The Giver

The Giver by Lois Lowry, 1993

Brief annotation:

Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.

Themes include society, science fiction, the human experience and rebellion.

This book lends itself to interesting discussion on how we see the world. Discussion topics could include what it would be like to not see any colors, what it would be like to lose individuality and what we lose by trying to protect ourselves from living.

-John Newbery Medal, 1994

Library Lion

Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, 2006

Brief annotation:

A lion starts visiting the local library but runs into trouble as he tries to both obey the rules and help his librarian friend.

Themes include libraries, rules, obedience and friendship.

This is a great book for first visits to the library in the school year. It is a good way to start talking about how to make the most of the library and to enjoy it while still understanding and following the rules ... within reason.

- Virginia Readers’ Choice, 2009

Crispin: The Cross of Lead

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi, 2002

Brief annotation:

Set in 14th-century England, this Newbery-winning novel centers on an orphaned outcast who gets pegged for murder.

Themes include orphans, hero story, apprenticeships and 14th-century England.

This is a good book for studying Medieval England to get a personal connection to the life of the lower class in the 14th-century. It is a good read with a lot of adventure to keep even reluctant readers interested.

- John Newbery Medal, 2003

Out of the Dust

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, 1997

Brief annotation:

In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

Themes include the Great Depression, family, friendship, the dust bowl and poetry.

This book really personalizes the Great Depression and particularly the dust bowl. It can be used in the history classroom or, since it is written in free verse, a poetry unit in an English or reading class.

- John Newbery Medal, 1998
- Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, 1998

The Llama Who Had No Pajama

The Llama Who Had No Pajama by Mary Ann Hoberman and illustrated by Betty Fraser, 1998

Brief annotation:

An illustrated collection of poems about all sorts of subjects, including "Wishes," "Ducks," "When I Need a Real Baby," and "Growing."

Themes include whimsical poems on many, many topics such as play, seasons, animals and growing up.

Since this book has poems of dealing with so many different topics, it would be a good book to use to have children pick their own favorites poem. Perhaps have a student read a poem of their choosing before each class during a poetry unit.

Handsprings

Handsprings, by Douglas Florian, 2006

Brief annotation:

This collection of poems and paintings captures the freshness and promise of spring, whether it comes in like a lion or a lamb. A companion to the highly praised Winter Eyes, Summersaults, and Autumnblings, Handsprings completes Douglas Florian's seasonal celebration.

Themes including winter to spring, spring, growth and poetry.

This is a good book for spring time and a poetry unit. It does not need to be an intense study of poetry, simply exposure to poetry with the timely topic of spring.

Winter Friends

Winter Friends by Mary Quattlebaum and illustrated by Hiroe Nakata, 2005

Brief annotation:

A snowfall.
A lost mitten.
A chance meeting.
A winter day just right for new friendships and fun.
The weather outside may be frosty, but Mary Quattlebaum’s lively story in poems and Hiroe Nakata’s joyful illustrations celebrate the good times to be had by all. So curl up with Winter Friends and delight in the simple pleasure of the season!

Themes include friendship, poetry and winter.

This book in verse is good to ease the youngest readers into an appreciation of poetry. It is a good storytime book during the winter months.

The Day I Fell Down the Toilet and Other Poems

The Day I Fell Down the Toilet and Other Poems by Steve Turner and illustrated by David Mostyn, 1996

Brief annotation:

Best friends and animals, schooldays and secret ambitions, boring days and embarrassing moments—these are a few of the topics featured in this collection. Also included are more serious subjects such as creation, death, and pollution.

Themes include poetry, creation, environmentalism, every day life and death.

This is another fun book for a poetry unit. This is appropriate for older children and the humor as well as relatability of these poems will help children appreciate poetry.

The Beauty of the Beast: Poems from the Animal Kingdom

The Beauty of the Beast: Poems from the Animal Kingdom by Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by Meilo So, 1997

Brief annotation:

An illustrated collection of poems about animals, insects, and birds by poets from different parts of the world.

Themes include poetry, animals and world culture.

This is a good book for a poetry unit because it is a varied collection in terms of cultural elements and it deals with a favorite topic of children: animals.

Bear on a Bike (A Barefoot Board Book)

Bear on a Bike (A Barefoot Board Book) by Stella Blackstone and illustrated by Debbie Harter, 1998

Brief annotation:

Bear heads out on numerous adventures and his young friend asks to come along. They go to the market, visit a forest full of fearsome creatures, travel by train to the beach and sail to a magic island. In the end, Bear heads off alone to outer space as his little friend waves "Goodbye and goodnight!"

