Shoe Bop

I liked this book because it was about shoes, my favorite thing in the world. I thought that the book did a great job incoporating all different types of shoes in the book. I also thought that the poems that were written about them were very cute. One thing that I really enjoyed about this book was the way that the author tied the poems together to form a complete story. It did not feel like I was just reading a different poem each time but more like a continuation of the story. I think that this book would be a book that students would enjoy because just about every one has been through a situation where they are looking for perfect shoes and just cant seem to find them.

Love That Dog

This book was interesting. It was my first time ever reading a novel that was written in poetry form. I love poetry so this book was right up my alley. Although I liked the fact that it was written in poetry, I thought that at times I was a little confused about what was going on because everything didn't fit perfectly together like they do in a regular novel. I would love to see how the book would turn out if the author took time and revamped it to be just another novel. I think it would be easier to get more detail in the book but then again the author wrote it in poetry form because that is probably how they pictured the story. I would have this book in my classroom for students to read so that they could experiance a different type of genre that I didnt know was out there.

A Year of Impossible Goodbyes

I really enjoyed this book, although I found it really hard to get into. I thought that So Far From the Bamboo Grove was able to better grasp my attention. I think that this book may have moved along a little slower because it was over a longer period of time than the events that were going on in the other book. I still enjoyed the book almost just as much as the other one. I thought it was interesting to get the other side of the story. Although I really liked hearing the other side of the story, it was really hard for me to get my mind to register that everything was flipped flopped in this story from the other story. That was probably the thing I had the most trouble with.

Midterm Reflection

I have really enjoyed the class so far. I really like reading all the different children's books and getting exposed to all the different things that are out there. I must say that before this class I was not aware of all the different types of things that were out there for children to read. One thing that I must say is that I am not a huge fan of blogging. I feel like when I am reading the books I have to look for things to write about instead of just enjoying the book. Although I am not a huge fan of blogging, I do like having the opportunity to read what other people have to say about the books they are reading, so I am actually happy that we do have to blog.

Picky Mrs. Pickle

I thought that this book did a good job trying to show that it is not a bad idea to try new things. While reading this book, I could picture myself as being Mrs. Pickle. I am usually not the person to try new things and I like to stick to the things that I know because I know that I like them. I think because I was able to relate to the main character in the book it made the book more interesting to me.

Detective LaRue: Letters from the Investigation

I really enjoyed this book and would like to have it in my own classroom one day. I really liked the formatt of the book. I liked that it was written like acutal letters and newspaper articles. My favorite thing about this book was the way the pictures and the story went together. I thought that it was funny that the dog was writing as if he was having a hard time and picturing in his head (the black and white pictures) something totally different that what was actually happening (the colored pictures). I though that this added more comedy to an already funny story.

Shouting

I was extremely excited when I found this book on the shelf. I had never encountered a book about a black church before so I was really interested in how this book was going to be written. I really liked the story and the fact that it was kind of written in a poem formatt. I thought that this was an interesting twist that I was not expecting. I also found it interesting that none of the people in the books had faces, they were just heads, bodies and clothes. I am not sure why the illustrator chose to do it like this but I would be interested in finding out. I thought that this book did a good job of depicting one of the things that goes on inside an African American church. I myself always wondered where this thing of shouting came from and I thought that this book did a good job explaining it. This is definately one of the books that I would like to have in my classroom.

Saxophone Sam and His Snazzy Jazz Band

The thing that caught my interest with this book is the title and the cover of the book. I absolutely love music and I knew that this book had something to do with music. It was to my suprise that when I opened the book the story was actually written like a song. I thought that this made the book much more interesting and exciting. I also liked that there was a mystery going on in the book that the reader had to catch on to. I myself did not realize what was going on until then end and I was completely taken by suprise. I also liked how the pictures in the book also told a story. At the beginning of the book the picture was mainly of the kids who were trying the find the band and as they got closer to finding the band the pictures began to be mainly of the band. I thought that this was very clever and unique of the illustrator.

