The Giver

I hought that this book was really interesting. The author did a really good job with the descriptions of what was going on in the book because I was able to picture them. I also thought that it was really easy to relate to the characters. I was always curious about what was going to happen next so it kept me reading. There was never a point in the book that I got bored which is good because I usually get bored easily. The one thing that I did not like was the ending, and it's not necessarily that I did not like the ending, I just wanted to know what happen as far as them making it to Elsewhere. I really enjoyed reading the book and I think kids would to because it would be so easy for them to relate to each of the characters.

Babymouse: Rockstar

This book is a cute graphic novel. I really liked the book and the illustrations that went along with the book. I also liked that the story seemed to be geared towards girls because most of the graphic novels are geared towards boys. I think kids enjoy these books because they are not overwhelemed by the words on the page because they are split up so it makes it more appealing to the eye.

Once Upon a Time, the End (asleep in 60 seconds)

This book has probably become one of my favorite books. I liked that the book went through many of the fairy tales but in abbriviated versions. I also liked that although the father in the book was telling stories to his daughter and those were the stories we were reading, there was also a second story that was going on about the girl and the father which was shown by using a different font. One of the things that I thought was really funny about the book was that the father made sure to make all of the stories end with the character falling asleep because he was trying to get his daughter to go to sleep so he could sleep. I really liked the end page becaue I thought it was funny that they both feel asleep at the same time and I liked the illustration on that page.

You Can't Take a Balloon Into The Metropolitan Museum

This book was really funny. I had never read a wordless story before and I thought I would not like them but this book proved me wrong. I really enjoyed being able to study the pictures and not worrying about the words that might be on the page. I also liked that the illustrator only put color on the things or people who were directly related to what was going on on that page. This gave me time to try and figure out what might happen next because I knew who or what it was going to involve. I also liked that throughout the whole book there was only one page that was completely in color. When I got to this page it kind of caught me off gaurd but it was a nice suprise and it still stuck to the illustators theme because the whole page was involved with what was going on in that page.

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs

I have always enjoyed this book. When I was younger I thought that it was really interesting to hear the story from the wolf and I still think that it is funny today. I really liked the pictures and the way the illustrator played with the shading. The cover is also one of my favorite parts of the book because I realy liked the fact that it looks like a news paper article. One of the other things that I like about this story is that the reader is actually introduced to the wolf a few pages before he starts telling his own story. I thought that this was a very creative thing to do, it was kind of like the author gave the wolf a chance to plead his case and get out all the things that a person might think they already know about the story so they could listen to his side without any bias.

The Three Silly Billies

I really liked the way that this book incorporated a lot of the different fairy tales. I thought that it made the book much more interesting to read because I was always thinking about who would be coming next to join the three silly billies at the troll's bridge. I also really liked the pictures and thought that they added an element of comedy to the story. My favorite page was the page with little red riding hood dumping out her purse and seeing all the things that she had in it such as wolfbanex cream. I thought that this would be really funny especially if the reader knew the story of little red riding hood already.

Kate and the Beanstalk

This spin off of Jack and the beanstalk is very cute. I like the fact that it uses a girl to be the hero and fight off the giant. I thought that it was a good way to show children that there is no difference in gender and boys and girls can do the same things. One thing I would have liked to see was possibly changing all the characters around. For instance, the giant could have been a woman instead of a man since it was a man in Jack and the beanstalk. All together, I thought that this book was a very good book and I would definately want it in my classroom.

Hewitt Anderson's Great Big Life

The thing that attracted me to this book was the front cover. I liked the way the pictures were done. I really liked the traditional style of the pictures and the neutral colors that were used throughout the book. I also really liked the story, which reminded me of the tiger and mouse story that I wrote in highschool. I liked that this story focused on differences and how being different might actually be good for a person even if other people cant see that right away. I thought that this book would be very relateable to children since each child is different from the next in one way or another.

Who Made This Cake?