Themes include various types of transportation, travel and friendship.

Board books are great for the youngest readers. This is an interesting way to introduce different modes of transportation to pre-kindergarten students.

Winter’s Tale: An Original Pop-up Journey

Winter’s Tale: An Original Pop-up Journey by Robert Sabuda,
Brief annotation:

Winter's Tale is Robert Sabuda's most spectacular original pop-up story yet. The simple, elegant text is illustrated with breathtaking artwork and extraordinary paper engineering. Stunning visual effects of foil, glitter, and a twinkling surprise further capture the magic of winter. This is a must-have for everyone's bookshelf.

Themes include animals and their winter environment using three dimensional pop-ups.

Pop-up books are also participation books as readers have to be involved in seeing what is in front of them as well as scenes hidden under the animals that are popping up. This is a good book to read during winter holidays or to study animals habits during winter time.

Green Eggs and Ham

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss, 1960

Brief annotation:

Dr. Seuss turns 50 simple words into magic in this time-honored classic. Sam-I-am won't give up! He keeps trying to get the grumpy grown-up in the story to taste green eggs and ham. No matter how Sam-I-am presents the green eggs and ham (in a box, with a fox, in the rain, on a train), the curmudgeon refuses to try them. Finally, Sam-I-am's pesky persistence pays off. A crowd of open-mouthed onlookers watch in suspense as the old grouch takes a bite. And?...SAY! The old sourpuss's face is wreathed in smiles as he gratefully acknowledges, "I do so like green eggs and ham. Thank you, thank you, Sam-I-am!"

Themes include persistence, humor and an unexpected yet very satifying ending.

Dr. Seuss books are classic beginning reader books, and this one in particular lends itself to struggling readers as the rhyming and repetition help readers enjoy the book and guess what might come next. This is a great read aloud book for any occasion, including Dr. Seuss' birthday/Read Across America.

Is Your Mama a Llama?

Is Your Mama a Llama? By Deborah Guarino and illustrated by Steven Kellogg, 1989

Brief annotation:

A young llama asks his friends if their mamas are llamas and finds out, in rhyme, that their mothers are other types of animals.

Themes include animals, rhyming, parent/child relationships

As with any predictable books, this book help bolster confidence for young and/or struggling readers as they are able to guess what is about to be said. The use of repetition, rhyming and pictures help students know what the words will be so they can become successful and confident readers.

Four Hungry Kittens

Four Hungry Kittens by Emily Arnold McCully

Brief annotation:

In this wordless story, four kittens share adventures while their mother is away hunting food.

Themes include adventure, friendship, family and life on a farm.

As with any wordless picture book, students can write their own words or simply take turns per page saying what they think should be written based on the pictures and what their classmates said on previous pages.

Bark, George

Bark, George by Jules Feiffer, 1999

Brief annotation:

"Bark, George," says George's mother, and George goes: "Meow," which definitely isn't right, because George is a dog.

And so is his mother, who repeats, "Bark, George." And George goes, "Quack, quack."

Themes include animals and the sounds they make as well as humor.

This book is a fun and funny book for young students to express themselves as different animals and to identify the sounds that George is making every time his mother instructs him to bark.

Up the Steps, Down the Slide

Up the Steps, Down the Slide by Jonathan Allen, 1992

Brief annotation:

Rhyming text and illustrations featuring a pair of cats present such opposites as over and under, on and off, and open and shut.

Themes include rhyming and repetition to illustrate opposites and get children guessing what will come next.

This book is a good introduction to opposites that occur in everyday life. The rhyming gets young readers involved by introducing vocabulary that they quickly become familiar with and are able to fill in the blanks on second reads. Good for new readers as well to build confidence and maybe get to read in front of their classmates.

One Gorilla: A Counting Book

One Gorilla: A Counting Book by Atsuko Morozumi, 1990

Brief annotation

One very playful gorilla keeps popping up in gardens, forests, jungles, and even people's houses as he takes the reader on a wild counting adventure. He hides--as much as a gorilla can!--along with all the other creatures as they dart, leap, and peer from the most surprising places, waiting to be counted. A chart at the end of the book provides a key to all the animals and their corresponding numbers. Soft, precise illustrations characterize this colorful counting book.

