Crocodiles are the Best Animals of All by Sean Taylor

This book is really fun and corky because all of the animals are talking and competing with each other throughout. I like that the book starts and ends with the donkey saying, "nothing is better than being a donkey". Throughout the whole book, the crocodile thinks that he is a better animal than everyone else because he can do all the same things that the other animals can do. It is comical to see the crocodile climbing through the trees like a donkey and hopping like a kangaroo. The author personifies the animals through the lawn-mowing rabbits and the snow-skiing goat. It looks like the words are splattered at random throughout the page to make this book more appealing to young children. The colors of the pictures are also very child-like. Throughout the story, the author gives a pattern of rhymes. This makes the story flow like a song which is enjoyable to the ear. It is funny in the end, that the crocodile finds out that he is not better than everyone because he does not have ears to wiggle like a donkey. Even though the crocodile has been defeated, the last picture shows all the animals together hanging out as friends. Something that the reader can take away from this story is that each individual has his/her own special qualities and none make him/her better than another. This would be a good book for very young ages to be read to before learning to read. It is very short and has lots of fun pictures, but also has difficult words throughout.

Rose's Garden by Peter H. Reynolds

The pictures in this book start out in all black and white. This sets up the scene for the fantasy world that the author is trying to create. It is so creative to have the girl travel around a tea pot instead of an ordinary boat or ship. She collected seeds on her journey and filled her teapot with them. She came along a large city and decides to go explore it. Instead, of showing her walking all over the city and showing all the wonderful things about the city, the author shows Rose's creativity by having her find an alley and dream of all the wonderful things that could become of that dark, dull place. Rose's patience and faith that the garden will someday grow is shown when Rose sits and waits through all the different season. It is so great to see that when others find out the Rose needs help with her garden, they come from all over to bring her a little bit of hope. This really shows how one small favor can spread and grow into a whole abundance of help. Soon, Rose's garden is completely filled with all different colors of paper flowers. I like that the author chose to only bring color in when the flowers appear. This is a good visual representation of how a little bit of hope can spread to form a whole garden. The overall message of the story is shown when the author says, "each flower had appeared around her because she believed". This is a great metaphor to teach children to have patience and stick to what they believe in and never give up. I love that so many different meaning and interpretations can come from this story.

Rainy Day by Patricia Lakin

I absolutely adored this book. The characters are 4 crocodiles that are named Sam, Pam, Will and Jill. Right from the start, the author puts in a good rhyme schema. This is great for emerging readers because so many of the words rhyme and are very simple. A lot of the phrases are repeated and changed just a little by each of the crocodiles. This makes it easy for a reader to be confident in his/her reading and guess a word that is unfamiliar. When a word needs to be emphasized, the author puts it in all caps or bold in order to get the reader's attention. It is so great because it describes all the different things that these four friends try to do on a rainy day instead of laying around inside. Everything that occurs is so crazy and unexpected. When they are driving in the rain, they end up in the clouds and then they see a pirate ship, a whale and a monster. At this point, the reader could be asked to make predictions about what they think will happen next. I expected the book to continue in this scary, mystery place. However, as I turned the page, I found that the place really wasn't scary at all. The monster, whale and pirate ship were actually just parts of a miniature golf course. They then see a creature that looks like a monster but turns out to be a friendly dog with a baseball in his mouth. I like how the dialogue is separated in order to place each phrase next to the crocodile that is doing the talking. This helps the reader to know who is saying what at all times. Next, while playing baseball, what the crocodiles think are falling baseballs, becomes hail. They decide to follow the dog and he leads them to the library. This is another really unexpected occurrence. It is a great wrap-up at the end, that each crocodile is reading a book about one of the activities that they did in the rain. It is also helpful that the author ends the pattern of the book by stating each crocodile's name one last time.

