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.