My Great Aunt Arizona

Author: Gloria Houston
Illustrator:   Susan Condie Lamb
Publisher:  Harper Collins
Publication Year:   1992
Location: Personal Collection

Awards:   ALA Notable, IRA/CBC Childrens' & Teachers' Choice, NCSS notable, NCTE notable

Summary:  My favorite book to introduce text connections to my students, this is the autobiographical story of Houston's great aunt. Arizona grew up in the mountains and overcome odds to become a teacher in a one room school house. Although she dreamed of traveling, she never did but instead visiting those places in her mind and through the students whose lives she touched. The watercolors are perfect illustrations of a time unfamiliar to most modern students and invite them to pour over the details.

Classroom Ideas: A wonderful mentor text for describing someone in a student's life that inspired them and for making text connections. A good historical connection as well.

Extras:

Crow Call

Author: Lois Lowry
Illustrator:   Bagram Ibatoulline
Publisher:  Scholastic
Publication Year:   2009
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Booklist starred review

Summary: (An autobiographical story)  Liz's father has just returned from war and he is a stranger to her. The two set off on a morning together, sharing breakfast of cherry pie at the diner and then heading out into the woods to hunt. They talk about the war and then Liz calls dozens of crows into the trees. Liz's joy in the crows is evident and her father decides not to hunt them that morning after all as the two head back down the hill hand in hand. A sweet book of the relationship between father and daughter.

Classroom Ideas: The description in this book is amazing: "Grass, frozen after its summer softness, crunches under our feet: the air is sharp and supremely clear, free from the floating pollens of summer; and our words seem etched and breakable on the brittle stillness." The setting is shown through the details in the illustrations- the signs in the diner, haircuts, and the car they drive; but the book would be relevant for any child whose parent has served in the military.





Extras: Author's note with a photograph of Lois Lowry from that time period.

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge

 Author: Mem Fox
Illustrator: Julie Vivas
Publisher:  Kane/Miller
Publication Year:   1985
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Children's Book of the Year by the Child Study Association of America, ALA Notable, NYT 100 Best Children's Books 

Summary:  A boy named Wilfrid hears his parents talking about the memory loss of a ninety-six year old neighbor who lives next door in the old people's home. He tries to discover the meaning of "memory" by asking the other residents who tell him, respectively, it's something warm, something sad, something that makes you laugh, something precious as gold.He gathers his own "memories" to bring to Miss Nancy, his favorite neighbor because she, too, has four names. Each of his treasures, a freshly laid egg for warmth, a toy puppet for laughter, his grandfather's war medal for sorrow, and his precious football brings back memories for Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper and smiles for the two of them. Sweet watercolors illustrate the poignant story.

Classroom Ideas: This is a semi-autobiographical story which could lead children to their own stories of things that are precious to them and bring back memories. It could also be linked to Alzheimers and aging and used by a school counselor.

Extras: The story behind the story on Fox's web page:
http://www.memfox.com/wilfrid-gordon-mcdonald-partridge.html

Homer

Author & Illustrator:   Elisha Cooper
Publisher:  Greenwillow
Publication Year:   2012
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Kirkus Best Book, Booklist & Publisher's Weekly starred reviews

Summary:  The old dog Homer sits on the porch thinking about how he wants to spend his day. He doesn't want to run around the yard with the young dogs, explore the field, walk to the beach, swim, or run. He looks out out a beautiful landscape of ocean and yard, and soon everyone comes and joins him on the porch. As the sun sets, he heads into the house to relax with his family all around. The watercolors are beautiful and absolutely draw the reader into the mood of a dog who's content with his life.

Classroom Ideas: The theme here is one of contentment and old age. The book perfectly captures the mood of the old dog.

What Little Boys are Made of

Author & Illustrator:   Robert Neubecker
Publisher:  Balzer + Bray
Publication Year:   2012
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Bank Street College Best Children's Books, Kirkus Best Books,

Summary:  Neubecker builds on the traditional phrases in the classic nursery rhyme. Neubeker's ideas: moons and stars and rockets to Mars (I want that rainbow patchwork rocket!), snakes and rats and big jungle cats, vines and rocks and razor-tooth crocs, sticks and stones and skulls and bones, Ships and sails and oceans and whales....and the surprises keep on coming! Spreads of  sweet small images with lots of white spaces are alternated with gorgeous, vivid, two-page spreads that almost jump off the page! My son would have adored the dragon spread when he was younger! A must for anyone who loves a boy, is having a boy, or was a boy!