Camilla's New Hairdo

I really enjoyed the pictures in this book, especially the ones with the crazy different hairdos. I found this to be extremely funny because I iknow people who love to try different things with their hair and although they may not be as drastic as making an airplane out of their hair like Camilla does in the book, they are quite interesting sometimes. One complaint that I have about the book is that the story did not seem to fit together. I could see where the author was going with the book but I felt like there were a lot of holes in the places where the book should have been tied together. I think for that reason, I could not fully enjoy the actual story that was being told in the book.

The Misfits

I really enjoyed this book although I thought that I would not like it when I first picked it up. It just did not seem like a book that I would be interested in and it was definately not a book that I would have chosen for myself, so in that sense I am grateful that we were required to read this book. This book opened my eyes to a lot of the things that go on in the middle and high school years that I never had to deal with personally. I was never really picked on or bullied in school and im sure that this had a lot to do with the fact that I went to school with all of my cousins so therefore I did not have to venture out much to try and make friends. Although none of this stuff happened to me personally, I did know people that things like this happened to and I found myself inserting those people and their faces in for the characters. I found this book to be really easy to relate to and I think that students would enjoy this book, even if they had not had any experiences like the ones in the story.

This Book is Haunted

This is a great book to use during Halloween time. Although I was a little suprised that the book was not an acutal picture book but a picture book made up of many different stories. I thought that this helped keep me interested in the book because it was not just one story that I had to keep reading about. I also thought that the pictures and the colors were very good and the popped off the page.

So Far From The Bamboo Grove

This is definately one of the best books that I have ever read. I really didnt know much about the issues that were going on in the book and I think it is best that I didnt know. I think it really helped me get into the story more because I did not come to the book with my own opinions formed already. I thought that many parts of the story were ver graphic, but I think that is what makes the book so great. I know that many teachers want to shield there students from things like the ones that are presented in the book, but the reality is that things like these do happen all the time, especially in a time of war. I think that it is good to expose children to reality and prepare them for the world that they are going to be living in, instead of sending them out under false prentions like the world is always a happy place. I do believe that there is a place to draw the line when it comes to the things that you tell children, but I think that this book walk that line in the best so of way. We all have these ideas of what a child is supposed to be like and what they can handle but I believe that children can handle more than we give them credit for and that is something that we must always remember.

Inventor McGregor

I am not sure how I feel about this book. I think I like parts of it but other parts I believe were boring to me. The beginning of the book was definately my favorite. I felt like there were a lot of different things going on that kept me interested. All the different types of inventions and their uses was very interesting to me. As it got to the middle of the book, I noticed that I was not as interested as I was before. I think it was because there was not a lot, in my opinion, going on in the middle of the book that would keep someones attention. I think this really ruined the end of the book for me also because once I was bored with the book, it made me not even want to finish it so I just rushed through it so that I could finish it.

Raising Dragons

My favorite thing about this book was the pictures by far, especially the front cover. I thought that they were really cute. I really enjoyed the colors and just the overall way that the pictures were drawn. I also thought that the story itself was really cute. It made me think about myself as a child and how I loved to take care of puppies and kittens. I thought that this book would be really good to show students that friendships can be made anywhere between any people regarless of what others have to say or think about the situation.

Somewhere in Africa

I thought that this was a really cute book. I really liked the fact that the book had a twist to it, although I am still not sure about exactly how the book ends. Throughout the whole book the reader is made to believe that Ashraf lives in Africa but when the reader gets to the end of the book they find out that Ashraf himself is only reading a book about Africa. The thing that confuses me about this twist is that I am not sure if Ashraf actually lives in Africa and is just reading about the parts that he knows nothing about or if he does not live in Africa at all and just gets so deeply involved with the book that it is like he is living there. I thought that this could confuse a reader and possibly make the reader not want to read the book again because it would be hard for them to re-tell the story or show comprehension of the story.

The Queens Feet

I really enjoyed reading this book. I thought it was a funny book that a student could read just for enjoyment. I also really liked the illustrations that were done in the book. I thought that it was very creative that throughout the whole book you never saw the queen's face, only her feet. I really liked this concept, because the title of the book is clearly about the queen's feet and not the queen herself. I also liked that the book showed interactions between feet as if they were peoople. The reader never gets to see the face of the other characters in the book, just their feet.