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.

Book Blog #5 on "Boy and Bot"

Title: Boy and Bot

Author: Ame Dyckman

Illustrator: Dan Yaccarino

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Copyright: 2012

Number of Pages: 32

Genre: Science Fiction

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Content Area: Science

Ame Dyckman wrote a sweet book about a new friendship between a little boy and a robot, which is the book Boy and Bot. They meet in the forest and decide to play together. The robot rolls down a hill and his power switch gets bumped and turns him off so he is unable to respond to the little boy. The boy does not understand this and thinks he is sick so he helps him. He helps him by doing things that would help a person feel better, like feeding him applesauce. His parents peep in on him during the night and accidentally bump the robot’s power switch with the door to turn him back on. The boy is asleep so he does not respond to the robot which makes the robot think that something is wrong with him. The robot returns the favor of helping him by doing things that would fix a robot, like giving him oil. Eventually the boy wakes up and they are both happy because both of them are awake or turned on. The illustrations are very cute and suitable for young kids. The illustrations go together well with the words written on each page. I would connect this book to science and have each student design their own robot with materials that I give them. Since they are so young I would help them and give them some ideas to help them start.

Book Blog #4 on "A Bad Case of Stripes"

Title: A Bad Case of Stripes

Author: David Shannon

Illustrator: David Shannon

Publisher: Blue Sky Press (Scholastic Press)

Copyright: 1998

Number of Pages: 32

Genre: Modern Fantasy

Grade Level: 2^nd

Content Area: Science

David Shannon wrote and illustrated the book, A Bad Case of Stripes. This story is about a young girl named Camilla Cream who worries too much about what people think of her. She loves lima beans, but she never eats them because all of her friends hate them and she wants to fit in. She woke up covered in colorful stripes for the first day of school. All kinds of doctors and specialists visit her to see if they can figure out what is wrong, but anything they suggest is something else that pops up on her skin. Things such as bacteria and fungus grew on her skin within seconds of them mentioning their opinions on what might have caused her bad case of the stripes. At the end of the story, a little old lady comes to help with a container of lima beans. She did not want to eat them at first, but she finally did and her bad case of stripes began to disappear. The illustrations are very colorful and show Camilla with all of the different things that pop up on her skin. This book would open up a great discussion with the students about how we should all be ourselves. I would start off the discussion by telling them some of the stuff that makes me different. Then I would give others the chance to share something like that about themselves. I would connect this book to science by talking about lima beans and separating other food into different food groups. I would set out pictures of food to separate in groups like meat, vegetables, and fruits and have them guess which group they go with. Then we would go over it and talk about what kind of food is good for them.

Book Talk #1

This book would be really great for English Language Arts or if some of the students don't think they need any friends. It would probably be best for first or second grade students.

Book Talk on Don't Need Friends