Themes include counting, nature and repetition.

This is a fun and colorful book to get young children involved in counting as well as identifying the animals that appear on the page.

The Absolutely Awful Alphabet

The Absolutely Awful Alphabet by Mordicai Gerstein, 1999

Brief annotation:

An alliterative alphabet book presents mean and monstrous letters, from A (an awfully arrogant amphibian) to Z (a zig-zagging zoological zany).

Themes include alliteration, ABC's and interesting monsters/creatures.

This book is a fresh way to look at the alphabet. Instead of A is for Apple, you get an awfully arrogant amphibian. It is a great opportunity to talk about nouns, adjectives and adverbs. It would also be a fun way to introduce alliteration in a poetry unit.

Because of Winn-Dixie

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, 2000

Brief annotation:

Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the good things that happen to her because of her big ugly dog Winn-Dixie.

Themes include loneliness, friendship, family and the relationships between dogs and people.

This book would be a good book for a class to read together. Discuss questions could include:
If you ate one of Miss Franny's Littmus Lozenges, what would it taste like to you?
What do you think of the preacher as a father?
What is the significance of the various friendships Opal forms over her first summer in Florida? What does she learn from this diverse group of people?
How do you think Winn-Dixie changed the people whose lives he touched? Was his impact more significant on some characters than others?

Esperanza Rising

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan, 2000

Brief annotation:

Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.

Themes include immigration, family, minorities and responsibility.

This story is a good look at the conditions for minorities and immigrants during the Great Depression. It could be paired with current events topics of immigration.

- Pura Belpre Award, 2002

Angelo

Angelo by David Macaulay, 2002

Brief annotation:

While restoring the front of a church, an old plasterer rescues several injured pigeons and nurses them back to health.

Themes include architectural conservation and restoration, wildlife rescue, friendship and death.

This is a good read aloud about friendship. It could lead to an interesting discussion about how Angelo and the pigeon helped each other even though they aren't a likely pair.

The Way We Work

The Way We Work by David Macaulay, 2008
Brief annotation

Many of us spend most of our lives oblivious to even basic information about the most amazing thing we'll ever take for granted-our own bodies. In The Way We Work, David Macaulay gives readers an opportunity to discover just how remarkable the human body really is. This comprehensive and entertaining resource reveals the inner workings of the human body and all of its systems and mechanisms, as only David Macaulay could. Page after page of beautifully illustrated spreads detail everything from cells to the bones and organs they build, clearly explaining the function of each, and offering up-close glimpses, unique cross-sections and perspectives, and even a little humor along the way. This book is for you and everyone you know. It can serve as a reference for children of all ages, families, teachers, and anyone who has questions about how their body works. This informative and engaging guide introduces you to you, and you will come away with a new appreciation of the amazing world inside yourself. When you open the cover you will see how David Macaulay builds a body and explains THE WAY WE WORK. There is no other book like it!

Themes include human physiology and anatomy and understanding your own body.

This would be a good book to use in health or physical education classes. It can be used as a reference book for projects.

Mosque

Mosque by David Macaulay, 2003

Brief annotation:

An author and artist who has continually stripped away the mystique of architectural structures that have long fascinated modern people, David Macaulay here reveals the methods and materials used to design and construct a mosque in late-sixteenth- century Turkey. Through the fictional story and Macaulay’s distinctive full-color illustrations, readers will learn not only how such monumental structures were built but also how they functioned in relation to the society they served.
As always, Macaulay has given a great deal of attention to the relationship between pictures and text, creating another brilliant celebration of an architectural wonder.

Themes include architecture, 16th century Turkish civilation and culture. Cultural understanding and diversity.

This is a great book to use to give a better understanding of Muslim culture during the 16th century. It is not trying to convince anyone of anything and therefor should not be at all contravorsal. It simply is a look at a moment in time, just as Cathedral and Pyramid look at the entire civilazation surrounding the building of the catherdral and the pyramid.

Cathedral

Cathedral by David Macaulay, 1973

Brief annotation:

Text and detailed drawings follow the planning and construction of a magnificent Gothic cathedral in the imaginary French town of Chutreaux during the thirteenth century.

Themes include architecture, 13th century civilization and culture.

This book would be great to use in an introductory French class, just as a way to learn about French culture historically. It would also be a good book for an art class that is looking at how to draw architecture.

