Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears

By: Verna Aardema

Pictures by: Leo and Diane Dillon

This story has vivid, bright colorful pictures containing almost human-like animals. In the book, it states, "The art for this book was prepared in full color using watercolors applied with an airbrush in both fine spray and spatter technique, pastels rubbed on by hand, and india ink. The cut-out effect was achieved by actually cutting the shapes out of vellum and frisket masks at several different stages." Basically, in case you have yet to read this story, a mosquito tells Iguana a story and this sets off a chain reaction with all the animals in the jungle.

The first thing I noticed was the color of the illustrations. They are bright and colorful and close to real-life colors of animals. The animals are also very big and almost in-your-face. Sometimes, an iguana will be almost a 2 page bleed. The background is either white during the day and black for nighttime. Using only these two colors for the backgrounds really makes the animals stand out to the reader. Another interesting point about the animals is their facial expressions. They have their mouths open, looking surprised at times and also have their eyes closed when the text calls for it. They are almost human-like.

The bright, colorful illustrations and the in-your-face size of the animals seem very imaginative as something like this happening in everyday life would be.

I Had Seen Castles

By: Cynthia Rylant

I really enjoyed this story by Cynthia Rylant. This is vastly different from another "war" story, Bull Run. I've blogged about Bull Run and what I really enjoyed about that story is the feeling of how "close" I was to the war. I felt like I was fully involved and knew what was happening from all aspects via the perspectives of all the different characters.

I Had Seen Castles is somewhat of an emotional story and shows the emotional toll a war can have on a soldier and his family. I never felt like I was on the front lines as much as I felt I was in Bull Run. Though there were some graphic images of war, I felt I kind of went back and forth from the family aspect to these gritty images.

In this story, readers can observe how a war changes people. John Dante is definitely changed by the end of the story because of his experiences as a young soldier. On page 78, Dante experiences "The shoes with feet and legs up to the knees still standing, and nothing more. The rest of the boy is gone. Or the chest cavity blown wide open so that the heart can be seen, still beating, and the boy to whom the heart belongs reaches out and asks to be helped to die." How can a person not be changed by seeing something like this and not wonder why we're fighting in the first place?

Bull Run was interesting in that I felt almost whole being able to view the war from all sides and views. I don't necessarily feel that way from I Had Seen Castles, though I felt closer to John Dante because the story was told from his point-of-view. I was hooked to this story from the moment I picked it up and I think Rylant captured what life was like for one family during WW2.

It's Raining Pigs and Noodles

Poems by: Jack Prelutsky

Drawings by: James Stevenson

I'm one of those rare students in a college class who happily raises their hand when a professor asks, "Who in here likes poetry?" I love poetry. With that said, I don't like every poem I read. I'm also one of those teachers who exposes my Kindergarten students to poetry almost daily. If we have a minute or two before lunch, I whip out a book of poems. Sometimes, the kids beg me to read poems, especially if they're funny! Yeah!

Being that we were to blog about 1 collection of poetry, I found this to be quite difficult. I have LOTS of collections of poetry that I think are very worthwhile to blog about so I had to narrow down my choice. I did not choose Shel Silverstein or The Random House Book of Poetry. I chose It's Raining Pigs and Noodles by Jack Prelutsky. This collection of poems is very funny with some rhyming and some not. These poems are also very relateable with kids.

I've read this entire book, but chose to reread a few. "My Parents Have the Flu Today" is about a child and all the mischievous things he can do while his parents are sick in the bed and not around to really watch him. "I Ate a Tooth This Morning" is about a child who had a loose tooth and while eating breakfast, accidentally swallowed the tooth. Another poem, "You Can't Make Me Eat That," is about a child simply refusing to eat what's on his plate. Lastly, "Why Do I Have to Clean My Room," is about a child wondering why he is being made to clean his room because the "crayons scattered on the floor" and "pizza in the corner" do not bother him at all. All of the topics are very relateable and I can speak for my own classroom, that my students are rolling over in laughter when I read these poems aloud.

Though these poems may be over-the-top silly, I think it's a great way to introduce children to poetry and rhyming and discuss how poems are different than stories. Jack Prelutsky is a great poet with more hilarious collections on the shelf.

Grimm's Fairy Tales

I love fairy tales and have since I was little. Maybe I'm like most girls.... Who doesn't love a beautiful princess living happily ever after with a handsome prince? They have children and life is perfect, or so we're lead to believe. This is why I love fairy tales-they are fiction!!!! How many people really have the perfect life where there's never any problems after marrying your handsome beau? Not many of us probably do.

I like fairy tales because it gives me a chance to escape from the realities of my life and travel to another time, another world where everything is serene. I know most fairy tales have a protagonist facing a problem and life cannot be perfect until the problem is solved. I guess what gets me is the "happily-ever-after" part. No matter what the circumstances may be, readers experience a nice, warm, happy feeling at the end of most fairy tales because we, again, are lead to believe that life from now on is limitless and perfect.