Classroom Ideas: The rhymes are perfect and the build-up on the well-known song will appeal to all young readers.

Brothers at Bat: The True Story of an Amazing All-brother Baseball Team

Author: Audrey Vernick
Illustrator:   Steven Salerno
Publisher:  Clarion
Publication Year:   2012
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   NYT Notable, Booklist Editor's Choice

A NewYork Times Notable Book for 2012
A 2012 Booklist Editor's Choice
- See more at: http://www.hmhco.com/shop/books/brothers-at-bat/9780547385570#sthash.KdGqYFCX.dpuf

Summary:  "It sounds like a fairy tale: twelve baseball-playing brothers." But the Acerro family was real and they had 16 children- 12 boys who formed their own semi-pro team in 1938. In the 1940s, six of the brothers joined the armed forces during World War II. After the war, they continued playing together even while starting careers and families of their own. In 1997, the family was put into the Baseball Hall of Fame and the seven brothers still living made the trip to the ceremony. Beautiful colorful, realistic drawings fill the spreads with details of the times in which the Acerro brothers lived.

Classroom Ideas: Classroom studies of the 1940s/1950s, with a mention of World War II. I can see boys in particular being very interested in this story, and there is a lovely lesson here about love of activity and family.

Extras: Author's note with a photograph of the family. Artist's note about his own family story.

White Socks Only

Author: Evelyn Coleman
Illustrator:   Tyrone Geter
Publisher:  Albert Whitman & Co.
Publication Year:   1996
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   1996 Notable Book for Children, Smithsonian Magazine; Pick of the Lists, American Bookseller

Summary:  A story told by an African American woman in a form of dialect. A girl sneaks off to town by herself wearing her finest Sunday outfit, including white socks. She wants to find some cement so she can test out the saying "It could get so hot you could fry an egg on the sidewalk." As she's walking, she says a water fountain with a sign that says "Whites Only." She takes off her good black shoes and hops up to the fountain wearing only her clean white socks. Of course she get caught and gets yelled at, but other people from the town start to join her and it becomes an act of civil disobedience. Although she gets whipped by a man, the mysterious "Chicken Man" rescues her and sends her home where she's praised for "doing some good."

Classroom Ideas: Such a great example of dialect. ("And child, was it hot! On that kind of day a firecracker might light up by itself.")
Also, the figurative language here is amazing, and the descriptions are wonderful. If I was reading this with kids, I'd read the narrator's description of herself without letting them see the illustration and then have them draw her.
Obviously, the content fits perfectly with a discussion about segregation and Jim Crow laws. It is especially interesting to think about the awakening of children to the prejudice that was all around them and would be a great companion to the book Goin' Someplace Special.

Extras:

The Scrambled States of America

Author & Illustrator:   Laurie Keller
Publisher:  Henry Holt
Publication Year:   1998
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   American Bookseller Pick of the Lists, IRA-CBC Children's Choice, Bank Street College Best Book, Publisher's Weekly Best Book

Summary:  When Kansas is in a bad mood because he's bored in the middle of the country, they decide to have a party with all the states. The states decide that they should switch places to see the rest of the country but soon discover that they aren't happy in their new spots (Arizona switches places with South Carolina but doesn't like ocean ruining her hairdo). So they all decide to return home (theme: There's no place like home.)  The collage illustrations are such fun and kids will be loving all the little comments along the way!

Classroom Ideas: Classroom study of the USA- in the back there is a gallery of each state with its nickname, capital, area, and population.

