I'm Bored

Author: Michael Ian Black
Illustrator:   Debbie Ridpath Ohi
Publisher:  Simon & Schuster
Publication Year:   2012
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Publisher's Weekly starred review, NYT Notable

Summary:  A girl dramatically proclaims her boredom until a potato shows up. The potato is bored too. The girl tries all kind of scenarios to prove to the potato that she's fun, but the potato continues to claim boredom.The illustrations are fun drawings on a wide expanse of white background, and the playfulness of the font adds to the story. As the girl uses her imagination, the illustrations become more detailed until finally the girl loses her patience with the cranky potato.

Classroom Ideas: This is a great treatise on the power of imagination and would pair well with HELLO! hello!

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Author & Illustrator:   William Joyce
Publisher:  Antheneum
Publication Year:   2012
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Kirkus starred review, inspired the Academy Award winning short film

Summary:  Morris Lessmore loves books and then a storm comes and destroys his house and the book that he was writing. (And the illustrations go from color to sepia) He looks up and sees a lovely lady being pulled by flying books (Back to full color now) and she sends him his own flying book. The book takes him to an amazing library where the books are all alive. Morris starts to take care of the library and share the books with everyone. He starts to write his own book again. The years pass until Morris has written the last page of his book. He flies away and a little girl comes and begins to read his finished book.

Classroom Ideas: The book opens with a beautiful metaphor: "His life was a book of his own writing..."  There's also a great deal of alliteration: "happy bit of happenstance" "lovely lady" "festive squadron of flying book"  The whole story is based on personification as the books in the library are alive.

Extras: there is an ipad app as well as a short film based on this book

All the water in the world

Author: George Ella Lyon
Illustrator:   Katherine Tillotson
Publisher:  Atheneum
Publication Year:   2012
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   School Library Journal & Booklist starred reviews, CBCC Choices, ALA Notable

Summary:  The text is a poem all about water, where it comes from and why it is important. The words are very kid friendly and the water cycle is explained in a friendly way (along with a great vertical spread!) The illustrations are based on collages made from gorgeous hand-made papers. The colors are vivid and the spreads are beautiful.

Classroom Ideas: There are wonderful words here, including onomatopoeia (wobble), personification (Thirsty air licks...sips...guzzles)  and alliteration (cascaded from clouds, meandered down mountains, wavered over waterfalls).  This can also be included in a Science study of water and the water cycle.

Red Sings from Treetops: a year in colors

Author: Joyce Sidman
Illustrator:   Pamela Zagarenski
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin
Publication Year:   2009
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Caldecott Honor, Claudia Lewis Poetry Award, Cybils Poetry Award, Horn Book Fanfare, Booklist Editor's Choice, CCBC Choices, Junior Library Guild

Summary:  A collection of poems that describes the seasons of the year using colors. The colors sing, dance, squirm, and create pictures in the readers' minds. Each color has its own personality as they go through the year. (I love that Yellow and Purple are friends. :))  The watercolors are gorgeous, each one having the perfect palette for the season it portrays.

Classroom Ideas: Besides being based on personification of the colors, these poems use many examples of figurative language. There is onomatopoeia (cheer-cheer-cheer) and simile (each note dropping like a cherry). Like most well-written poetry, the words are perfectly chosen and incredibly descriptive.

Extras:

Bone Dog

Author & Illustrator:   Eric Rohmann
Publisher:  Roaring brook Press
Publication Year:   2011
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   starred Kirkus review, Capitol Choices Noteworthy titles, School Library Journal Best Books, Horn Books Best Books

Summary:  When Gus's dog Ella dies, Gus is very sad and doesn't want to do anything. On Halloween, he trudges out through the graveyard and is surrounded by skeletons. The skeletons try to eat him ("You've got guts kid...but not for long!" LOVE this line) The Ella the dog skeleton shows up to save him and they howl and scare off the skeletons. The dark relief print illustrations famed with black are perfect for story and the whimsical skeletons are dark but never scary.

Classroom Ideas: This book has great verbs (trudged, lunged, whirled) and figurative language (personification: the wind moaned. The clouds swallowed the moon; onomatopoeia: shriek, growl, screech, swoon, hiss, howl; idioms: You've got guts, Well tickle my ribs) The theme here is one of friendship, promise, and faithfulness. This book could also be shared during Halloween time.

