Magritte's Marvelous Hat

Author & Illustrator:   D.B. Johnson
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin
Publication Year:   2012
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   ALSC Notable, School Library Journal & Publisher's Weekly starred reviews

Summary:  The surrealist painter Rene Magritte is pictured here as a suit-clad hound who sees a perfect hat in a store window. Suddenly, the hat floats onto Magritte's head. When he takes it home, his painting comes more easily than it ever has. The hat keeps pretending to blow away and wants to play, but when Magritte ignores it to continue painting. The hat flies away and Magritte realizes he can't paint without it. When the painter quits chasing it and instead plays a hide-and-go-seek game, the hat finds him and Magritte can paint again.With clear overlay pages, pipes & smoke rings for a front porch and many more strange details, this is the perfect depiction of a surrealistic world. Kids will love pouring over the details in these illustrations.

Classroom Ideas: This would be a great introduction to surrealism for an art teacher. It would also be a good example of fantasy, as well as a story of friendship, in a way.

Extras: Author's note at the end that discusses Rene Magritte's and the surrealist painters of his time. It also explains what surrealism is.

Black Dog

Author & Illustrator:   Levi Pinfold
Publisher:  Candlewick
Publication Year:   2012
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Kate Greenway Medal,ALSC Notable, NYT Notable, CYBIL Award finalist

Summary:  A black dog appears outside the Hope family's house, and as each family member encounters it, the dog seems to get larger and larger. Then the smallest Hope (nicknamed Small) laughs at her frightened family and goes outside to meet the dog. She calls the huge beast "guffin" and it "snuffs" at her. The big dog chases her around the town until it shrinks and follows her in through the cat flap. The family realizes that Small has been quite brave and they welcome Black Dog into the family. The paintings in this book are rich in both color and detail, and the text is accompanied by gorgeous sepia thumbnails that perfectly imitate the old-fashioned feel of the story.

Classroom Connections: Despite the realistic characters and setting, this story is a fantasy and would do well in a classroom discussion of what makes fantasy. The characters show their personalities through their actions as well. 

Sam, Bangs, & Moonshine

Author & Illustrator:   Evaline Ness
Publisher:  Henry Holt
Publication Year:   1966
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   ALA Notable, Caldecott Medal

Summary:  Sam was a fisherman's daughter who lied all the time. Her father warned her to talk REAL and not MOONSHINE, but she continued to send her neighbor Thomas on wild searches for her pet kangaroo. Unfortunately, one day a search gets Thomas and Sam's cat Bangs stuck on a rock in the middle of high tide. Bangs gets washed into the sea, but he shows back up that night. Sam apologizes to Thomas and gives him a baby gerbil that her father has given her (that looks like a kangaroo!) The illustrations perfectly show the fantasy of Sam's dreams against the reality of the story.

Classroom Ideas: Sam learns the importance of telling the truth and the difference between reality and fantasy. 

Mr. Lunch borrows a Canoe

Author & Illustrator:   J.Otto Seibold & Vivian Walsh
Publisher:  Viking
Publication Year:  1994
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   Publisher's Weekly starred review

Summary:  Mr. Lunch is a dog who is a professional bird-chaser. One day, the birds were invited to the Elephant Brant Bird Seed Company's annual picnic. At the picnic, Mr. Lunch borrows a canoe from the elephant and goes for a ride down the river. He sets up a tent to camp, but a bear recognizes him and Mr. Lunch paddles away from the bear. He falls asleep in the boat, and ends up in Venice. When he goes to explore the city, he must (of course) empty the plaza of all those pesky pigeons and the city honors him with its traditional gift, the Golden Outboard Motor. He takes the motor an returns home to his bird-chasing business. Seibold was one of the first illustrators to ever use computer-generated art and his quirky, campy,  childlike style is highly recognizable.

Classroom Ideas: It would be interesting to talk about the fantasy/reality aspect of this book-- could you really fall asleep in a canoe and end up in Venice?

Extras:

The Garden of Abdul Gasazi

Author & Illustrator:   Chris Van Allsburg
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin
Publication Year:   1979
Location: Knox County Public Library- Halls

Awards:   Caldecott Honor, NYT Best Illustrated, Horn Book Award

Summary:  Alan is dog-sitting for the bad-tempered dog Fritz when he runs away into the gardden of the dog hating magician Abdul Gasazi. Alan chases after Fritz and soon comes upon Gasazi's mansion. He goes to the door and politely asks for the dog to be returned to him. The magician takes Alan to a gathering of ducks and tells him that one of the ducks is Fritz who will eventually turn back into a dog. Alan takes the duck who steals his hat and flies away. When Alan gets back to Miss Hester's house, Fritz is there and she assures him that Mr. Gasazi couldn't really change the dog to a duck. But at the end, Fritz comes trotting up with Alan's hat..... Van Allsburg's black and white sketches are mesmerizing and make the reader want to go and visit the gardens and the house.