I really liked the way the illustrator played with the position of the pictures on the page. I liked that throughout the whole book everything seemed huge and when you get to the end of the book you realize that it is actually very small. I also really enjoyed the end pages and how they helped tell the story. In the front of the book, the end pages are of the workers going to work and at the end they are of the workers coming home from work. I thought that was very creative and it really made the story go on past the actual pages of the book. There were also a lot of humerous things in this book to me that I thought children may not realize but adults would and they would appreciate these things because I did.

What is a Wise Bird Like You Doing in a Silly Tale Like This?

This book was extremely funny to me. I enjoyed the bright colors and the non-traditional pictures the book used. I thought that the story was very funny and it seemed as if it did not fit together at times. Although I felt like the story was all over the place it was done in such a way that it kept me really interested in the book. I especially liked the end pages, which is where the story actually begins and gives you background information on the characters. This book also did a good job at using bubbles to make the characters talk and tying that into the story to give it kind of a comic book feel.

How to Take Your Grandmother to the Museum

This book was a really interesting book. It was filled with a lot of facts about lots of different things. I liked this book because it was an information book but it had a picture book feel to it. Sometimes when reading information books it begins to get boring but this book did not ever get boring. I found myself learning a lot of facts about things that I never knew existed. I especially liked the fact that there was more information about the things that were talked about in the book at the end of the book for futher reading and more information. I thought that this book would be a fun book to use to get students excited about a museum field trip or even about something like a science lesson.

Froggy Gets Dressed

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was filled with lots of funny things that I believe students would like. I especially enjoyed looking at the picutres and watching the frog get dressed. The repetition in the book was also very fun. Students would like this book because it would be easy for them to predict the things that are going to happen next. I also found myself thinking about the next thing that Froggy would have to put on so I am sure students would do the same thing. My favorite part was the end when Froggy was too tired from getting dressed to even go out and play. I thought that this book did a good job at keeping the reader interested.

The Watsons go to Birmingham- 1963

This book was one of my favorite books that I read in elementary school and is still on of my favorite books today. I like the fact that the book focuses on an event in black history that many people may not know about, the church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 in which four little girls died and many other were injured. I think that this book is great for students to read because it gives them insight into what the world looked like years ago and it will give them a greater appreciation for the privilages they have today. I also like this book because many of the books that are made about Black History focuses on the things that were happening to adults and fail to recognize that children existed during this madness too. I think the book does a good job of provoking every emotion and it a great book for students to excerise thier imaginations.

A Picture book of Helen Keller

I thought that the pictures in this book did a great job showning the words that were on the page. I felt like a person could tell the story of this book without reading the words and only looking at the pictures. This book would be great for students who may have trouble reading words because they could easily look at the pictures and be able to make sense of what was going on in the story. I think that this is a great way to build confidence within a student.

Back of the Bus

The pictures in this book were really good. I am not sure what they were done with but I really like the way the pictures look as if they have texture. The colors are not really bright and catchy either, but I think that the way they were put together made for really lovely traditional styled pictures. I thought that this reaccount of what happened on the bus they day Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat as told through a little boys eyes was very interesting. All of the picture books that I have read before that are much like this one always have little girls as the person telling the story, so it was a nice change to have a boy tell it this time. I think that because the narrator of the story is a boy this would be a great way to get boys more interested in the things that Rosa Parks did and help them understand that what she did was to help men and women alike.

Bessie Smith and the Night Riders

This book written by Sue Stauffacher was a wonderful book, in my opinion. Although I did not know who Bessie Smith was before I read the book, the story really intrigued me. I really liked the fact that although the little girl in the book was not the "actual" hero, it is understood that things would not have gone so smoothly without her. The illustrations in this book are also wonderful. I really lkike the colors that were used for the characters clothing and how they complemeted the colors used for their skin. I actually think the cover of the book is what caught my eye in the first place.