The Giver

I know that I probably read this book in junior high, but I am very glad that I got the chance to re-read it because I really didn’t remember all that much from it. The author does a really great job of painting the picture of the world that these people live in by making it seem fairly normal at first. Sharing feelings at the dinner table did not strike me as unusual, because that is something that most families do. It took me a while to begin to recognize some of the weird rituals and rules that were present in this community. I thought it was really weird that people that were punished were released from the community. I like that the author lets the reader assume that “release” means to be exiled into another community. It is a shock to the reader toward the end, when Jonas realizes that his father is actually killing the baby when he releases it. Some other unusual things about the community are that each family is given one boy and one girl for their children. The mother does not actually give birth to the children because they have women that give birth as their occupations. Also, when children become 12 years old, they are given the occupation that they will hold for the rest of their life. It is as if childhood ends right then during the ceremony of 12. I also thought that it was interesting that when children begin to get hormones and have feelings for members of the opposite sex, they are forced to take pills to stop those desires. The parents seem to be brainwashed into believing everything that the rules say and making sure they enforce the rules. I like that the author begins to explain everything that the reader is wondering about through the interactions between Jonas and the giver. When the giver transmits a memory of the past to Jonas, the author describes each memory in such detail that you feel like you are actually in that moment. My favorite description is, “crystals in the air around him, gathering on his back like fur”. It was at this point, that I began to realize, these people are from the future and they have completely wiped out all of their memories from the past in order to make a perfect world. The author keeps the reader questioning things throughout. I had questions like, “what is significant about the river?” and “How did this world become so sheltered?”. I also like that Lowry did not just come out and state that the people could not see colors. Instead, he gets the reader wondering, through Jonas seeing the apple differently and then the people’s faces and then Fiona’s hair. I hadn’t thought about how weird it was to have the old go off to live in a separate place until I read the memory about family. The people in the community do not stay close to their families all their lives. This would be very relatable for any reader because family is so important to most people. To think, that one day my great-great grandchildren will have no clue where they came from, is terrifying. I still am a little confused as to why, only people with pale eyes are able to receive the memories. It is interesting that Jonas begins to remember his own memories of joy towards the end of the book. I really like that Lowry ends the book with a lot of opportunities for different interpretations. Jonas begins to see love and Christmas and hear music. This could be a place that he has discovered that lives just the same as people in the past. It could also be his old town because the Giver might have helped the people to bring back colors and family and music.

Princess Hyacinth by Florence Parry Heide

The informal way that the author has set up the words in this book really adds to the unusual setting it has. Unlike most princesse who have lovely lives and beautiful dresses, this litttle princess has to stay inside all of the time and when she does leave, she has to wear an ellaborate wardrobe in order to weigh her down. This is because she floats. The author's use of sarcasm throughout the book makes this a fun read and intrigues the reader to see what will happen next. A little boy tells the princess that he like her and she thinks that instead of saying, "I like you" he may have said "Toodle-oo" or "Yike-a-doodle-doo". The princess is very bored in the castle and decided to go out in her weighed-down clothes and decides she wants to float into the sky with a bundle of baloons. She takes off everything but her "royal underwear". The little princess floats into the air and everyone in the castle goes chaotic to try and figure out how they will get her down. The little boy that likes her finally uses his kite to laso her down to earth. From there on out, she is allowed to go outside and float, as long as the little boy flew his kite in the air to catch her. Then. she was never bored again.

Max Counts His Chickens by Rosemary Wells

This is a great counting book to use with children that are just learning their numbers because it only goes up to ten. It is very simple and is about two little bunnies looking for marshmellow chicks on Easter morning. A child could really realate to this because this it a ritual that many children take part in on Easter. Ruby looks in all the right place for the marshmellows, while Max cannot find a single one throughout the hunt because he is looking in all the wrong places. While Max is looking, he is making a huge mess because he keeps pouring things out onto the floor. Next to the large number of how many chicks they have found, there are that many chicks all lined up. This would be great to have the child point to each chick and count them up on each page. When Ruby finds all ten chicks and Max has none, grandma calls the Easter bunny to tell him what has happened. This would probably get children excited to see that parents can actually call the Easter bunny. Then the Easter bunny brings Max his chicks and he starts counting them all out of order. I think this is also something good for a child learning to count to notice. He/she could point out that Max is counting wrong and try to help him by counting up to ten the right way.

