Jamaica's Find

Title: Jamaica's Find
Author: Juanita Havill
Illustrator: Anne Sibley O'Brien
Genre: Realistic Fiction

Jamaica's Find is a story of a little girl that finds a toy at the park and did not want to take it to lost and found, and later her parents convince her to do the right thing and take it back because it did not belong to her. Jamaica agrees to take it back the stuffed dog that she wanted to keep because she liked. Later on she goes back to the park and sees another girl and asks her to play, but she is busy looking for something... She is looking for her stuffed dog that she lost the day before. Jamaica finds pride in the fact that she can say she took the stuffed dog to the lost and found and she takes her to get back her lost item.

This is a cute and very informational book to read to young children. You can give a lesson on being honest, being prideful, and being a good friend. All of these things are shown in the story and are each very important factors to be known for.

Will I Have a Friend?

Title: Will I Have a Friend?
Author: Miriam Cohen
Illustrator: Lillian Hoban
Genre: Realistic Fiction

This book is a story about a little boy joining a school and being nervous about not having any friends. This can be a good thing to read to the classroom because it can provide a lesson for teaching students to be friendly, and not to be afraid to step out and try to make friends on the other end!

Sky Color

Title: Sky Color
Author: Peter H. Reynolds
Genre: Realistic Fiction

This is a cute story about a girl that loves to draw and she loves everything "art" in general. She loves painting and she shows off her paintings, until one day she decides to paint a sky for a class project and there is no blue paint. This is when she has to use her artistic skills and take a step back and look around, then she realizes that the sky is not always blue. She ends up painting a beautiful sky for her class project!

This is a good story to do as a read aloud because it can be used to build the students' confidence and it also shows a great example of not being afraid to show off your talents, whether it is athletics, music, or art.

The War That Saved My Life

Title: The War That Saved My Life
Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Genre: Historical Fiction
Awards: John Newbery Medal

One of the best books I have ever read!! Now I am not much of a reader, I have always just put it on the back burner because I am slow at it.. However, this book has made me want to read more books and see what other amazing books and talented authors that there are.

This is a book of a young girl that is born with a club foot and is mistreated by her mother all of her life because of the foot. Her mother sees her as unfixable and disgusting, which is heartbreaking! The girl and her brother bravely escape to get away from her (a war in itself) AND the actual war that is going on, to move to a safer place. The succeed, and end up finding a much better mother figure in their caretaker while they moved away, her name is Susan. At the end of the story, the children's mother comes to get them and take them home and Susan chases after them. Little did she know, they were escaping from their mother once more to go back to Susan and they happen to meet in the middle! When they return to their "home" safe and sound they realize their house was bombed from the war, and without the kids for Susan to run out to get back, she too would have been bombed and killed.

This story has an AMAZING story line and so many important life lessons to teach a class, or any children for that matter. I would recommend this to all students old enough to read and understand this level book.

Love You Forever

Title: Love You Forever
Author: Robert Munsch
Illustrated: Sheila McGraw
Genre: Realistic Fiction

This is a story of a mother that has a little boy and sings to him at night time before bed, while he is going to sleep. As the book progresses the boy gets older as does the mother, yet she still feels the need to hold him and sing to him about her love for him. She reminds him that he will always be her baby, which becomes ironic at the end of the story when the mother grows too old to carry her son and her son begins to carry her and sing to her at last. The story finishes with the son walking upstairs to his new baby girl and he sings to her, the song his mother sang to him all of his life.

This story could create an awesome lesson on tradition, and learning the meaning of the word "tradition". I think it would be a fun lesson to do to as all of the kids if they have any traditions in their family and what they might be!!

This book was read to me growing up and it is one of my favorites!

The Night Before Mother's Day

Title: The Night Before Mother's Day 
Author: Natasha Wing
Illustrator: Amy Wummer
Genre: Realistic Fiction

This book is a sweet book that describes the events of a Mother's Day planned by a husband and their two daughters. It is a fiction book, however it has all reason to think it is a real story because of the content. Realistic fiction is tricky that way, but the characters are not real life people, therefore it is not a true story.

This book would be a great book to read aloud in class right before mother's day to give some children ideas on things that they could do for their mothers on this special day! You could even read this book to a class after Mother's Day and then ask them to write about what their Mother's Day looked like, and what they did!