The Secret Plan

Author & Illustrator:   Julia Sarcone-Roach
Publisher:  Knopf
Publication Year: 2009 
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   UBIE award, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Best Book

Summary: Milo the elephant loves playing with his neighbor kittens Henry, Hildy, & Harriet; but Bedtime! always ruins their fun. So Milo come up with plans to thwart bedtime (my favorite is the one where he paints himself with green stripes to match the walls...no one will notice a green painted elephant, will they?) but they still got caught. Finally, Hildy got the idea to sneak into the attic and it worked! But when they get sleepy, they come up with a super secret, silly plan! The gorgeous acrylic paintings pulled me into the world of these sweet friends. The endpapers include blueprints and Morse code, while each spread includes a hidden mouse-- what kid can resist that?

Classroom Ideas: The characters here are sweet-- it's a story of friendship, but also one of a little naughtiness that any kid can relate to. The plans are silly and perhaps kids could come up with their own ideas of how to put off bedtime.

All the World

Author: Liz Garton Scanlon
Illustrator:   Marla Frazee
Publisher:  Beach Lane Books
Publication Year:   2009
Location: Knox County Public Library- Halls

Awards:   Cadecott Honor,NYT Best Book, Publisher's Weekly Best Book, Kirkus Best Book, School Library Journal Best Book, Parents' Choice Gold Award, Indies Choice Award

Summary:  This book, told in rhyme, starts from the smallest things ("Rock, stone, pebble, sand") and moving to all encompassing words ("All the world is wide and deep"). The illustrations mirror this idea with a great deal of white space on the first page moving to two-page spreads that fill the space with detail, color and movement.  I am hard pressed to choose my favorite spread- they all invite me to relax and be at peace with the world. What a beautiful book!

Classroom Ideas: This book is full of beautiful images of the world which could be easily mimicked by young writers and artists.

follow follow

Author: Marilyn Singer
Illustrator:   Josee Masse
Publisher:  Dial Books for Young Readers
Publication Year:   2013
Location: Knox County Public Library- Halls

Awards:   Publisher's Weekly starred review

Summary:  This unique poetry form (first introduced in mirror mirror) is called a "reverso" poem (per Singer.) The poems are presented in pairs, with the second being the exact opposite of the first with the exception of punctuation and capitalization. The clever word play changes the meanings completely. Each pair is based on a famous fairy tale or fable. An example from the pair entitled "Birthday Suit" (based on the story The Emperor's New Clothes):
Who dares to say he drained the treasury
on
nothing?
Ha!
This emperor has

AND

This emperor has--
ha!--
nothing
on!
Who dares to say her drained the treasury?





Classroom Ideas: Kids will love reading and identifying the stories here which would fit perfectly with a unit on fairy tales or fables. The word choice is excellent and copying these poems would be extremely difficult!

Extras: Author's note explaining the reverso form and how she came up with them. A list of the tales that each poem is based on.

This Is Just to Say

Author:Joyce Sidman
Illustrator:   Pamela Zagarenski
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Publication Year:  2007
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Claudia Lewis Poetry Award, Cybils Poetry, Lee Bennett Hopkins Award Honor, School Library Journal Best Book, IRA Teacher's Choice

Summary:  This story told in verse was inspired by W.C. William's famous poem of the same title. In poems, Mrs. Merz' sixth grade class write poems of apology that they bind into a book. They also include poems written by the people to whom they apologized. The poems are in all sorts of forms and cover many topics, but the pairs show a fascinating glance into the relationship between the authors. The illustrations are perfect- combining computer graphic backgrounds with adorable sketches.

Classroom Ideas: The poems could be used to teach poetry forms and types of figurative language. "The River of Forgiveness" - what a wonderful metaphor! But, of course, they are mostly perfect for kids to try and write their own apology poems and maybe even imagine what the reply would be.

Extras: table of contents

A Curious Collection of Cats

Author: Betsy Franco
Illustrator:   Michael Wetz
Publisher:  Tricycle Press
Publication Year:   2009
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Lee Bennett Hopkins Award Honor book, ABC Best Book for Children, Horn Book starred review

Summary:  Thirty concrete poems about cats perfectly illustrated. While the poems are beautiful, the subjects are not romanticized, but described in a way that would be recognized by anyone who's lucky enough to be owned by a cat. ("A big, brown empty grocery bag is Sweetie's favorite thing. When he lunges out to grab our toes, Our Sweetie's menacing!") A must have for any animal lover!