Hurricane by Jonathon London

The pictures in this book are absolutely gorgeous. They are all hand-painted and are done in watercolors which give them a very relaxed look. The little boy and his brother live in Puerto Rico next to a mountain and he tells the reader about how they swim in the ocean and check for scorpions everyday. This sets up the scene for what Puerto Rico is like. When the boys are swimming, the pictures describe how the sky changes colors from light blue to deep purple to dark black and blue. The pictures become darker and scarier as the story goes on. The trees are swaying and there is lightening in the distance. This is great for kids who have no idea what a hurricane is or what damage it can do. The author describes that his family had to drive almost underwater. When they are in the shelter with other people from the community, they begin to sing silent night. The author puts it in Spanish to let the reader know that many people in Puerto Rico speak Spanish. After the storm is over, the family goes back to their home and have to clean up. They are lucky that they did not lose everything. I think that this is a good book to use when teaching about hurricanes because it somewhat sugar coats all the really terrible things that come from such a horrendous storm. This would also be a good book to use in order to bring in other cultures and backgrounds to the classroom.

The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor

I love that this book tells a story of the class exploring and learning about oceans while at the same time, it has little facts written on pieces of paper throughout the pictures. Each fact is written by one of the students. This is a great way to teach non-fiction without just giving out information. Another thing that is occurring besides the regular text is a lot of dialogue in little captions to show that the students are actually conversing. I also thought that it was very clever how everything that is said is made very literal through the pictures. Jake feels crabby as he is touching a crab and Mrs. Frizzle is cold because her dress has ice cubes and fans all over it. It is fun how the kids dream about going to the ocean and suddenly the teacher makes those dreams come to life by taking them on a trip there. At first, it seems like the class is just going to the beach, but then the teacher keeps driving the school bus into the ocean. The class explores everything on the ocean floor and the reader is able to learn new things through facts that each student shares. Every creature is labeled so that the child is not wondering what things are. They have a variety of adventures in the ocean and the entire time, the class is freaking out while the teacher is completely calm. When they get back, the students draw pictures and maps of what they have learned. The very last page has a multiple choice quiz with answers on the next page. This lets children know that the things that happened in the book cannot really happen in real life. This book would be great to incorporate into a science lesson and contains a lot of great information in a fun way. It does not get boring and is a great example of how fun exploring can be.

Nova's Ark

This is a great science fiction book that takes place in a futuristic world of robots. I like that the author tells the story in 1st person, through the eyes of the robot. The little robot boy could relate to other little boys because he is always dreaming about becoming a pilot. Nova's father spends his entire life searching for a planet that has enough crystal to energize them forever. Nova decides to fly a spaceship without permission and lands on a planet. He is very creative and begins to build animals that come to life so that he won't be lonely. As if this book isn't creative enough, when Nova finds his father dying, him and his animal friends sacrifice certain parts of their bodies for the father to come back to life. The father realizes that Nova has found the planet that he had been searching for. The go back home and Nova is a hero. This book seems to be geared toward kids in grades 4-6 because it contains a lot of challenging words, like "menagerie", "spires", "sphere", "consciousness", etc. It also is written in a language that contains a robotic theme with many unusual names for things. The author also is very descriptive in order to always remind the reader that they are robots. He says, "his mother clanked his steel cheek with a kiss", instead of just saying that she gave him a kiss. The pictures are very bright and colorful and I like the scheme the author has chosen of having some pages contain words with a small inset picture on the left and a whole picture on the right. While other pages are filled with one long panoramic picture. I particularly love the full spread picture of the new world that Nova has found. The image looks so real and majestic with its shades of purple and pink. I also noticed that each page that contains writing and an inset picture, also contains a small picture pertaining to what the page is about next to the page number.