Classroom Ideas: This book could be used to discuss fantasy versus realistic fiction. It would also be interesting to do character studies of Alan and Fritz. How does Van Allsburg give Fritz such personality without him ever saying a word?

A teacher's guide from Houghton Mifflin:
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/thepolarexpress/tg/garden.shtml

Ginger and Petunia

Author & Illustrator:   Patricia Polacco
Publisher: Philomel
Publication Year:  2007
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee Branch

Awards:  Author/illustrator study Patricia Polacco

Summary: The elegant, flamboyant piano player Virginia Vincent Folsum, Ginger, has a pet pig named Petunia. Petunia lives under the staircase in Ginger's house. When Ginger has to travel to London, she calls a Housesitter to come take care of Petunia. But when the housesitter doesn't show, Petunia pretends to be Ginger. She cooks dinner, listens to opera, dresses in Ginger's clothes, teaches Ginger's piano students, and even takes Ginger's convertible to the grocery store! Then she heads to an art museum opening and heads off to dance with the governor. Petunia is tired of being in charge and wants someone to take care of her, but luckily when she returns home, Ginger is there to greet her! The illustrations are vibrant and gorgeous and all I can think is Auntie Mame.

Classroom Ideas: There is a great deal of alliteration here with Petunia the Pig. It would be interesting to discuss fantasy versus reality with kids and ask if a pig could really do the things that Petunia did.

A Sick Day for Amos McGee

Author: Philip C. Stead
Illustrator:   Erin E. Stead
Publisher:  Roaring Brook Press
Publication Year:   2010
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   Caldecott medal, Publisher's Weekly & Kirkus starred reviews, A Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book, Charlotte Zolotow Award/Honor Book

Summary:  Amos McGee is a zookeeper with a scheduled life until one day when he gets a cold and has to stay in bed. His animal friends all wait for Amos to show up and wonder where he is so they head to the bus stop. Elephant, rhinoceros, turtle, owl, and penguin go to visit Amos and cheer him up. At the end of the story, owl reads them a bedtime story before everyone settles down to spend the night. Erin Stead's woodblock and pencil drawings are subtle and the personalities of the characters are captured perfectly.

Classroom Ideas:The theme here is about caring and friendship. You could also use this book to talk about genre: fantasy.

there are no scary wolves

Author & Illustrator:  Hyewon Yum
Publisher:  Frances Foster Books
Publication Year:   2010
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   Society of Illustrators Founder's Award, Starred Kirkus Review,

Summary:  A little boy thinks about going outside into the scary world without his mom, but he worries that there are wolves everywhere. His mother is distracted and he gets bored waiting for her. So, he decides to go off and find his favorite restaurant alone, but here are wolves working there and in the toy store and on the street! In the end, he tell his fears to his mom and she finally engages him completely as they head out inside the city together to find no scary wolves.

Classroom Ideas: This is a great book for introducing the idea of fantasy (which part of it only happens in his imagination?) and for discussing safety with kids.

The Dark

Author: Lemony Snicket
Illustrator: Jon Klassen
Publisher:  Little, Brown
Publication Year:   2013
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   Starred reviews from Horn Book, School Library Journal, & Publisher's Weekly

Summary:  Laszlo (the perfect character name here!) was afraid of the dark. The dark invites Laszlo into the basement to see something. When he gets there, the dark offers him a night light which ends the book with a funny conclusion. Klassen's illustrations set the ominous mood perfectly with their muted palette.

Classroom Ideas: This whole book is an example of personification which my kids loved. There's also some great similes in here ("The voice of the dark was as creaky as the roof of the house, and as smooth and cold as the windows....") There's a page of narration which has caused controversary from a pacing point of view. I think this would make an amazing lesson for young writers to discuss editing decisions.

Tuesday

Author & Illustrator:   David Wiesner
Publisher:  Clarion Books
Publication Year:   1991
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   Caldecott Medal, ALA Notable, American Bookseller Pick, Library of Congress Best Books for Children, Parenting Magazine Top Ten, Publisher's Weekly Best books, School Library Journal Best Books

Summary:  In this nearly wordless picture books, frogs fly through the air on their lily pads. As the reader sees a countdown of the evening, they zoom through the town. It ends with the frogs returning to their normal environment, but hints that next Tuesday the pigs might be up to something!

Classroom Ideas: This book has a circular plot pattern that would led itself to a writing exercise where students write what would happen next Tuesday. You could also have them take the point of view of one of the characters in the story (maybe in the man in his kitchen) and have him tell about his Tuesday.