Classroom Ideas: The poems contain rhyme, rhythm, and figurative language. They would be highly motivating for kids to write their own cat poetry (or any other animal for that matter). It would also be a fun cross-curricular activity for an art teacher & a writing teacher.

Knuffle Bunny

Author & Illustrator:   Mo Willems
Publisher:  Hyperion
Publication Year:   2004
Location: Knox County Public Library- Halls

Awards:   Caldecott Honor, Irma Black Medal,Charlotte Zolotow

Honor, ALA Notable Book,IRA Children's Choice, Child Magazine Best Book, NY Public

Wanda Gag Read Aloud Honor ,CCBC Choice Book ,School Library Journal Best Book, Horn Book Fanfare, Kirkus Review  Editor's Choice


Summary:  Trixie, Daddy & Knuffle Bunny go to the laundromat but disaster strikes when Knuffle Bunny is left behind. Trixie tries everything (she fusses, she bawls, she goes boneless) to show unhappy she is, but Daddy doesn't understand. Trixie's Mommy immediately realizes that Knuffle Bunny is missing and the whole family runs back to the laundromat. Daddy finds Knuffle Bunny in the bottom of the washer and then Trixie says her first words, "Knuffle Bunny!" This book always gets to me because my daughter had a beloved Lambie who now lives in a hotel room in Alaska! Willems's groundbreaking technique of inserting his sketches into true photographs of NYC was used for the first time in this book.

Classroom Ideas: The familiar themes would appeal to any young reader. An art teacher could introduce the artistic technique here and have kids try it for themselves.

Lost and Found

Author & Illustrator:   Oliver Jeffers
Publisher:  Philomel
Publication Year:    2005
Location: Knox County Public Library- Halls

Awards:   Nestles Smarties Book Prize, Blue Peter Book Award, Kate Greenway Award Shortlist, CBI Book of the Year

Summary:  A boy finds a penguin at his door and thinks he's lost. He looks for the penguin's home and eventually they set off in a rowboat to return him to the South Pole.  They arrive and the boy leaves him there, but eventually he realizes that he misses the penguin. "The penguin had not been lost, just lonely." When the boy goes back to find the penguin, he finds him in an umbrella rowing out to try and meet the boat so the two friends return the boy's home together. The gouache illustrations are gorgeous with vibrant colors (I especially love the storm at sea with all the movement pictured.)

Classroom Ideas: The idea of problem and solution could be explored, as well as the simple plot easily mapped. There are two big themes here: Be sure you understand the problem (hmmm...this could also be tied into math practices in common core-) before you try to solve it and of course friendship and faithfulness.

The Butterfly

Author & Illustrator:   Patricia Polacco
Publisher:  Philomel
Publication Year:   2000
Location: Knox County Public Library- Halls

Awards: School Library Journal & Kirkus starred reviews, Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People

Summary:  Monique lives in France during the Nazi occupation when she discovers that her family has hidden a Jewish family with a young daughter named Sevrine. Although she is scared of the Nazi soldiers, she does not let on that she has discovered Sevrine's existence and the two girls become friends. Monique brings Sevrine gifts from the outside - flowers, earth, and even a butterfly. When the next door neighbor sees Sevrine, the family must run taking Monique's beloved pet with them and leaving a gold Star of David necklace in return.  One day months later, tens of butterflies visit Monique in her garden and she is sure that they are a sign from Sevrine of her family's safety.

Classroom Ideas: A beautiful addition to any class study of World War II and the Holocaust, as well as a story of bravery and friendship.

Extras: In the author's note, Polacco explains that this is a family story of her great-aunt Marcel and her aunt Monique. Sevrine and Monique continue to be friends.

January's Sparrow

Author & Illustrator: Patricia Polacco  
Publisher:  Philomel
Publication Year:   2009
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   SC School Book Award, Sequoyah Award, Charlotte Award,

Summary:  Eight year old Sadie "Sparrow" Crosswhite is a slave. She and her family watch in horror as a runaway slave, January, is drug into the year and whipped. Sadie is devastated as she remembers January giving her a carved sparrow when he told her that he was "fixin' to fly." After learning that the master was planning to auction of Sparrow's brother, her family flees on the Underground Railroad. They finally make it to Marshall, Michigan, where the whole town is part of the railroad. Sadie makes a new friend named Polly, but the family is still worried that the slave patrols are tracking them. One morning, Sadie's carved sparrow turns up on their doorstep and soon the master's soon and other trackers show up to drag the Crosswhite family away. The whole town rallies around them, but the white men quote the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 that the family can be taken back to their rightful owner. January even shows up to back the family but they are brought in front of a judge, Polly's father -- who jails the men for attempting kidnapping so the family has time to flee to Canada. After the war, Sadie returns to Marshall for good. With Polacco's typical marker and pen sketches, this 94 page picture book tells a true story from the town where she lives. 