Jimmy's Boa and the Bungee Jump Slam Dunk

This book is really wild because it is very unrealistic for a pet boa constrictor to be slithering around basketball practice. It is really funny to see the snake trying to do all the activities that the kids are doing. I also like that the author made the snake have feelings and get sad when he is told he cannot dance. Everything about the basketball practice is really wacky. The dance teacher is playing, Jimmy uses a trampoline to make a jump shot and the snake plays really well. The snake helps everyone by wrapping himself around them to put them in the basket. Then, rabbits from the playground come in to play. The pages are filled with chaotic pictures of everyone running around the basketball court. In the end the pet boa constrictor is put on the basketball team and the rabbits are put on the dance team. The whole story is told through one of the classmates retelling her day to her mom. Her mom is completely appauled by everything and the author ends with everyone at her house to celebrate. By the last page, there is even a pig and a seal to help celebrate. The pictures really make this book come alive and I like that the boa is slithering around everyone in each one. This book would be good for 2nd or 3rd graders because it does not seem too challenging but there are a few hard names here and there.

Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians

Before reading this graphic novel, I was very apprehensive because I assumed that it would just be like a bunch of comic strips. I never really liked reading the comics when I was little so I was not very excited to read this. I was suprised to see that this book was not filled with a bunch of seperate comic strips, but had one long story throughout. It is full of actions and new funny things that occur. I think that this would be a great book for a strong reader that is just not interested in reading. The little boy in my child study is a very good reader but is scared away by large texts or chapter books. He loves drawing and videogames, so I plan to have him read this book at our next meeting. I think it would be great to have him create his own graphic novel after he is finished with the book. Another thing I really liked about this book, is that all of the sound effects are written out. Things like, "beep beep", "thump" and "FWOOM". This helps the reader to feel like they can actually hear the noises instead of just seeing actions occur. I also like that all the text is put into captions. This makes the reading seem faster and easier. I love the storyline to this book. The librarians are the bad guys and are trying to destroy all of the videogames. Their deadly weapons are that the books come alive and destroy the games. The lunch lady tries to stop them using food as her weapon. The pictures are great during the battle and one page even just shows a huge explosion where the kids and lunch lady attack. The author ends the story by combining the two activities. The kids have to read while waiting to play the new video games. It is also great that the whole book is in black and white with yellow here and there. The yellow helps focus the reader's attention on that particular object.

Wacky Wednesday by Theo LeSieg

This book has a really good rhyming scheme throughout the entire story. It is a creative way to talk about those days when nothing goes right. This is also a great counting book because every new page contains a new thing that is wacky or out of place. The child can look at the pictures to try and find all of the wacky things on the page. The illustrations are really fun and it is actually pretty tricky to find all of the things that are out of place. The wacky details are things like; a missing door, tiger in a stroller, girl with no legs, shoes on the ceiling, a teacher on roller skates, etc. The number of wacky things goes up to twenty and things get extremely chaotic. It is funny because the pictures show everyone acting like all of these wacky things are completely normal. I really liked how the author ended the story with the child back safe in her bed with all the wacky things gone. She then refers to the very first wacky thing the little girl saw being gone. This would be great for a beginning reader, maybe in kindergarten. It teaches things like rhyming and counting. All of the words are beginner level.

Bored Bill by Liz Pichon

This is a great science fiction book that is geared towards males and females because it features a dog going into space. This book is funny and imaginative right off the bat because the dog not only is able to talk to his owner, but has a bitter personality that never wants to do anything. He thinks that everything the owner wants to do with him is completely boring. When he is out on a walk with his owner, they are both gusted off their feet by the wind. He is blasted into space and becomes very excited because he thinks that space will not be boring at all. Bill's facial expressions and personality completely change because he is excited to explore and experience fun things. I like that the author does little exerts of what is happening with his owner back on earth. The author shows that Bill is yelling about the gross alien food and how boring their lives are, by putting certain words in all caps. Bill realizes that his owner was right that you have to do things in order to have fun. He tries to do the things with the boring aliens that his owner likes to do. Bill realizes that he really miss his owner and goes back to earth to do fun activities with her. I really like that the last page shows the aliens sitting down to dinner with Bill and his owners. The book is a great way to teach kids that in order to have fun, they have to try new things and have a positive attitude. This book would probably be aimed towards grades 1-3 because it only contains a few challenging words here and there.

