Mother Goose Numbers On The Loose

Dillon, L., & Dillon, D. (2007). Mother Goose: Numbers on the loose. Orlando: Harcourt.

Summary: This book is about "numbers on the loose."  Every page involved mischievous numbers counting, and rhyming.  Familiar and lesser-known rhymes from the famous Mother Goose help tell the story and help students learn how to count. 

 

Reflection: In this poetry book about numbers children can easily recognize the rhyme on each page of this book.  I also noticed on some pages the words have the same vowel sound, which is called assonance.  I also noticed the page layout on each page had a certain typeface. The first word on each page was in all caps and bold.  Each number was also in bold and in a larger font.  I'm excited to read this book to my students.  They will enjoy the rhymes and find this book funny!  Some will be able to complete the famous Mother Goose poems.

Questions:

What are the rhyming words?

Can you finish these statements?  "1, 2, Buckle my...., 3, 4, ..... 5, 6, pick up...."

Typeface (WASH) and Rhyme:(dishes, wishes, kisses)

                                                                                                       

Assonance a-e: (dame, lane)

The Lion and The Mouse

Pinkney, J., & Aesop, . (2009). The lion & the mouse. New York: Little, Brown and Co. Books for  Young Readers.

Summary:

In this fable a mouse accidentally disturbs a lion and unexpectedly the lion decides to release his prey. When the lion is trapped in a rope from humans the mouse remembers how the lion saved his life and she frees the lion from the trap.  This story proves even a small creature is capable of great deeds. 

Questions:

While reading this story stop and ask students what they predict will happen when the mouse wakes the lion.

What was the deeper meaning from this story?

Reflection:

In this traditional fable sentences can't be found only words.  The words are onomatopoeia words because the words phonetically imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes.  This fits into the fables because it is a simple story the incorporates animals whose actions teach a moral lesson.  This a very cute and excellent picture book with amazing illustrations. The illustrations were done in pencil, watercolor, and colored pencil.  The pictures tell the story while the onomatopoeia words help explain the actions of the story.

Yo! Yes?

Raschka, C. (1993). Yo! Yes?. New York: Orchard Books.

Summary: Two characters of different cultures become friends on a street using unique words. This story would be great when a new student arrives or at the beginning of the year when every body is sad, lonely and have little friends.

Reflection:  The artistic style used in this book is expressionistic.  On each page the two characters express their feelings and emotions through exaggeration.  It looks like they are acting out what they are saying through their body language.  The artistic media helps convey this style because pastel colors are used on the background while bright colors are used on the characters.  The illurstations are doublespread and extend over the facing of two pages.  Each character is looking at each other from each page.  The characters and words stand out in this story because the letters are in bold print and the character have a spot light shining on them and their shadows are showing. 

Questions:

1. Ask students to look at punctuation used.

2. Ask students to predict what will happen in the story.

Blackout

Rocco, J., & Hyperion Books for Children. (2011). Blackout. New York: Disney/Hyperion Books.

Summary: A little girl becomes bored and wants to play a board game with her family.  They are not wanting to play, then the town blacks out.  What will they do?  I am not going to give the ending away.  This is a must read!  Students would love this book and it can be used during writing workshop time. 

Questions:

Has their been a time in your life that the lights went out?  Write about how you reacted?

Reflection:

I loved this story and the illustration.  I disagree with the judges because it needs to be a Caldecott medal winner not a honor book winner.  The artistic styles was different then any other book I have ever read.  John Rocco used a cartoon style and I loved it.  Each page dark shades of color used and it really showed that the town was blacked out.  When the character sit in the dark their eyes popped and when they lit a candle or flashlight the yellow color popped and was the focal point in the story.  So far this is my favorite picture book I have read because of the illustrations.

A Tree Is Nice

Udry, J. M., Simont, M., & Harper & Brothers. (1956). A tree is nice. New York: Harper & Bros.

Summary: This book is about the characters of trees, ways they can be used and how they change throughout the year.  This book could be used during a science lesson of the seasons of the year or teaching about planting seeds.  The illustrations remind students how to care for trees, the author did not.  

Questions:

What happens to the leaves of the tree during the fall?

At the end of the story what did the illustrations show about planting a tree?

What does the cover page remind us to do if we plant a tree?

Reflection:

In this story the visual elements of color stood out to me the most.  Every two pages were different.  The first two pages which included the title page was black and white and to me it looks like the media was graphite pencils.  I believe the pencils were used and then a tool or finger was used to smear to fill in the illustrations.  On the next set of pages the pictures were in color.  The illustration still have the same swirly line style and thickness but the colors were bright and primary and secondary colors were used. 

Kitten's First Full Moon

Henkes, K. (Year 2005). Kittens's first full moon.. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.



Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes was a great picture book for primary children.  This book is a black and white book containing detailed illustrations that provide context clues to help tell the story as you read.  The context clues make the book very understandable to early readers. 

The plot of the story is that the kitten believes the moon is a bowl of milk and she tries many ways to drink the milk.  The climax of the story occurred when she climbed a tree and saw the bowl of milk in a pond. She thought she finally made it to the big bowl of milk, but instead she got wet and sad. 

From reading this book I thought of questions and lesson ideas to use in my kindergarten class.  While reading this book questions need to be asked of what the students predict will happen next along with what they think the title has to do with the book.  A science lesson can be developed when covering the phases of the moon.  The focus for this book would be "full moon." 

My students will love this book!

Owen

Henkes, K., Greenwillow Books., & South China Printing Co. (1993). Owen. New York: Greenwillow Books.

The way the author told the story seemed was very convincing.  Each time the mother and father tried to break Owen of his attachment to the blanket I was convinced it would work.  Each idea made me think about my future children and breaking them from a blanket, bottle or picifier.  The theme is significant to real life children who have that special item that they do not want to depart from.  This book could be used for other items, not just for a blanket.  If a teacher asks her class "What is one item you are not allowed to bring to school," every student probably would have that one item that goes/went everywhere with them until they started school. 

When comparing this book to another Kevin Henkes book I noticed great visual elements.  The characters in this story were mice and the expressions showed really portrayed the theme of the book.  When Owen learned he could not take the blanket to school, the small tear on his face really stood out to me in the illustration.    Both books had great illustrations even though one was in black and white.