Never Take a Shark to the Dentist (and other thinks not to do) by Judi Barrett

This is such a cute book about different imaginative ideas that can happen with different animals… and the problems that can arise. Like NEVER shop for shoes with a centipede (these creatures have something like 28 ‘feet’... near impossible to try on that many shoes!!) Or NEVER go to the movies with a giraffe (how in the world could you see if his head hid the projector!!)
Plain and simple it’s just a fun book to read at any age. The illustrations are just as amazing and intovative. I think it would be fun to read this book to your class and have the students think of different ways to fill in the sentence… NEVER _______ a _______ to __________ (just one example). Make a classroom ‘NEVER’ book and have the students make illustrations to go along with their sentence. Sounds fun to me!!

Katie’s Sunday Afternoon by James Mayhew

I love this book! Katie’s Sunday Afternoon is about a little girl, Katie, who on a hot day tries to go to the pool with her grandma. The pool is too crowded so they decide to go to the art gallery nearby but the gallery is even hotter! So while grandma takes a quick nap, Katie discovers a room full of amazing pictures. Through Katie’s imagination the pictures she sees come to life. Katie and the characters in the paintings have many different mini adventures but in the end all is restored.
This is a great book to introduce children to real masterpiece art pieces. The masterpieces shown in this book include; Bathers at Asnières, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, and Port of Honfleur, all paintings by Georges Seurat. Hanging up the Washing by Camille Pissarro, and Portrait of Felix Feneon by Paul Signac. The illustrations were amazing… and how they drew Katie into each one was very impressive and unique.

Santa Duck by David Milgrim

Santa Duck is a story about a duck who wants to find Santa so he can tell him what he wants for Christmas. On his way to find Santa he finds a box at his door. Inside the box is a Santa Hat and the duck proceeds to put it on. As he walks along all the characters stop duck and tell him what they want for Christmas. Duck gets frustrated and starts running away until he bumps into Santa! The duck became Santa’s helper and told him all the presents that everyone wanted… except he forgot to tell Santa what HE wanted! When he got home there was a note waiting for him from Santa thanking him for all of his help. He was Santa’s special helper and he felt proud to be and forgot all about his list, until…
I really didn’t care for this story too much. As a book to be used for a beginning reader to learn on (recommended age 3-6), I thought that the book was a little hard to follow for that age group because of the text being all over the place, sometimes in word bubbles, sometimes not. I wasn’t too keen on the story either. It seemed the message it is better to give and help than receive was overshadowed in the end by the tricked-out car that Santa Duck got.

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears by Verna Aardema

This is a cute story on one ideas of Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears. The story starts when Mosquito tells a tall tale to Iguana who doesn’t like what he hears so he plugs his ears… this in turn sets off a chain reaction between many jungle animals that results in a jungle disaster – all because of a misunderstanding!
I like this story because it gives the reader one persons (the authors) idea of why mosquitoes buzz people’s ears. Maybe the reader can come up with their own ideas on why mosquitoes buzz in ears… and write their own story. I also like this story because it brings us into talking about tall tales. Telling tall tales may have repercussions. As in this story, when people assume they may cause more harm. I really enjoy reading tall tales and think doing a unit on tall tales is a great idea. I would definitely use this book in my classroom for a tall tales unit or just a fun read.

Salt in His Shoe: Michael Jordan in Pursuit of a Dream, by Deloris Jordan with Roslyn M. Jordan

I was assigned a reading buddy for one of my classes this semester. He is a very energetic little boy who loves everything to do with sports, especially football and basketball. I researched a few books and the curriculum lab and came across one that I knew not only he would enjoy, but I would too. I grew up in a basketball household. Of course the Hawkeyes were our favorite team, but not too far behind were the Chicago Bulls. Now my favorite player of all time is Scottie Pippen, but come-on… how could you not love Michael Jordan! I actually read a book in high school about Michael’s life and found it very interesting, so when I discovered a picture book about him, I knew I had to check it out.
I was not disappointed in the reading of this book. The story was fun to read and it had a great message to all children, (aspiring to be basketball players or not) that patience, determination, and hard work can take you places. The illustrations in this book were also very impressive. I felt like I was sitting in the Jordan’s kitchen or on the playground with all the kids – very life-like. I would recommend this book anyone to read… not just sports fans and will definitely have a copy of it in my classroom.

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

Okay, so I have to admit it, I love this book! It was unlike anything I have ever read before which to me was refreshing. The format was different, which I thought was cool… I don’t know I just really liked it!!
When I first picked the book up I was super excited to read it because... I Love Dogs! Even though after the first couple pages I could tell the story really wasn’t necessarily about a dog… but more about Jack and his introduction to and love of poetry, I was still enthralled by the reading. Throughout this book I found myself relating to Jack. Like him in the beginning, I was not a fan of writing poetry. To me poetry was something you had to decode, something that had more meaning behind it than just the words on the paper. When I read poetry it was frustrating to me because I felt like I never really understood the meaning of the poem. Jack made me a believer in poetry again! I loved his words, his poems. It was so simple to see, to understand. A poem can really be anything you think or feel one is. My absolute favorite part of this book was when Jack wrote a reflection to his teacher. She responded by asking him if she could type it up and put it on the board. He was stumped… how could this be poetry, it’s just my thoughts. That exact moment is why I love this book.
I know I will use this book when I teach poetry with my classroom. I just think it’s a great book to show students how poetry doesn’t have to rhyme. It doesn’t have to be difficult to understand. It doesn’t portray strong, emotional, deep meaning (but it can). Poetry can be about anything… even dogs.

Babymouse: Queen of the World! by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm

Babymouse is actually one of the only graphic novels for children I had really heard of before conducting my research project. As I was flipping through the book I was interested in the illustrations more than the words. With just the colors of black, white, and pink... the pictures actually turned out more powerful than I expected while reading the text. The way the illustrator used pink as an accent color and/or hiding it into the pictures in some instances, kept me as the reader interested and seemingly made me pay more attention to the pictures.

But hold on... I don't want to take away from the text of this book. While I must admit that at the beginning of the book I thought to myself, "I am completely lost and have no clue what is going on," as I continued to read I grasped the way the pages were designed and how the story was being told. It is unlike most books in the way it is told because not only is there a story going on, but the book is interacting and 'talking' to you while you read it. At the bottom of some pages you see Babymouse talking to herself. It lets the reader understand Babymouse a little more without having to use dialogue.

In this story in particular, Babymouse wants to by Queen of the World... but she would settle for being invited to super-popular Felicia Furrypaw's sleepover. Will she get invited to the party or head over to her true friend, Wilson the Weasel's, for a monster movie marathon?