A Man For All Seasons: The Life of George Washington Carver

I really liked the pictures in the book. There were not many bright colors used in the book but the book had really nice traditional pictures. I also really liked the pictures because they seemed realistic. This book was also very informative for me. I thought I knew a lot about George Washington Carver but this book taught me much more. I was very suprised to learn that he had been a professor at an Iowa College. I knew that he graduated from an Iowa college but I had never heard of him being a professor. I really thought this book did a great job of dipicting the life of George Washington Carver in a very interesting way.

Nicolous Copernicus: The Earth is a Planet

This book was really insightful for me. I knew who Copernicus was and I kind of knew what he did but this book really cleared up a lot of things for me. I also liked that fact that the book was a biography but it was written in picture book format. I think that when I would think of biographies I always thought about a chapter book or just a book without pictures. It was good for me to see that biographies can be written in all types of forms. I also really liked the pictures and the bright colors that were used thoughout the book, although at times it made it hard to read the words on the page. I think that this book is a great book because it can be used in so many ways for so many different things.

Plunk's Dreams

I really liked this story. I thought it was a really cute story about the relationship between a boy and his dog. I know that many children who have ever had a pet has wondered about the dreams that their pet is having. Especially when you see your dog running in his sleep. I thought that this book gave really creative accounts of what might be going on in a dog's dream. I also liked the fact that the little boy in the book was able to challenge his parents thoughts about the dogs dreams and come up with his own. I think it is really important to let children know that although adults may have more experience with things there is still room for them to come up with their own explanations of things and I thought that this book did a good job showing this.

Dracula Doesn't Rock and Roll

I really liked this book. I remember when I was younger and reading the Bailey School Kids and I always loved them. I think it was because they were kids who were always getting into some type of crazy situation and I always wondered what it would be like to be a Bailey Kid. I thought that this book was really good because I can remember back when I was younger and thinking that some of my teachers were a little strange and my friends and I would all get together to discuss that teacher and try to understand what made them so different. I think this book was just good for me because it made me take a trip down memory lane and remember all the fun times I had when I was in grade school.

Grandaddy and Janetta

This book was written like the other books, such as it was split up into chapters but I cant say that I liked this book as much. I thought that this book seemed much more like a chapter book than it did like a picture book. I felt like the book really lacked pictures. There were some pictures thoughout the book but many of them were small and not very interesting to look at. I thought that because the pictures were missing and because the pages were filled with a lot of text that it might be boring for the age group the the book intended to reach, which was five to eight years. I thought that the story was really good but I also thought that if it was meant to lack pictures then maybe it should have been written at a more advanced level so that older students could enjoy reading it.

Georgia Music

This book was also written by the same author, Helen V. Griffith, but I can not say that it was my favorite out of all of her books that I read. I really liked the book and how the sounds that you here in Georgia were used to make music but some of the other things with the book made it a harder read for me. I know that the characters in the book are the same characters as in the other book but neither of the characters have actual names in this book. I thought that it was really hard to get into the book and relate to the characters as actual people because they did not have names and I think that this also made the story seem a little dull to me at times. Once I was able to get passed this, I did realize that I liked the pictures and that this book was different than the other ones because it did not have chapters. I thought that this was a nice change because it actually felt like a regular picture book which might be good for some students.

Grandaddy's Stars

This book was much like the last book that I blogged about, mainly because it was written by the same person. I really like that this book had chapters and I also thought it was really nice that it focused on the same characters that are in all the other books. I thought that this book was really funny because I could relate to the things that were going on. I really liked that the book played up the relationship between a girl and her grandfather because that is not something that is common in story books. I also really liked the pictures in this book because they were much like the pictures in the last book. One thing that I thought this book would be good for is using the imagination. I think sometimes we get so wrapped up into the real world that we forget to even use our imagination. I think this book did a very good job at getting your imagination working.

Grandaddy's Place

I thought that this was a really cute story about a little girl experiencing things for the first time. I really liked the way the pictures were done for this book. They were really fomal and were very easy to look at. They did not have any wild colors or things like that but I still thought they did a lot for the story. The other interesting thing about this book is that although it was a picture book, it still had chapters. I thought that this was really unique and would make younger students feel like they could read the same type of books, books with different chapters, as the older students.