Clifford Follows his Nose

This book tracks Clifford as a puppy going from place to place because he is lost. He is so small that it is hard to spot him. This book would be good for very young kids to try and point out Clifford on each page. Clifford makes a mess everywhere he goes and the people get very angry at home. Even though he causes a lot of trouble, he is always smiling because he doesn't realize he is causing any harm and usually just does it by accident. Clifford ends up in a florists shop and jumps into a box. This is fun because the child might be excited to see where Clifford will end up next. Then, at the end the woman that received the flowers turns out to be Clifford's owner's mom. The two are reunited and very happy to see each other. The story is really basic but easy for a child to comprehend. This book is very short and would be good for children with a very small vocabulary. It is definitely not one that I would be interested in, but i was surprised to see that the boy in my child study was really excited to read it. This shows how different children's perceptions may be from ours and we cannot choose books based on whether we will like them.

The Princess and the Beggar

This is a Korean folktale that would be really good for introducing the Korean culture into the classroom. The illustrations are all in water color, which really shows the setting of the fairy tale. The book is also set up as a fairy tale on the first page with the cutout description of where the story is and what it is about. The illustrations are wonderful for showing different aspects of the Korean culture, such as the houses, the landscape and the way they dress and wear their hair. This is a story about the weeping princess who cried about every little thing. One day, she sees a beggar boy and cries because she feels bad for him. Her family believes that she will not be wanted by men because she cries too much. When the daughter turns 16, the father announces that she will be put into an arranged marriage. The daughter does not want to be married because she wants to be able to study secretly. She tells her father that she will go marry the beggar. Her father is furious and sends her into exile. She goes to the beggar and asks him to marry her. He refuses at first, but after she learns his way of life, they begin to like each other. She teaches the beggar skills to be a hunter. The beggar enters in the king's hunting contest and wins. When the king realizes that the beggar is the man that has won the contest, he is astonished that a beggar could be that good. The beggar explains to the king that the weeping princess is the one that has taught him to hunt. The father becomes happy and accepts her back into his life. The very last picture shows the beggar on horseback going home to greet the princess and their 4 children. This book teaches a lot of things about the Korean culture. Arranged marriage is customary, women are not supposed to study and beggars are expected to be weak and incapable of manly tasks. This book also teaches that the most simplistic people end up the happiest in the end.

Horrible Harry in Room 2B

I love that this book is from the perspective of one of Harry's classmates, Doug. It makes you feel like you are really there in school with him, seeing all the bad things that Harry does. It is so funny and typical of the cootie stage that Harry gets back at a kid by tickling him until he says, "I love Girls", twice. The pictures throughout the book help to give the reader some concrete images of what is going on. The pictures also make this more of an enjoyable read for those kids who still are uneasy about reading chapter books. While I was reading the book, I thought that Doug really hated Harry, so it surprised me when he said, "Harry is my best friend". It is helpful that there is a picture of the stub people because I had no idea what they were. It is funny that Harry and Doug think that they are going to cause so much chaos with the stub people and then everyone ends up playing with them or ignoring them. Harry's Halloween costume, as a snake, is really creative and different from what most kids would choose to be. I like that, even Harry, the class clown likes to read books. Harry is very goofy at many times throughout the book. For the thanksgiving play, he asks to be a dead fish. It is cute that he tells his crush, who is too shy to play any other parts, that she can be a fish like him and not say anything. Harry and Doug's friendship throughout the book is really funny because they claim to be best friends but Doug always talks about how horrible Harry is. Then, Harry leaves Doug to be partners with his crush on the field trip. In the end, Harry realizes he would rather have Doug as a partner. Harry helps Doug by getting rid of a bee on his sandwich but then in the end gets stung by the bee. Doug realizes that Harry actually is a good friend and sticks up for Harry when he gets teased. This is a really fast read that would be great for kids that are just beginning to read chapter books.

