When Giants come to Play

By Andrea Beaty

This was a great book! I think it is a great example of how illustrations add richness to a story, and speak to the underlying text. That was my favorite part of this book: the illustrations. Something about the very beginning reminded me of the book “The Time Traveler’s wife” in the way that she has these supernatural friends so to speak, and they are integrated into a real setting and into her real life. Even though there was not a lot said, I could feel the relationship between the girl and the giants, and I also felt a really strong sense of connection with the characters. I think this book would be an asset to a classroom library.

 

 

The Story of Babar the Little Elephant

The Story of Babar the Little Elephant

By: Jean De Brunhoff

 On the surface level, I think this is a good book, and I would have no problem having it in my classroom, but on a literary level, I had a few problems with it. Overall I found it to be strangely void of emotion and description. So many sad things happen to Babar, and they are just glossed over. It doesn’t make the reader feel anything. The scene where Babar’s mother is shot is briefly mentioned in 2 sentences, and then the story moves on. Similarly, when the king of the elephants dies from eating a bad mushroom, the story says: “It poisoned him and he became ill, so ill that he died. This was a great calamity.” To me this seemed very dry; like it was missing something. Also, there was not strong characterization as a whole throughout the book. Not every story needs these things, but I think with the plotline of this particular stories, there were instances where these kinds of literary details could have really enriched it, changing it from an okay story to a great one. I think it could have dug deeper. I also thought that too much happened, and some of the plot points were unnecessary. The story itself and the basic plot was really reminiscent of the lion king. In general, I thought this book was okay, but I think it really could have gone further, as I was left at the end wondering what the point was.

 

Book! Book! Book!

By: Deborah Bruss

This book was very clever and I enjoyed it. It makes a clever play-on-words, as the hen goes into the library and the librarian thinks she is saying “Book! Book!” when the hen is clucking. Also, at the end, the librarian thinks that frog is saying “Read it, read it!” I thought that was very funny. When I was younger I loved books like this; books that played with words or made jokes like that that I could understand and feel like I was included in a more adult world because I understood something like that. It reminded me of a book about a boy who wishes for a sandwich, and instead gets a “sand witch.” I always felt smart or clever for understanding the joke. 

Miss Hunnicutt's Hat

By: Jeff Brumbeau

I thought this book was great! It definitely had some underlying themes and values, however, first and foremost it was just a good story that was fun to read and very funny. I liked the idea of being an individual and expressing yourself despite other people. I also liked the characterization of Miss Hunnicutt. She was originally introduced as being very shy and timid, and doing what people wanted, but she got stronger and stronger in her convictions to wear her hat as the story went on. I also thought that it was interesting that the townspeople blamed her for causing all the chaos, when in reality, it was their reaction to her hat that caused chaos; she didn’t do anything at all. I liked that in the end, Miss Hunnicut is validated by the fact that the queen has a similar hat, and then all of the townspeople copy it. Who decides what is socially acceptable and what is not? It is something that is so important to all of us but at the same time, arbitrary. Overall I liked this book and although it was dramatized, I think it is something that is very true to real life and that everyone can relate to in some way. 

Who is Melvin Bubble

By: Nick Bruel

 This was such a fun book! I think kids would think it is hilarious. It has a very strong voice, and I loved that each page was from a different person’s perspective, and in a different person’s voice. It had a really clever sense of humor, and this illustrations definitely added to this. While reading this, I was thinking of different ways to utilize this book in the classroom. One thing I think it would be great for would be talking about characters or perspective in writing, using this book as a model or an example. Also, it might be fun for kids to write their own books based off the format of this book. Overall I loved this book and I think that students would too!

 

Love that Dog

By: Sharon Creech

I thought this was a great book that was very simple but very true to life at the same time. The first question that it raised for me was, what defines poetry? I think that it is so ambiguous, and this is what intimidates so many students. I am someone who likes to write, but I have always been intimidated by the idea of writing poetry. We had to do it for block this year, and at first it made me nervous, but the more I did it the more comfortable I felt, which I think is the case here. I think that the more you are exposed to it the more you realize that it can actually be freeing, because, in fact, it can be whatever you want it to be. I think that poetry can be deeper because it has a lot of history behind it. The poem at the very end of the book, love that dog, could have easily been published. It is short and simple, but having read the whole book, you really get a sense of the history and the feeling behind it. However, a reader who has not read this book would still be able to bring their own experience and interpretation to it. That is why I think that poetry is so unique; because it means so much without saying everything upfront. I also liked how you learned more about Jack through his poetry. At the beginning, in his poem “so much depends upon a blue car,” you don’t really know what he means, but you learn about how this is meaningful to his life throughout the rest of the book. I thought this was a great read and I think it would be a really good way to introduce poetry in a non-threatening way.

 

Tiny Tortilla

By: Arlene Williams

I don’t really have a whole lot to say about this book, but I liked it! I really liked the imagination involved, and I could see some fun activities in the classroom being sparked from this book. I loved the colors in the illustrations, they really made me feel something; like for example I could feel the heat in the part where he is in the desert. It also has a strong sense of predictability, yet is still entertaining and made me want to keep reading. I thought it was very creative and a fun read!