Classroom Ideas: Obviously there is a lot of historical content here about the Underground Railroad and slavery. There is vocabulary from the time period as well (paddy rollers= slave patrols that captured runaways). The story is told in slave dialect and contains many instances of figurative language ("You lovin' one of the white folks is like a dog lovin' the hickory what beats it.")

The Boss Baby

Author & Illustrator:   Marla Frazee
Publisher: Beach Lane Books
Publication Year:  2010
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Starred reviews in Kirkus, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly, Publishers Weekly Best Book, School Library Journal Best Book

Summary: I laughed out loud when I read the first line of text: "From the moment the baby arrived, it was obvious that he was the boss".......accompanied by genius illustrations of the baby in a business suit carrying a suitcase. With illustrations obviously set in the 1950s, the baby keeps his parents at work, making demands, holding meetings, and throwing fits whenever they don't meet his demands. There were perks as boss- the spa, the gym, the drinks, the jet. But one day no one came when he called so he had to try something different (crawling and saying "mama, dada") and he remains the boss. The built-in metaphor of the book of boss=baby is pulled off incredibly well.

Classroom Ideas: This book is a metaphor. It would be fun to read the text without the illustrations and talk to kids about the way illustrations can help them to understand book better. Obviously, the story is entirely different when seen in its entirety with the illustrations.

Mrs. Biddlebox

Author: Linda Smith
Illustrator:  Marla Frazee
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Year:  2002
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards: Starred review in Publishers Weekly, Parents' Choice Award Winner, Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Illustration

Summary: Mrs. Biddlebox wakes up the wrong side of her bed (bunk...) and trudges out into the world. She decides to cook the morning into a cake and gathers her ingredients: lawn, shadow, fog, sun, sky, and puts the whole day into her dough. She ate the whole cake with tea and "welcomed in the night." The swirled illustrations bring Mrs. Biddlebox and her environment to life. The reader can feel the motion in the drawings and the final spread with its multi-colored swirls in the night sky is just awesome. 

Classroom Ideas: There are so many great words in this book (knotty, dreary, dank, deary, mussied) and end rhyme in the text.

The Wall

Author & Illustrator:   Peter Sis
Publisher:  Farrar, Straus, & Giroux
Publication Year:   2007
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Caldecott Honor, Sibert, ALA Best Books, ALA Notable, Parents' Choice Award Winner,  Boston Globe - Horn Book Award, NYT Best Illustrated, CBC Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, Orbis Pictus, Booklist Editors' Choice,  Horn Book Fanfare, Kirkus Reviews Editor's Choice, Publishers Weekly Best Books, School Library Journal Best Books

Summary:  This autobiography parallels Sis's writing life with his early years in Czechoslovakia. As he continued to grow in his artist ability (his journal entries note that he won the Historical Museum Drawing Competition in 1962), life behind the Iron Curtain is very restricted. In the 1960s, he began to learn about Western culture and question what he was being taught. In 1968, censorship is lifted and Western popular culture influences (the Beatles, Harlem Globetrotters, etc) began to flow into Sis's life. Then the Iron Curtain falls again and finally in 1989 Mikhail Gorbachev brings down the wall and the Cold War is over. What an amazing book that tells the tale of the fall of the communist way of life!!

Classroom Ideas: autobiography, This book takes place during the 1950s-60s with the growth of communism in eastern Europe, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Vietnam War. The vocabulary is explained very well (communism, compulsory, prohibited) and there is a wonderful feeling of what life would have been like during this time period.

Extras: endpaper map of Europe with inset of Prague, photographs of Sis growing up on the jacket