Sparky's Bark El Ladrido de Sparky

This book is a great way for teachers that may have ESL or ELL students with a Hispanic background to feel more comfortable with reading. The teacher could use this book as a read aloud by reading the English part and then the Spanish part. It is fun for kids to hear things spoken in a different language. The teacher could also teach the children a few words to say in Spanish. Throughout the English part, there are a few phrases in Spanish. The teacher could use this to ask the kids to guess what those Spanish phrases might mean. The little girl goes inside to take a siesta. This would be a great way to bring in the Hispanic culture by telling the kids that in many Hispanic countries, it is customary for people of all ages to take a short nap in the afternoon. This book also can help English-speaking children to understand how hard it is for those that do not speak English as their first language. The little girl feels stupid when she does not say an English word correctly and her cousin laughs at her. The little girl wants to be able to communicate but just doesn't know how. Then, her cousin teaches her English so that they can communicate. This might help children in the class to make an effort to be patient with those that do not understand and maybe even try to teach them. I love this book and plan to add it to my collection for my future class. I think that spanish is something that needs to be addressed with all ages because it has become so prevelant.

When Giants Come to Play

This book is really fun and can help tap into a child's imagination. I like that all of the illistrations are in water color to add to the imaginary world. This book is definitely based on the pictures because it would be hard for kids to imagine what the giants are really like without seeing the pictures. It is fun that the little girl is hiding in the giants shirt pocket when they are playing hide and seek. This may help children with understanding how big these giants really are. The author portrays the giants as being really friendly by showing them play with the little girl and not try to hurt anyone. This may change a child's perception whom may have thought that all giants were mean and scary before reading this book. It is funny when they are picking peaches and the giants just pick up the tree from the ground and shake the peaches out. It is also really comical that they use Anna's sister to play dolls and her brother in his car to play cars. When the giants leave Anna at her house at the end of the day, it made me think that they come to play very rarely. I like that in this imaginary world, anything can happen. So when Anna hopes that they will stay, the last page shows them sleeping in her front yard.

The Sunday Blues by Neil Layton

This book does a great job of capturing how everyone may feel on Sunday's because they know that they have a full week ahead of them. This would be a great book for a teacher to read aloud on Monday morning, to get the kids excited about the week because school really isn't a dreadful place. I really like that the front cover invites all different readers to enjoy this book by saying who the book is for. I like that the pictures are hand-drawn and look like a child may have drawn them. The author sets the mood by having a picture of Steve's house with a dark rain cloud above it and the windows showing everything outside to be blue. It is clever that the things Steve does all look like they have been drawn on paper. Once again the rain cloud is brought up midway through the story when the family is driving home and there is a black cloud above their car. I thought that it was funny that when Steve is dreaming about pirates he sees a pirate school and pirate teacher so he immediately wakes up. Throughout the entire book, Steve is completely dreading school and is so certain that no matter what he will have a terrible time there. Then, when he arrives and the children are nice to him and invite him to do things, he realizes that school will not be as bad as he thought. This could be a good way to teach, especially young kids, that if they have a bad attitude about school, they won't have any fun. This book would be good for kindergartners that are still terrified to leave their parents for the whole day.