– New York Times Ten Best Illustrated Children’s Books of the Year in 1973 and Caldecott Honor Award (1974)

Pyramid

Pyramid by David Macaulay, 1975

Brief annotation:

Text and black-and-white illustrations follow the intricate step-by-step process of the building of an ancient Egyptian pyramid.

Themes include architecture, ancient civilization and Egyptian culture.

This book would go great with the 2nd grade social studies SOL's regarding ancient Egypt. The reading level is probably a little high for 2nd graders to get through the entire book but it can be used as a reference book if they are focusing on one aspect of ancient Egypt.

– New York Times Outstanding Books of the Year, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (Honor Book, 1976) and Christopher Award (1976)

The Way Things Work

The Way Things Work by David Macaulay, 1988

Brief annotation:

Text and numerous detailed illustrations introduce and explain the scientific principles and workings of hundreds of machines including a lawn sprinkler, pneumatic drill, electric guitar, and a smoke detector.

Themes include science, mechanics, household items and innovation

This is a good informational book to use like a reference book. It could be helpful for science fair projects or simply a good recommendation for students who are interested in how things work.

– Best Nonfiction awarded by Boston Globe-Horn Book (1989)

Black and White

Black and White by David Macaulay, 1990

Brief annotation:

Four brief "stories" about parents, trains, and cows, or is it really all one story? The author recommends careful inspection of words and pictures to both minimize and enhance confusion.

Themes include family, creativity and looking at the world in different ways. In the four stories, 3 of the four have words while the other one has no words.

Readers really have to pay attention with this book. Get students to point out differences from one page to the next, similarities occurring within the four stories and how these stories might be influencing each other ... or not.

– Caldecott Medal Winner

Beauty and the Beast

Eilenberg, Max. (2006). Beauty and the beast. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Pr.
Appropriate for students in second to sixth grades.
This story is a basic retelling of the original French Beauty and the Beast and the watercolor illustrations fittingly have an impressionist quality about them. There is a love of gardens and flowers in particular that also corresponds well with the romance often associated with French stories.
Best Books:
Children’s Books 2006: 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, 2006
Children’s Catalog, Nineteenth Edition, Supplement, 2007
School Library Journal Best Books, 2006
This is a good book to use for students with active imaginations, or to try to cultivate imaginations in students who fall under the “low-fantasy” category. There are enough pictures to give readers a good start, but the muted quality invites the reader to fill in more details in their own mind. Teachers and librarians could use this book in combination with an art class, asking students to draw scenes, rooms, costumes and other details that are not depicted by illustrator, Angela Barrett.
French roots.

Beastly

Flinn, Alex. (2007). Beastly. New York, NY: Harperteen.
Appropriate for students from seventh grade and up.
Set in modern day New York, this novel is the biggest departure from the original Beauty and the Beast. Not only is the setting different and not only does the author employ chat rooms as story telling devices, but she also chooses to follow the male lead instead of the traditional female point of view.
Best Books/Awards:
ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 2008
VOYA Editor’s Choice, 2008
Beehive Award, 2010
This book would be interesting in a literacy circle as it is contemporary telling of a fairy tale is likely to get young adults talking about the story and how it relates (or does not relate) to their own lives. Educators could also combine this book in a creative writing class, using the chat room excerpts to show students how they can use modern methods of communication in their stories. Students could create their own chat room situations based on other traditional fantasy or think of other forms of communication that someone like Adrian might use while otherwise locked away from society.

The Lady and the Lion

Long, Laurel, & Ogburn, Jacqueline. (2003). The Lady and the lion. New York, NY: Dial Books for Young Readers.

Appropriate for students in kindergarten to third grade.
Written and illustrated by Americans, this book is based on the Brothers Grimm tale called The Singing, Springing Lark, which actually combined the stories of Beauty and the Beast (French origin) and East of the Sun, West of the Moon (Norwegian origin). Despite all of these Western influences, the bright, deep colors of the oil paintings have an Eastern quality about them. As is the case with many fairy tales, the story claims no home origin and in fact, the protagonist finds herself traveling the world for over seven years.

Best Books:
Children’s Catalog, Nineteenth Edition, 2006
Publishers Weekly Book Review Stars, December 1, 2003

This book is a good read aloud. The oil paintings are beautiful and well matched to the story. It will keep young readers attention and spark their imaginations. This book could also be good in combination with the more well-known Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. Young students could get an early opportunity to find similarities and differences between one of their old favorites and a favorite from centuries ago.