Book Talk #10

 

A is for Abigail: An Almanac of Amazing American Women

Written by: Lynne Cheney

Illustrated by: Robin Preiss Glasser

            This book was written by Dick Cheney's Wife, Lynne Cheney in 2003. It is an alphabet book that discusses a prominent female historical figure with each letter. Each page is covered with pictures and little known facts about each historical figure. The book discusses well-known women such as, Emily Dickinson, Harriet Tubman, Sandra Day O'Connor and of course, Abigail Adams.

            Some letters are not used for people, but for movements in American history. The letter "P" stands for performers. The page opens up like a folder with pictures of classic famous female singers and actresses that led the way for many women in the entertainment business today. The letter "T" stand for trailblazers; women who changed "the role of a women" in American history. In the back of the book there is a glossary that covers each female figure that was discussed in the book and provides more information.

            A is for Abigail is full of information that can be used in an elementary or middle school lesson about women's history. I, myself, learned a lot by reading this book. It gives young girls an idea of truly how far women have come in American history. It can also introduce young girls to professions that might interest them when they get older. This is my favorite book talk story I have chosen and is definitely a book I will have in my future classroom.

Book Talk #9

Corduroy

 

Written and Illustrated by Don Freeman

A teddy bear named Corduroy, lives in a department store and is waiting to find a home. One day, a little girl comes into the store and tells her mother she wants to buy Corduroy, but her mother says no because Corduroy looks worn and is missing a button on his overalls. After they leave, Corduroy decides he wants to better "sell himself" and searches the store to find his missing button. He travels to the bedding department and find a button on a mattress that would fit perfectly onto his overalls. A security guard in the store finds Corduroy and takes him back to the children's section. The next day, the little girl comes back to the department store with her own money and buys Corduroy. Corduroy is so happy he finally has a home.

This is a classic story of a stuffed animal coming to life in the middle of the night. Instead of Corduroy sulking around that he does not have a home, he makes the most of it by making himself look new. The little girl who buys Corduroy, does not care either way, she likes Corduroy just as he is, old or new. She sews his button back on anyway, just so Corduroy will feel comfortable. I think this is a great book for a read aloud in a Kindergarten classroom.

Book Talk #8

 

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Written by B. G. Hennessy

Illustrated by Boris Kulikov

The Boy Who Cried Wolf is a story about a young shepherd boy who told one too many lies. The story begins with the shepherd boy feeling very bored. All he did all day was sit in his pasture and watch his sheep. They would eat and "Baaaa!" and the boy who just sit around hoping his friends would come by. One day, he decides to run into town and tell everyone that a wolf is after his sheep. The townspeople run to the pasture to find the wolf and keep it away. The boy thinks this is funny and spends the rest of his day with one of his friends in the pasture.

The next day, the boy is bored and alone again, so he runs into town saying there are two wolves after his sheep. The townspeople are hesitant, yet, they go looking for the wolves again, but the wolves are no where to be found. The shepherd boy's friend hangs out in the pasture again, wondering if the shepherd boy was telling the truth or not. The third day, the shepherd boy goes to the pasture and there are actually three wolves after his sheep. He runs to tell the townspeople but no one believes him. So, the boy has to chase away the wolves himself and try to find his sheep all alone.

Since the shepherd boy lied too many times about wolves in the pasture, no one believed him when he was telling the truth. The is a great lesson for students of all ages. It teaches students that "honesty is the best policy". This book could easily be used in a lesson in younger grades to get students thinking about what they lie about and the consequences that come from lying. The language of the book is very theatrical with  large, vivid illustrations. It is a great read aloud story.

Book Talk #7

The Hat by Jan Brett

 

 



The story begins with girl named Lisa who lives on a farm. One day cool, winter day, Lisa takes her woolen clothes out to dry. While hanging clothes on the line, the wind picks up and blows one of her stockings away. In the woods behind her house, a hedgehog named Hedgie finds Lisa's stocking and it gets stuck on his needles, so he decides to wear it as a hat. The whole day Hedgie walks around with his new hat while running into all  the animals on the farm, such as, the chicken, the cat, the dogs, the pigs and the pony. Each animal asks Hedgie a different question about his hat. "What is that on your head, Hedgie?" "Don't you know it makes you look silly?", said the animals. Hedgie, would reply by saying he had the hat to keep himself warm, dry and cozy.

By the end of the day, Hedgie had been tired of everyone asking about his hat and making fun of him that he decides to go back to his den. Lisa catches up to him and says, "Silly hedgehog, don't you know animals don't wear clothes?". She takes her stocking and heads back to her house. When she gets there, she finds that all of the animals had taken a piece of her woolen clothing to wear a hat. She begins to chase after them to get all her clothes back. Hedgie notices all the ruckus going on and says, "How silly they look, don't they know that animals should never wear clothes?".

 

I found The Hat to be a cute, fun easy read. I think it would be great for a read aloud because the illustrations look classic and the story is silly and light-hearted. Each page has a border that hints to what the next page is going to discuss, which I find to be useful. It's also a good story to read to children in a classroom around winter time because it does not discuss Christmas or any religion.

 



Book Talk #6

Written by Jorge Argueta

Illustrated by Margarita Sada

 

 



Guacamole is a story about a little girl who is making guacamole for her family. The story is in English and Spanish, every page has both languages which is great for bilingual students or students trying to learn either Spanish or English. The book gives instructions on how to make guacamole. The ingredients are: four avocados, two limes, salt and cilantro. The little girl gives detail of how to go through each step and have fun with it.