Arthur's Pet Business

At first glance, I actually thought that this was not a good pick for kids to read because it is so common and old. However, I have learned that sometimes, depending on the kid, they need that familiarity in order to feel comfortable when reading. The book starts out by showing the relationship that Arthur and his little sister D.W. share. Arthur tells her not to tell mom and dad that he wants a puppy and on the very next page, she blurts it out at dinner. This is relateable to little kids because after dinner, while the parents are discussing, the kids are standing out in the hall trying to eavesdrop on the conversation. Arthur has to get a job in order to show that he is responsible enough to have a dog. He comes up with the idea of taking care of people's pets. This is really fun because a lot of little kids think that it would be great to have their own business. To little kids, $10 is a whole lot of money, so they would probably be pretty surprised when they read that Arthur will get that much for watching one dog. It is really silly that Perky is so mean and is always growling, but his owner is so crazy about her that she has pictures of her everywhere and luggage with her name on it. Showing that Arthur is exhausted from taking care of Perky is a really good way to teach kids how much work it is to care for a dog. Then more pets are brought to his business and it is funny to look at the picture of chaos that occurs with each pet. When Arthur cannot even go out and play with friends, the reader might start to realize that having a business and making money isn't all that fun after all. Instead of ending the book with Arthur giving Perky back and receiving his $10, the author puts a spin on things. Perky goes missing and everyone runs around frantically trying to find her before her owner shows up. Perky is found with puppies and Arthur gets his perfect ending of being given one of the puppies to keep.

Picasso and the Girl with a Ponytail by Laurence Anholt

This book is a great way to introduce Pablo Picasso to a student. It shows his culture and different parts of his artistic style. I really like that all of the illustrations are done in water color because it shows the artistic look of Europe. This author does a great job of presenting a biography of Pablo Picasso in a fun and kid-related way. Throughout the book, there are many pictures of his actual work. It is funny because the book starts out with the kids all sitting around talking about how amazing Picasso is, and then they look over the balcony to see that Picasso is yelling to them and showing them a picture that he has just sketched of Sylvette, the girl with the ponytail. He invites them into his studio and begins to draw a picture of Sylvette. The book shows his first painting of the girl as completely normal. Then the painting gradually starts to change, but the same image of the girl can still be seen. The third picture is actually done in his cubist style. This is something that a teacher could use to then show the kids more of his paintings in this style. Picasso teaches Sylvette that she can paint whatever she would like and not to be scared of failing. He shows her picture that he paints when he is in different moods. This part is cool also, because they are some of Picasso actual famous paintings. The author brings in a fact, that Picasso made sculptures from old junk, by showing him searching through a pile of junk. Sylvette tells Picasso many of her secrets and Picasso makes a sculpture of her with a key in hand, symbolizing that she can open new doors. On the very last page, the author reveals that Sylvette is a real girl and Picasso really did paint pictures of her that became famously known as, "The girl with the ponytail". There is also an actual photo of Sylvette as a teenager. This book would be a great read-aloud for a teacher when studying art history. Something fun the teacher could do with the class would be to look up more of Picasso's work on Sylvette.

The Pink Refrigerator

This book by Tim Egan, is very simple with a formal format. Each page has a picture that takes up the top part and a little bit of writing at the bottom. Dodsworth is a mouse that lives a very simple life and does not do anything new or exciting. He basically does the same things everyday. He goes to the junkyard to try and find things for his thrift store. One day he finds a pink refrigerator with a magnet and a not on it. Each day the note reads a new activity for him to try and there is something different inside the refrigerator to be used for the activity. This is really fun for a child because it keeps them interested in what the refrigerator note will say next. I like that the book follows a pattern of Dosworth reading the note, trying to pull off the magnet, looking inside the refrigerator, putting the item for sale in his store and then refusing to sell it in order to do the activity. After a while, he stops putting things up for sale in his shop and goes straight to trying out the activity. I noticed that at the beginning of the book, Dodsworth never had a smile on his face, but once he started discovering new things to do, he was always smiling. After a while, the note on the refrigerator says keep exploring and there is nothing inside the refrigerator. Dodsworth gets mad because he has nothing more to do. Then, he realizes that he needs to keep trying new things. He goes to his store and leaves a note that says, "Went to find an Ocean". This is a great way to see if the child was paying attention when reading because they would have to remember that Dodsworth painted an ocean earlier in the book and said that he had never been to the ocean. This explains his curiosity for finding an ocean. This book is a great way to teach children that sometimes making life easy by doing the same things every day is not that great. Children can learn to try new things even if they fear that they will fail or not be good at something.

