Charlotte's Web

By: E.B. White

Illustrated by: Garth Williams

This is a classic story I was not intending on blogging about. I've read this story many times and wanted to use this class as an opportunity to explore new Kid's Lit. Then, when I thought about it, it's okay to reread books that are our favorites. There must be something good in them to make readers keep reading them throughout the years.

I recently finished reading this book aloud to my K students. Since the movie recently came out, they really wanted to start (and finish) this story. I was curious about how engaged they would or would not be. White's book of the famous pig, Wilbur, contains a plethora of rich vocabulary. Though I never did any formal lessons with vocabulary, I made sure not to skip over any words my students wouldn't know and to take a quick amount of time to ask the class what they thought the word meant and further discuss the meaning.

The main theme is the friendship between a pig and a spider. I really tried to discuss how people who are not alike in the least bit can be friends. We discussed similarities and differences and how they can be over come. We talked about each of the characters, our favorite parts, and what we didn't like. (Refer to the link on the right to read some of our book reviews of Charlotte's Web.)

Though I've read this story a few times and having reread it recently, I can see why this story is a classic. Though the death of Charlotte is sad, the ending does gives readers a feel-good sense that Wilbur is going to be okay. We all want friends like Charlotte.

The Higher Power of Lucky

By: Susan Patron

Illustrations by: Matt Phelan

I, like many others, wanted to see what all the "scrotum" hype was about. Many know this won The Newbery Medal this year and yes, it has the word scrotum on the first page. So what?? It's easy to pick apart bits and bits of a story without looking at the whole picture. I was discussing the fact that scrotum is on the first page of the recent Newbery winner with a co-worker. He said, "Well, was it really necessary to use that word? Couldn't the author have used another word instead or just have taken that part out of the story?" I said, "No!" To me, it would have changed the meaning of the story. The author stated in an interview I heard that though the book is fiction, some things are based on true stories. She didn't want to change the word. To her, using scrotum had meaning and this was her choice. (I'm not going further into this topic and say how it's crazy for books to be pulled off shelves. This is censorship at its worst!)

For me, the story of Lucky and her guardian, Brigitte started out slow. The farther I read, the more entertaining and engaging the story became. I really felt sorry for this little girl. Lucky felt like no one wanted her and she even felt like Brigitte would up and move back to France. This is very hard for someone to deal with, especially a child of Lucky's age. She wanted to find her Higher Power like the people in Smoker's Anonymous and Gambler's Anonymous and like the people in AA. At the end, she does find her higher power and there is a happy ending.

Though I'm glad I read the book to satisfy my curiosity, this is probably not a book I would reread. I couldn't really relate to the story and I know this shouldn't always matter. I just don't like it enough for a reread.

But I'll Be Back Again - An Album

By: Cynthia Rylant

This is probably my favorite of all the books I've read by Rylant. I will give her immense credit because I do believe she's a wonderful writer-fiction, poetry, autobiography. This book really allowed to me to relive parts of my own childhood. Some of the things she said about growing up and experiences she had with boys (I'm not getting into too much detail here-haha) really sparked some memories for me.

I really enjoyed her blunt honesty. When kids go through puberty, they do get hairy and she didn't beat around the bush and try to make things pretty. She said exactly what she wanted to say.

I also really liked how she mentioned her other works in this text. She would tell about an experience she had with a boy and in parentheses tell that he was the inspiration in a chapter in one of her other books. For me, I was not excited to read another book from Cynthia Rylant. On the other hand, after reading about her life, I feel like a picture has been completed. There was a puzzle with a few missing pieces. We've read her picture books and poetry and now readers, such as myself, see where she got her inspirations from and I have a different view on some of her other books. I really did not enjoy much of the poems in Waiting to Waltz. Now that I've read about some of her childhood, I feel like I have a deeper understanding and like them a little better.

This is why I love biographies so much. I like to know about the author, especially ones I'm a true fan of. I want to know about their life, experiences, hardships, and happiness. I want to know what makes them the people they are. Readers can gain so much more of an understanding and appreciation from "knowing" authors. Not all authors write biographies and this is okay. I feel like I understand the works of an author more when I feel like I understand the person.

One sentence which really struck me was on page 7 of the text. It stated, "For a child there is never a good reason for a mother to leave." This makes me think of all the children out there who do not have parents regardless of the individual circumstances. It breaks my heart to think of these things, but it is reality. It's hard for me to relate to this fact, but I know it's true. As I've said earlier in this post, Rylant says what she means and many times, it pulls at the heart strings because this was her reality.

The Magic School Bus Chapter Book - The Wild Whale Watch

By: Eva Moore

Illustrated by: John Speirs

My students love The Magic School Bus. Sometimes, on a rainy day and there's no outdoor recess, we'll watch a MSB video. I came across this informational chapter book based on the MSB series. It is not written by the original author of MSB, Joanna Cole. The characters are all the same, especially the lovable Ms. Frizzle. This is the third book in the informational series.