              She first puts on her apron, grabs her favorite bowl, then begins to cook. She cuts the avocados in half and saves the skin and pit inside each of them to plant in the yard. The pit will eventually grow into an avocado tree. She then smashes the avocados together until they are smooth and adds the salt, cilantro and lime. The little girl uses rich vocabulary to describe her experience while cooking. She pretends the cilantro is a tree and says, "tear the leaves off your tree one by one, and then add them to your avocado". She uses imagery to draw the reader in. She makes cooking a fun activity instead of a chore. When the guacamole is done, she has a picnic outside with her family with tortillas and beans and of course, guacamole.

              The illustrator used a lot of green to show the healthiness of the recipe. She also used a lot imagination. The little girl and her family live in an avocado shaped house with bright bold colors all around. While cooking, the little girl and her siblings are shrunk down; sliding down the avocados as if they are at a playground  and sitting in the sink and getting wet while cleaning the cilantro. The illustrator made the experience of following a recipe as fun as possible.

              This story would be great for children of any ethnicity to learn how to follow a recipe. I would use this in a lesson by reading the story to the class then asking them to write their own detailed recipe of something they enjoy cooking. I would ask them to use enriched  vocabulary just like the little girl did. Afterwards, the students could share their recipe to the class, so the students would get to learn about food from different cultures and families.

Book Talk #5

Written by Mike Thaler

Illustrated by David Wiesner

 

             This is a story about a young owl named Owly and his mother. Owly is very curious and asks his mother many questions every nigh under the stars. He asks questions such as, How many stars are in the sky?, How high is the sky?, How many waves are in the ocean? and How deep is the ocean?. After Owly asks these questions, his mother replies, "There are many stars in the sky, the sky is very high, there are many waves in the ocean and the ocean is very deep". Owly would ask his mother, "No, how many? how high? or, how deep?". His mother would tell Owly to give find out for himself.

            Owly spent many nights sitting up and counting hundreds of waves and stars. He even spent a night flying as high as he could. Every morning he would return and his mother would ask if his question was answered. He would reply, "there are too many stars in the sky to count, too many waves to count, the ocean was too deep to swim and the sky was so high he couldn't reach the top".

            Owly spent the next night thinking about the stars, the waves, the ocean and the sky and all that he had learned from his mother. The next morning, Owly tells his mother he loves her. She asks, "how much?" He says, "I love you as much as the sky is high and the ocean is deep". The mother hugs Owly, and he asks, "How many more hugs are you going to give me?" She replies, "As many as there are waves in the ocean and stars in the sky".

            In the end, Owly thought that his mother had taught him about the sky and the ocean; but in truth, he learned all on his own. The moral of the story was to not just ask questions, but find your own answers, don't just believe what you hear. This story is great for younger grades who are constantly curious and asking questions. There is no better way to find answers than to find them on your own. I found this story to be heartwarming and a sweet portrayal of a mother/son relationship.

 



Book Talk #4

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

 

 

The book I chose this week is a story about a little girl whose parents named her Chrysanthemum. She absolutely loved her name, she would write it everywhere she went and loved when people called her name. However, when kindergarten started, she no longer liked her name as much. Every student in class had short names and Chrysanthemum's was too large to fit on her name tag. The kids at school, especially the mean girl Victoria, would make fun of Chrysanthemum for having such a "strange" name. When she came home and told her parents what happened, they told Chrysanthemum she had a beautiful name and the kids at school were wrong. She was happy until the next day when she was teased again. Victoria and some girls acted as if she was a flower and suggested to "pick her" or "smell her".
 

 

When Chrysanthemum went to bed that night she had a dream she was a flower and Victoria was picking out her pedals. Chrysanthemum was getting tired of being picked on every day; she wished her name was something simple, like Jane.
 

The next day at school they had music class with Mrs. Twinkle. Everyone loved this teacher, she was nice, pregnant and had a pretty singing voice. In class, Mrs. Twinkle assigned roles for each student for the school musical. Chrysanthemum was given the part as a daisy. Victoria and the other girls laughed at her for playing a flower in the play, just like her name. Mrs. Twinkle told the girls she thought Chrysanthemum was a beautiful name and that she might even give that name to her unborn baby (which she later did). Mrs. Twinkle had a flower first name as well, Delphinium. Victoria and the girls decided to assign flower names to themselves also, to be interesting like Mrs. Twinkle.  Chrysanthemum  was so happy to know Mrs. Twinkle also had a flower name and she no longer felt embarrassed of her name. At the end of the book it states, " Chrysanthemum did not think her name was absolutely perfect. She knew it!".
 

Chrysanthemum overcomes obstacles in this story. She is faced with bullying/teasing by classmates and they shake her confidence and change her opinion of herself. It wasn't until someone,  someone other than her parents, told her that her name was great, that she realized it was great, no matter what anyone said. She loved her name and that is all that mattered. I was able to relate to this book because it is easy to let someones opinion hinder your own, but it is important to stick to what you believe in, regardless of what anyone thinks.
 

The story gives a great example of handling issues at a young age and could be beneficial in a younger grade classroom where students are easily influenced by  other opinions and are expanding their identity and beliefs.