Man on the Moon

I really like that the author starts out the book with Bob being an ordinary man in regular clothes in his house. The first picture shows him holding a cup of coffee and waving. This teaches kids that astronauts really are normal people that do normal things. It is so fun that he goes to work every day like anyone else would, but actually works on the moon. It is also funny that Bob reads the newspaper on the way up to the moon, like it is no big deal. His job is to clean the moon. I love the part where it says, "there's no such thing as aliens". Then you turn the page and the whole next page is filled with an image of aliens with no words. It is creative that there is also a man on Mars and a man on Saturn that he eats lunch with. Everything is very imaginative which makes it science fiction but is based on the truth, that people really do go to the moon. It is funny that throughout the book, Bob talks about there not being any aliens, but the little kid reading could probably point out that there are aliens hiding in most of the images. Then at the very end, it shows Bob as an alien and then shows his house surrounded by little aliens popping out. It is interesting that the book leaves the reader to wonder whether or not there really is such thing as aliens. It also gives the reader an imagination to think about what goes on on the moon.

How I Become a Pirate

Just looking at the front cover of this book could make any little kid curious and excited to see what is inside. There is a picture of a little pirate boy riding on the shoulders of a pirate with a parrot on his shoulder. As I open up to the cover page, it shows a picture of the same little boy leaping across the page with a wooden sword in hand and a newspaper hat on his head. The illustrations are amazing throughout the whole book and really add to the story without taking away from it. I think that little kids would like this story because it is something that any kid might imagine or wish would happen when they are playing at the beach. When the pirate speaks, it really sounds like the way a pirate would talk with words like, "matey", "aye" and "ahoy". It is so fun because it takes you into an imaginary world of pirates and treasure, while the boy is still very ordinary. The author makes the pirate's rules sound so fun because the little boy no longer has to use his manors or eat his vegetables. I really like that whenever the crew is yelling something back to the captain, the author puts the words in large, bold font so that they really stand out. It could be relatable to little kids because oftentimes they can't wait to go explore and be somewhere that they do not have to listen to their parents or do things they don't want to. This book shows that it doesn't always turn out for the better because you might end up missing the small things that your parents do for you, like reading you books or kissing you goodnight. It is clever that the author chose to bring both worlds together and have the pirates bury the treasure in the little boy's backyard.

Juny B. Jones and some Sneaky Peeky Spying

I love that Barbara Park completely takes on the character of a little girl in kindergarten. The dialogue sounds just like a little kid talking. She speaks everything on her mind. Right off the bat, when she introduces herself, she talks about what the B stands for and how she does not like it. This is a common way that a child of that age would introduce themselves. The author also gives the feel of a little kid, by using very bad grammar. She always uses the present tense plus the –ed ending for past tense. It’s funny because every time she yells, the author uses all capital letters. I really like that there are pictures throughout the book to give a better visual representation. I think that the pictures are there because Junie B. is too young to give really good descriptions of what is going on. I like that everything that happens can really relate to kids. Junie B. does the same things most kids do like riding the bus, going to the grocery store… I thought it was so funny that there was a part about Junie seeing her teacher at the grocery store because I am always told how kids will think your famous if they see you in public when you’re a teacher. Any kid could relate to words like pasketti, zample, perfecter, egg-zactly and meanie. I feel like I am listening to a child talk at all times because she does such funny things. She is very gullible and thinks her head will explode if she holds in a secret. She also is completely disgusted by seeing her teacher kiss a man, who is probably her husband. The whole story is very short and sweet. It would be a good book for 1st-3rd grade kids because it would keep their attention throughout the story. There is a lot happening at once. It is so funny how Junie just keeps rambling and does not pay attention to how her actions will affect the people around her. I like that the author ends the book with Junie saying that, after all that happened, she still wants to hide in her teacher's hamper. I noticed that after the book ends, the author includes definitions, in Junie's words, of terms that are used in other books. This might make the reader want to read another Junie B. Jones book.