Fritz and the Beautiful Horses (1981)

      Fritz and the Beautiful Horses by Jan Brett (1981) is a familiar tale, this time told at an unspecified time in an unspecified place. "Once there was a walled city known for its beautiful horses." Of course, this means an equine not so lovely is rejected. Indeed, "Fritz was not so beautiful...But Fritz was very gentle and kind." The story practically writes itself. Yet, Jan Brett's beautiful illustrations save this trope. Her horses are carefully crafted as are the adults and children who ride them. Fritz's despair is undeniable when he is teased. Fritz glows with pride, sweetness, and delight when he is praised. I linger over Jan Brett's art, an essential feature of a picture book. 

     ESL Education Store has Fritz and the Beautiful Horses Vocabulary Cards. Catcarolines has Animal Alphabet Coloring Pages: H is for Horse. I Heart Curriculum has Horse Freebie. 

 

 

The Car Washing Street (1993)

      The Car Washing Street by Denise Lewis Patrick (1993) takes place on a block of  brownstone apartments. It's early morning when Matthew, maybe age 5,  gets his father out of bed.  They sit on the front steps to watch the neighbors wash their cars. "Mrs. Kennedy is wiping her big pink Cadillac with a little pink towel. Mr. And Mrs. Rodriguez and the Rodriguez kids are throwing water on to the station wagon." Despite the heat, the mood  is festive. In time, Matthew and his father get their hose to join in the fun of a water fight. "Matthew moonwalks under the waterfall. Eddie and Nilda and Georgie Rodriguez start a slippery conga line." Miss Emma comes walking down the street with ices for sale. I'm struck by John Ward's crisp line and immaculate portrayal of this urban scene, as if the car washing had also erased graffiti and resurfaced the asphalt road. In my innocence, this was how I imagined every child's world—clean and happy. Now, as an adult having walked in some crumbling sections of a city, I see decay hidden behind Ward's pictures.

     

The Umbrella (2004)

      The Umbrella by Jan Brett (2004) is another narrative designed to display her beautiful illustrations. The plot is thin and repetitive, a vehicle for drawing the same creatures throughout the book. A boy of ambiguous age, Carlos, strolls into the rain forest to see what he can see. "'I'll be spotting a jaguar and a monkey, '" he calls back to his papa, and although we do, he does not. Carlos carries a large umbrella made of leaves, presumably because it rains in a rainforest. He sets the umbrella down so that he can climb a tree, leaving it available for local creatures to occupy. Jan Brett's opulent illustrations feature a dark palette in this story. I adore her art; however, her text doesn't hold my attention. I wonder if she's shared her artistic gift with other writers.

     The Able Educator has Jan Brett's The Umbrella. territeach has The Umbrella Test and Vocab. The Climbing Grapevine has I See! A Walk through the Amazon Rainforest.

     

The Boy and the Whale Christmas Fairy Tale (1994)

 The Boy and the Whale Christmas Fairy Tale (1994) I wondered why the beginning of the story felt contrived to me. It’s a bit long and tedious . About half way in, a real whale appears on Christmas Day in response to a lonely boy’s wish. When the boy exclaims, “‘I will call you Shamu,’” I nearly closed the book in disgust. Shamu was the name of a whale at Sea World. Such marketing is familiar, perhaps Disney being the most obvious. “Merch” is everywhere these days. In this case, I am offended because there’s no obvious clue on the cover nor at the outset that this is embedded advertising. I didn’t take note of the small "Sea World Editions” trademark on the dust jacket. There’s no cover art on the book itself, so anyone reading it without the dust jacket would need to read the copyright page to find this information. Maybe I would have enjoyed the story more if the marketing hadn’t taken me by surprise. It’s too late for me to know. This book is not literature but a marketing trick, in my opinion.

Someone New (2018)

      Someone New by Anne Sibley O’Brien (2018) uses speech bubbles to replace traditional dialogue. It's an alternative for illustrating what people say in social situations. The point of view in this story is first person, but the speaker changes. I haven't seen this in any other book. When we turn the page to a new scene, it's implied that the narrative belongs to the new main character. Furthermore, the text is internal dialogue, what a child is thinking. I found this took extra effort to understand. Someone New is a book about what three children think when welcoming a peer from a different country who do not speak English. Although they feel unsure of how to help, all three find successful ways to  make friends with their new classmates.

     Exceptionalities has Someone New - Response Tickets. 