If I Ran the School

Title: If I Ran the School
Poems Selected and Introduced by: Bruce Lansky
Genre: Giggle Poetry

If I Ran the School is 24 funny school poems picked by Bruce Lanky, also known as the "king of giggle poetry". This is a goofy little book! The poems are mostly talking about how the kids do not like the schools they are at and how much homework they are getting and they do not enjoy.

I think this could be an important book to read to the class to show that our classroom IS going to enjoy homework because as a teacher I hope to make it as fun as possible. I want my students to know that the things I make them do will be for their benefit and that challenges do not have to be a Debby downer, and that they can be fun and exciting as well!

Mary Had A Little Jam

Title: Mary Had A Little Jam
Author: Bruce Lansky
Illustrator: Stephen Carpenter
Genre: Poetry

This is a cute little poetry book that has a bunch of little poems. I enjoyed these because they all rhymed and were short and sweet! The poem that stands out (because of the title) is Mary Had A Little Jam and it says,

"Mary had a little jam:
she spread it on a waffle.
And if she hadn't eaten ten,
she wouldn't feel so awful."

Which I thought was really cute, obviously it is a change from Mary Had A Little Lamb, but it was short and cute!
These poems are fun and easy to read to kids because they like to hear rhymes and try to com up with their own rhyming words, which is more difficult for kids than you would think. Another cool thing I noticed from the book is that the illustrations start with a bright day when all of the kids in the poems are playing around, and it ends with darker illustrations because the poems become more about tonight time and going to sleep! I think that was really neat and reading some of these rhyming poems would be a great example of rhyming to read to a class.

The Ghost-Eye Tree

Title: The Ghost-Eye Tree
Authors: Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault
Illustrated by: Ted Rand
Genre: Poetry

This is a cute story that was written as if it were 100 years ago or so. There is a family that lives down a road and the mother asks the son and daughter to walk to the end of the road to get some milk from the milk man. However, to get to the milk man you have to pass the ghost-eyed tree. The sister does not believe the brother that there is really a ghost tree so she convinces him that it is all fine. The brother has a hat on that the sister says looks stupid on hm, but he likes it. On their way home the ghost-eyed tree comes to life and reaches out for the two kids with its branches, and the kids run away to make an escape!

While escaping from the ghost-eyed tree the spill a lot of milk and the brother lost his hat, the sister kicks into protection mode and to keep their mother from worrying they fill the half-filled milk up with water and then she runs back into danger to find the boys hat for him, even though she did not like the hat on him.

This story is a good one to read to the kids because it shows courage, bravery and love! Those are things that are needed in little children and it happens to be a tough lesson to learn.

Together We Are Together

Title: Together We Are Together
Author/Illustrator: the St. Brigid's Head Start Children Syracuse, New York
Genre: Poetry

I love this book because it starts off by explaining that this book is written by children and they use poetry to use words in a special way to express their feelings about anything such as their favorite things to do, their families, friends, and feelings about themselves. It is such a sweet book to have and read!

Another reason I think this book is so good is because it is literally ONLY written by children. This is an awesome way to get to know you students, while at the same time teaching them about poetry! Some of the poems in the book were very sad and touching, while at the same time they tell A TON about a kid and why they are who they are. The kids talked about their families, and friends and their troubles in these poems. This book is amazing!

The New Kid On the Block by Jack Prelutsky

Title: The New Kid On the Block
Author: Jack Prelutsky
Illustrator: James Stevenson
Genre: Poetry


This book is full of different poems! One of the greatest poems in the book is obviously (because it s the title) The New Kid On the Block. So let me tell you a little about the poem. The poem is about a new kid that has moved into a neighborhood, and is very rough and mean. The new kid likes to beat up on the other kids, specifically the guys.

The new kid on the block is a girl, beating up on all of the guys. The guys are afraid of her because she stomps on toes, pulls hair, twists arms, and steals balls from the other kids!

I think this poem would be a great read aloud to do in from of a class to show what NOT to do at school. Especially if there is a known "bully" in the classroom, it would be good for everybody to hear it and clear the air that certain things such as pulling hair and stomping on toes are not aloud!