The Day the Crayons Quit

Author: Drew Daywalt
Illustrator:   Oliver Jeffers
Publisher:  Philomel
Publication Year:   2013
Location: Barnes & Noble

Awards:   Publisher's Weekly starred review,

Summary:  One day Duncan finds a packet of letters from his crayons. They're mad and they're letting him know about it. Red is overworked- he even has to work holidays coloring all those Santas! Blue has been worn down to a nub and can't see out of the box. Orange and yellow are in a fight over who gets to color the sun. Each two page spread has a letter written by the crayon in question and an illustration of how Duncan uses them. Duncan ends up using all the crayons in a masterpiece and saves the day. The fun drawings along with the epistolary style really bring the story to life.

Classroom Ideas: Great example of personification and character. It would be an interesting writing exercise to write from the point of view of one of their supplies. What would their pencil say?

Baby Bear Sees Blue

Author & Illustrator:   Ashley Wolff
Publisher:  Beach Lane Books
Publication Year:   2012
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   featured on "Calling Caldecott" blog, Publisher's Weekly starred review,

Summary:  In his day, Baby Bear discovers many different colors as he and his Mama walk through their environment. The illustrations are gorgeously rendered in linoleum block colored with rich watercolors. After reading Ashley Wolff's comments on the Calling Caldecott blog, I love feeling like I know a little secret that the vibrant endpapers are meant to perfectly match the color of the Checkermallow flower on the front cover!

Classroom Ideas: There is plenty of personification here- the leaves dance and wave and the thunder growls. For preschoolers, it's a perfect color book as they'll discover the different colors in nature right along with Baby Bear- after reading it, the class could take a nature walk and find colors in their own environment.

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

Author & Illustrator:   Virginia Lee Burton
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin
Publication Year:   1939
Location:  Personal Collection

Awards:   NEA Top 100 Books for Children, ABA Indies Picture Book Hall of Fame

Summary:  Mike and Mary Anne, his steam shovel, are getting replaced by new gas, electric, and diesel shovels. But they set out to prove that they can still dig the best by digging the cellar for the new Popperville Town Hall in just one day. The mean Henry B. Swap doesn't think they can do it, but he sees a chance to get some free digging. When Mike and Mary Anne meet their goal with the whole town watching, how will Mary Anne get out of the cellar? 

Classroom Ideas: This classic book has great themes of perseverance (a huge word in the new Common Core State Standards and one that is often difficult to explain to kids), friendship, and creative problem solving. All of these start great discussions with students. You could also read this book when talking about the 1920s and the introduction of new technology. It's also an example of personification with Mary Ann being one of the characters.

! Exclamation Mark

Author:Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Illustrator: Tom Lichtenheld
Publisher:  Scholastic
Publication Year:   2013
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   Parent's Choice Silver Honor, Starred reviews from Kirkus, School Library Journal & Booklist

Summary:  Exclamation Mark stood out from the other punctuation marks, no matter how hard he tried to fit in. Then one day he met Question Mark and realized that he had his own gift of exclaiming!

Classroom Ideas: Of course, this is a great book for personification, as the punctuation marks are the characters. It also has a wonderful theme of finding your own talents and being yourself.

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.

The Little Red Pen

Authors: Janet Stevens & Susan Stevens Crummel
Illustrator: Janet Stevens  
Publisher:  Harcourt Children's Books
Publication Year:   2011
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:  Starred reviews from Horn Books, Kirkus, School Library Journal

Summary:  The red pen needs help grading papers, but none of the other supplies will help her. Finally she gets so tired that the she falls into "the pit" (trash can) and the others must work together to get her out, even the class pet. Janet Steven's amazing artwork fills the spread with the world of the classroom and, as she loves, she even sticks in a vertical spread too.

Classroom Ideas: This book is full of figurative language- the personification of the office supplies and the hyperbole of the Red Pen ("It might be the end of the world! Who will help me save the world?") , the puns of the different characters (the scissors "Not good for a sharp guy like me!") Also, as the Horn Book noted, this book would be perfect for a read-aloud, class play, or (my favorite) readers' theatre.