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Book Blog #10 on "The Ugly Duckling"

Title: The Ugly Duckling
Author: Hans Christian Andersen
Illustrator: Jerry Pinkney
Publisher: Morrow Junior Books
Copyright: 1999
Number of Pages: 40
Genre: Traditional Literature
Grade Level: 2nd
Content Area: Science



This story is about a swan who is born into the family of ducklings and is thought to be ugly by all of the others. Even all of the other animals that sees him with them thinks he is ugly too and shuns him. After a long winter, he finally grew into the most beautiful swan in the pond and realized he was not a duck after all. I think this is a great story to read to children, especially if some of them feel like they look differently than the other children in the class. I would also use this to talk to the kids about bullying and how it is not tolerated in my classroom. Then I would relate it to science by talking about all the different animals that live in ponds.

Book Blog #9 on "The Giving Tree"

Title: The Giving Tree

Author: Shel Silverstein

Illustrator: Shel Silverstein

Publisher: Harper & Row

Copyright: 1964

Number of Pages: 64

Genre: Poetry

Grade Level: 3rd

Content Area: Science

This story is about a tree’s love for a boy. The boy visits the tree every day to gather leaves, climb, swing from her branches, eat her apples, play hide-and-seek, and rest against her trunk. The boy loves the tree and so the tree is happy. The boy gets older and doesn’t visit as much. He visits rarely throughout the rest of his life, but never wants to play. At one point, he wanted money, so the tree offered him her apples to sell. He does and she is happy again. The next time he wants a house, so the tree offered him her branches to build a house. He does this also and she is happy again. He visits the next time when he is an older man and says he wants a boat to travel far away. She tells him to cut down her trunk and make a boat, so he does but this time the tree is not as happy. The last time he visits he is an elderly man and the tree is upset because she has nothing left to give him. This time the old man says all he needs is a quiet place to sit down and rest, so she proudly offers her stump. The boy sits down to rest and the tree is happy again. I think this story is very sweet and cute for kids. The illustrations aren’t very vivid or colorful, but I think they illustrate the story very well. I would read this story to the students and then bring in science by talking about trees.

Book Talk #2

This book would be really great for Mathematics with Kindergarteners or First Graders. It also has a lot of flash cards and stickers that comes with it for the kids to use! I forgot to mention in the video, but the Genre is Modern Fantasy because of how the author personifies the animals!

Book Talk on Pete the Cat's Got Class

Book Blog #8 on "Ruth and the Green Book"

Title: Ruth and the Green Book

Author: Alexander Ramsey Calvin, Gwen Strauss

Illustrator: Floyd Cooper

Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group

Copyright: 2010

Number of Pages: 32

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade Level: 4^th

Content Area: Social Studies

Alexander Ramsey Calvin and Gwen Strauss wrote the book, Ruth and the Green Book about a young girl’s trip to see her grandmother in Alabama in the 1950's. Ruth is the young girl in the story. Ruth’s father had just bought a car, so she was excited to travel in it with her parents. She found out very soon that people outside of her hometown did not treat African American travelers very well. One gas station they stopped at did not allow them to use their bathroom and many hotels did not let them stay the night. They met a friendly attendant at a gas station that showed them The Green Book. This book was a guide for African American travelers on where they would be welcomes without hesitation. They were able to spend the rest of the journey among friendly people and made it safely to Ruth’s grandmother’s house. I would relate this book to Social Studies and talk to the students about how different it was in that time and that we should be so thankful for change. I would put the students in a group of three to find a true story from that time period that relates to this story. Then I would have them either act it out, draw a picture about it, or write a summary about it. The illustrations help a lot to show that the story is set in the 1950's.

Book Blog #7 on "The Invisible Boy"

Title: The Invisible Boy

Author: Trudy Ludwig

Illustrator: Patrice Barton

Publisher: Random House Children’s Books

Copyright: 2013

Number of Pages: 40

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Grade Level: 2^nd Grade

Content Area: English Language Arts

Trucy Ludwig wrote the book, The Invisible Boy, to show how a small act of kindness can change someone’s life. No one ever notices Brian, not even his teacher at times. The other kids don’t include him in any games or invite him to their birthday parties. A new student arrives and does not quite fit in at first either. Brian is the first person to be kind to Justin, the new student. Justin returns the favor by being his friend and helping him stand out. I would use this book as a way to show the students how important is to be kind to people and relate it to the content area of English Language Arts. I would make a big T-Chart poster with kind actions on one side and mean actions on the other side. I would give each student two sticky notes to write a short example of a kind action and a mean action. Then they would stick them on the correct side of the poster. The illustrations portray how Brian started out as invisible and dull, then how he becomes colorful and noticed towards the end.

Book Blog #6 on "Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat"

Title: Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

Author: Javaka Steptoe

Illustrator: Javaka Steptoe

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Copyright: 2016

Number of Pages: 40

Genre: Nonfiction

Grade Level: 3^rd

Content Area: Social Studies

Javaka Steptoe wrote and illustrated the book, Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. This book is written about how Jean-Michel Basquiat grows up to become a famous artist. It all started in Brooklyn when he was a little boy and dreamt of being a famous artist one day. He would draw from early in the morning until late in the night. He would not go to sleep until he had created a masterpiece. His mother would sit in the floor and draw with him until she got sick and had to live somewhere else. He would find art in everything, like poetry, books, and even games. When Jean-Michel was a teenager, he left for New York City to chase his dreams. He slept on his friends’ couches and floors, leaving his art work everywhere he went. He would sign his artwork with “Samoo,” and everyone wanted to know who Samoo was. His artwork moved from street corners to gallery walls. The illustrations are real artistry which fits perfectly with what the whole book is about. I would relate this book to social studies by having the students look up and research their favorite artist. Then I would get them to recreate one of their pieces of art work.