I read a few fairy tales from the Grimm's Fairy Tales book and I chose ones I already knew and read. I really wanted to see if there was much difference between Grimm's and some newer versions. The biggest difference I noticed was the language. The vocabulary and language really seemed to be richer. Words were used that we don't usually use anymore. For example, in Rumpelstiltskin, the little man spoke to the miller's daughter by saying, "Good morrow to you, my good lass, what are you weeping for?" This can maybe make these tales a little harder to read. I don't believe I'm alone in saying that sometimes I get used to watching the Disney versions of fairy tales and these differ greatly from the Brothers Grimm and Aesop's Fables.

Overall, I enjoy reading versions of fairy tales from the Brother's Grimm. I even think it would be a good unit to read fairy tales from the Brother's Grimm and then other versions and compare/contrast. I think it would be very interesting.

A Strong Right Arm: The Story of Mamie "Peanut" Johnson

By: Michelle Y. Green

This was an amazing biography of a young, black woman living in the 1940's who was one of the first African-American professional baseball players. She is still alive today and loves baseball more today than ever.

I found this biography to be very interesting and inspiring. Mamie loved the game of baseball and not only was she a woman, she was also black. Black women playing baseball was not something that was done during her time. Things were still segregated-schools, neighborhoods, gas stations, baseball fields, everything. Mamie was determined to play baseball no matter the fact that she's a woman and black. She felt this should not make any difference whatsoever. During the story, readers get a sense of the frustration Mamie felt because of who she was which was completely unfair. I just wanted to yell at some of the "white folks" for the treatment of Mamie.

There was a very funny part in the story. After Mamie had made the professional black minor league baseball team (with all male teammates plus one woman), it was discussed in her book about the travel conditions when playing in different cities. Mamie was frustrated because the old bus the team rode on would break down and the players would have to push the bus uphill before a game and would already be tired before their game. Green stated, "And we never knew if we had enough gas to make it from place to place, 'cause some of the towns we stopped in had 'Whites-Only' gas pumps. That never made sense to me. Seems like if those towns were so anxious to get rid of colored folks, they'd want to give us the gas we needed to get on down the road" (86). This is also what I appreciated about Mamie Johnson-her blunt honesty.

This is a truly inspiring story about a woman, her love for baseball and how she overcame barriers and boundaries due to her strong love of the game.

A Dog's Life - The Autobiography of a Stray

By: Ann M. Martin

I loved this fantasy book about a stray dog, Squirrel, and her "tail" (haha) about her life as a stray. This is certainly not one of your typical "happy-go-lucky" stories about a dog. It is very sad and death does occur in the story.

What I thought was intriguing is the story is from the point-of-view of Squirrel. I've never read a story like this and it was very interesting. I actually imagined myself as a dog while reading and tried,using imagery, to put myself into Squirrel's life. This is not the kind of life someone would want for a dog. This life is very sad, lonely, even desperate.

Whether the author tried or not, she was really effective in getting me very emotional and attached to Squirrel. There were times when I was reading that I actually was almost teary-eyed. This poor dog needed to catch a break. She didn't have a home and had to scrounge for food in the winter. Whenever she got comfortable, she was seen by someone about town and was forced to go on the run again.

I was reading some reviews of this book on the web and sometimes I agree and sometimes I don't. There was one review, in particular, that shed a new light on the character, Squirrel. The review basically said that for such the hardship Squirrel went through in the story, you would have thought she would have been a harsher dog-one that was not so sweet and forgiving. This review said that Martin (the author) didn't do a good job showing how Squirrel would really have felt due to her having a rough life. I don't know what to think about this review. In a way, I agree with it, but I don't think this took away from the story at all. Maybe there's a reason why Martin insisted on Squirrel being the sweet dog that she is no matter what she went through in her life.

Bull Run

By: Paul Fleischman

Woodcuts by: David Frampton

Honestly, I was not looking forward to reading this story after casually flipping through some of the pages, even though I love history. Once I started reading, though, I really got into the different characters.

Keeping the characters straight was difficult for me, though I think hearing different characters' stories was absolutely awesome and effective in interpreting the whole of the story. I probably should have kept a little piece of paper with notes on it to write down character names and to keep them straight. On the other hand, having the viewpoints of 16 different characters really made me feel I was part of the action. Each character was very authentic and readers get a glimpse of the different people in the first battle of the Civil War. I don't think I would have liked this book as much as I did if it had been written from just one person's point-of-view. Writing it this way proves to be very effective. I felt like I was really a part of the battle and the whole time, I was thinking about which character I liked the best.

If I taught a grade and the Civil War was an SOL, I would definitely use this story as a teaching tool. I think it gives a real insider's look to what war is really about. I also think kids would learn more from a story written in this way than an out-dated textbook any day.