The students in The Friz's class embark on a magical field trip to learn about whales. What I think kids will like is that even though there are facts about whales, with the text written like it's from a notebook or textbook, there is still a storyline. The characters are involved. There is an adventure. There is dialogue.

As I just mentioned, some of the text looks like it is from a textbook. The author changed the font and framed the text to make it noticeable to students that this is different from the rest of the story. Also, while the students in Ms. Friz's class are learning during their field trip, some of the students take notes. The font is changed again (different from the textbook font) and this text looks like it's written in a piece of notebook paper.

There are many things happening during the story, but I do not believe it's too much for students to keep up with. I have not yet read a chapter book from this series to my class and am anxious to because I would like to have their opinions and responses to this type of text. If you have a class that loves MSB, one of these chapter books would be beneficial because they will learn something and be engaged at the same time. One complaint I did have with this book is that it doesn't list the other books in the series. I would think there are more since this is the third book.

What Would You Do With A Tail Like This?

Written & Illustrated by: Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

What an interesting book! This book asks readers questions as in the title of the story. On the page asking about the tails, the illustrations show up-close pictures of different animals' tails. On the next page, the illustrations show each of the animals with a description of how they use their tails. Other questions ask about animals' noses, ears, eyes, feet, and mouths. I've read this book to my students and they LOVE the pages that show just the body parts of the animals because they like to guess which animal the part belongs to. At the end of the book, the authors give a brief description of each animal in the story. The descriptions are very kid-friendly and easy to understand.

Something else that's interesting about the text is that it is written shaped like the animals. For example, after the question, "What would you do with a nose like this," the description on the next page of the alligator states, "If you're an alligator, you breathe through your nose while hiding in the water." The alligator's body is straight as a stick and the text is straight from left to right just like the alligator's body. Sometimes the reader has to turn the book side-ways to read. Very cool!

The illustrations are wonderful and very deserving of the Caldecott Medal the book won. The illustrations are cut-paper collage. The background is white throughout the entire book and this really gives focus to the animals. On the pages of the body parts illustrations, they are very big and makes the reader want to turn the page to see what part belongs to who.

This is a beautifully illustrated book which gives kid-friendly facts about wild animals. My kindergartners loved it and still want to "read" it whenever they have the chance!

Joyful Noise - Poems for Two Voices

By: Paul Fleischman

Illustrated by: Eric Beddows

WOW! Was I surprised. Initially, when I read the title and viewed the front cover, I wasn't too excited about picking this book up to read. When I read the inside flap and learned this book was about bugs, I was even more thrilled. (I'm being sarcastic in case you can't tell.) During reading, I became pleasantly amused at the different poems. I can see why this book won a Newbery Medal. I will say that since this book of poems is for two voices, I really needed that second voice as I'm sitting on my couch trying to read both parts myself. That proved to be difficult and I had to find a way to maneuver through the reading. I tried to imagine having that second reader there and this seemed to help a little.

I really never knew that reading about bugs could be so interesting and entertaining. These pests were actually given a voice! One of the most entertaining was the Water Striders piece. As the Water Striders were teaching the readers how to walk on water, they state, "But by that time our student/no matter how prudent/has usually/don't ask my why/sunk from view." I thought that was funny as well as the accompanying illustration.

Another poem which I thought had interesting lines was the Fireflies poem. It states, "Light/is the ink we use/Night/is our parchment/We're/fireflies." I enjoyed the comparison to light and paper. That gives good visual imagery. Students can relate to pens (ink) and paper.

Lastly, the Honeybees poem seemed to be less difficult to read than the others if readers did not have that second voice available. Students can really learn some facts about these insects and bugs while being exposed to poetry. This is definitely more interesting than reading facts from a textbook and this is really creative on the author's part. This collection of poems was definitely better than originally expected.

Waiting to Waltz - A Childhood

By: Cynthia Rylant

Drawings by: Stephen Gammell

I am a fan of poetry. As I've said before, I'm one of those rare students who actually enjoys the poetry unit in English classes. I, on the other hand, do not like all poetry. Just as I'm an avid reader, I don't necessarily like all the books I read. Unfortunately, this collection of poems falls into the "I-don't-like" category! What I first noticed in this collection of poems is the depressing state of Rylant's early life. There are dead animals (poor Little Short Legs), poor people, an absent father, and no one at home in the summer. Don't get me wrong, these are all realities of the world. I just did not enjoy reading about them in this form.

I do give Rylant credit for choosing to write about her life using poetry. I just did not like the poems. I really don't know what else to say. I also did not like the drawings. I would have enjoyed seeing more "clear" pictures of her close experience to the great beyond or her walking home the scared child in the thunderstorm. Though I thought the illustrations were nicely done, I would have liked "clearer" pictures. I can use my imagination which I did as I was reading. I guess I just thought that if I did 't like the text, I would have liked the pictures.

I did see the progression of age reading from the first poem to the last. I am glad they are in a chronological order.

Maybe I'll change my mind about this collection of poems during/after class discussions and I hear some of my colleagues' thoughts.