books. 

My Review: I enjoyed reading this book with Dutch because it opened his eyes to how we treat our environment can directly affect  the lives of animals. He enjoyed looking up the locations of each animal on the map and seeing how close each animal was to Florida. Steve's books have already made their way in to our home library and will definitely find a place within my classroom library.

Dutch's Review ( in his words): I like the pictures and the map in this book.  There are so many cool animals that I never heard of, but it’s sad there aren't a lot left.   Why do people think its o.k. to litter? That can hurt the animals and then we won't have any left. I think kids should read this book and then they will learn how to help save the animals.

The Islander

Most of the book I write about will be Cynthia Rylant books, as I am doing an author study on her in my children's literature course. What I am finding is her books for younger children are, in my opinion, simplistic and slightly average, but her books penned for older children are beautifully written.

The Islander is the current read in our house. The reading level states that it is for fifth grade, but I decided to read his book aloud to my five year old tonight to see how he would respond to it.  Needless to say we both got sucked into the mystery and fantasy of the main character Daniel and the mysterious occurrences happening to him the island of Coquille. Daniel lives with his grandfather since the death of his parents on a very small island.  He is shy and an avid reader, but not formally educated or a typical boy's boy.  We are only through part one of the book, but I had to write to say how intriguing & wonderful this book is.  It has all the cliff hanging mystery and fantasy of a classic adventure novel. Daniel who is brilliant and sullen has spotted a mermaid who spoke his name on the shore and he begins contacting her through messages in a bottle.  The mermaid sends an otter who tosses a shell on the shore that contains an old tarnished brass key. What does this key open?  What will Daniel discover next?

Through the extraordinary encounters with the mermaid, Daniel has a new found wonderment for life. In his words "Seeing her that evening made me believe in things I'd never believed in before. And for the first time, I felt a part of the world. For the world was no longer little stone houses and wooden boats and the cry of the gulls at dawn. It was larger and deeper and more marvelous than I had ever known, and being absolutely sure of this made me want, more than ever, to be alive."

Cynthia's writing is eloquent and emotional.  You can feel the wonder, as well as, the deeper feelings Daniel experiences. I have officially become a Cynthia Rylant fan. I cannot wait until morning when Dutch and I can sit down and devour the rest of The Islander.

Mr. Putter & Tabby Stir the Soup

The next book Dutch and I read together was Mr. Putter & Tabby Stir the Soup.  This is one of many books in a series Rylant has created.  The stories are all based around an elderly man and his cat.  The books are problem solution based.  The problems tend to be mundane and easy to solve.  This story is simply about Mr. Putter wanting to make soup and the old stove he loves is not working.  He asks his neighbor Mrs. Teaberry if they can cook the soup at her house and she says yes, but she will be leaving and they will have to put up with her dog Zeke.  Zeke begins to cause problems and Putter takes a nap.  When Teaberry returns she continues cooking the soup and they all have lunch together.

My Review:  This book, like the others we have read in this series, are simplistic problems that I imagine would come up in old age.  Rylant once again focuses on the elderly, which surprisingly, goes over well with children.  Maybe this is due to the grandpa effect Putter has. The dog Zeke continually drags items from around the house into the kitchen for Mr. Putter in hopes that he will play with him.  Putter puts all the items in the bathtub, so the dog cannot reach them.  Dutch thought the dog was the best part of the book.  This book for me was mediocre since the plot was based around a pot of soup and a broken stove.  Thankfully she did write the problematic dog Zeke into the book otherwise it would not have been as entertaining. Mrs. Teaberry and Zeke are in most of the books in the series and they seem to be the interesting funny characters that keep these books going. This is a classic example of a book I might have overlooked for Dutch thinking the concept is too simple, but listening to Dutch review the book I realize I cannot underestimate a book until it has been read to a child, they are the best children's literature critics.

Dutch's Review (in his own words): I think this book is good and I want to read it again!  I like Mr. Putter and Tabby.  The dog goes and brings all those silly things to Mr. Putter.  It was so funny on the very last page when Zeke had celery in his mouth!

The Old Woman Who Named Things (multicultural)

Tonight was the first night reading one of the many books by Cynthia Rylant.  She is a relatively new author to our household. I always associate Cynthia Rylant with the Henry and Mudge series and unbeknownst to me Rylant has written books that span from early elementary through adolescence. Tonight's book choice was The Old Woman Who Named Things.  It was a story of an elderly woman who had outlived all of her friends.  She refuses to name anything she feels she will out live so she has taken to naming her house, her car, her chair and her bed. A puppy begins to visit her everyday and she refuses to allow it to live with her or name it out of fear she will out live it.  The visits continue through the year until one day the dog doesn't show up.  The old woman searches and finds the dog, then names him lucky, which represents her luck for having such amazing friends through her life.

 My Review: This book was sweet and slightly quirky and embraced a sad reality of growing old alone. The illustrations are creative and cool, which is probably where I found the quirkiness. The content was an issue that most children never think about, which can create a nice empathy and appreciation for their elders.  My son Dutch thought my old lady voice was funny and liked the fact that she named inanimate objects.

Dutch's Review (in his words): I like this book, its so funny she names her house.  I think it was sad when the dog didn't come back and he was at the dogcatchers.  "Dutch why do you think she named her house and her chair, but not the dog?"  I think she didn't want to outgrow the dog and a house she can't out grow.  She was sad she out grew her friends mom, so she didn't name the dog at first.  I like that he lived with her and I like his name Lucky.

Adventure Through the Eyes of Babes

In this blog I will write and reflect upon four selections using my "mature" eye.  As a mother to a fiver year old boy, who is a constant inspiration for my teachings, this assignment gives me the opportunity to explore future text for my students, as well as, share this experience with my son Dutch.  Dutch has already developed his own finicky preferences in children's literature, so why not include his points of view as a counter to my thoughts.  The reflections will primarily be mine, with Dutch tidbits thrown in at the end of my posts. Adventurous literary reflections from a 33 year old future teacher and random thoughts from a five year boy.