* GOGGLES! (1969)

    GOGGLES! by Ezra Jack Keats (1969, first Scholastic printing 2000) has lots of emotional power in its small package. The setting suggests poverty and pollution as children play amongst the discarded junk of an urban lot. Their "playground" is carefully crafted to meet the needs of the narrative. Like children in more privileged environments, two young boys have a hideout. In only a few lines of text, Keats creates real fear with the familiar drama of big boys bullying smaller boys. At first, the smaller boys stand up for themselves by attempting violence, but they win with their wits. This is a story of empowerment, though Keats spares us life's real horrors by blurring the reality of his visual images.

Teach Them to Be Kind has Goggles. A Jeannie in a Classroom has a Goggles Study. 

* Mole Music (1999)

      Mole Music by  David McPhail (1999) begins with  illustrations on the title and copyright pages. McPhail's  illustrations are essential to understanding the narrative because they picture parallel stories: one below ground and one above. The main character is a mole. "Mole liked his life, but lately he had begun to feel there was something missing." One-day, he hears someone playing a violin on TV. He adores the music and orders a violin for himself. When mole first attempts to make music, "all he made was a horrible screeching sound." But he doesn't give up. Step by step, he plays one note, then a scale, and then a simple song. Years go by and mole matures into an accomplished violinist. The world above ground is transformed by his music! This is a Reading Rainbow book, and I can feel why. The illustrations are so narrative and the message profound.

     Violin Studio has Music Journal Helper. Sapphire Greene has Parts of the Violin. Violin by Becca has Violin Fingering Chart (first Position Notes). 

Bunny Money (1997)

      BunnyMoney by Rosemary Wells (1997) is an introduction to money management and math fun. Ruby has a plan to buy a beautiful music box, but Max disrupts her expectations with the colorful calamity befitting her younger brother. With no concept of cost and with the spontaneity of youth, Max depletes Ruby’s savings. Luckily, there’s enough bunny money for successful shopping, despite the required improvisation. An ingenious addition to this book is the full-color bunny money printed on the inside front and back covers. Readers have permission to photo copy the bunny money for their own shopping fun.

     The Core Inspired Classroom has Count the Money, Honey Bunny! Anything But Kindergarten has Honey Bunny Money Booklet. Sammy Rabbit has Sammy Rabbit's Favorite Slogans on Money.

Jamberry (2000)

       I love how the Jamberry by Bruce Degan (2000) plays with the phonology of English as tells the tale of a boy and a bear picking berries. The text shows how parts of words can be manipulated, which is important in understanding English morphology. For example, “Hatberry Shoeberry  in my canoeberry.” As I dictate this quote, voice recognition on my device doesn’t recognize the made-up words. It doesn't process speech with the flexibly of a human. “Three berry Four berry Hayberry Strawberry Finger and pawberry My berry, your berry” is such fun word play!  I picked up an unusual copy of this book. The jamberry company logo appears on the cover. The first page is a photograph of  the three women who founded the company, with the logo again, and the slogan "together let’s make life beautiful." None of the books listed on Amazon or the Harper Collins website has the jamboree logo on the cover. The copyright page of this book reads 1983 and 2000 by Bruce Deegan, published by Harper Collins. a Google search indicates that Jamboree was a company founded in 2011 that folded in 2018.  The ISBN number of this particular copy is unrecognized in an online ISBN search. I wonder how this edition came to be.

 

The Weather Cat (1989)

       The Weather Cat by Helen Cresswell (1989) is an easy reader for ages 6 through 8, which may explain the lack of challenging vocabulary. Naomi and her brother Otis find that a stray cat has wandered into the open door of their kitchen. "After a week or two, Naomi begins to notice something." The cat's behavior corresponds with whether there will be rain or sun. When the cat predicts a sunny day, Naomi's dad doesn't take an umbrella to work ,and Naomi's mom does the wash (because she will be able to hang it up on the line to dry.) When the cat's behavior suddenly changes, there is a predictable surprise. Barbara Walker's illustrations are colorful and have a friendly, casual feel. I am bothered by the presence of a white doll in several illustrations given that this is a Black family. This is a slice-of-life story; there is no problem, no mystery, and no conflict.

     Kristin Irish has Elementary Art - Abstract Cats. Glass Half Full has Free Cat Lovers Clip Art. Teacher - Dad has Skip Counting - Picture Strip Puzzles - Cats - Counts by Twos.

 

Big Al (1988)

      Big Al by Andrew Clements (1988) recasts the story of the odd one out. Here, the odd one out is a big, scary looking fish named Big Al. There are no other fish like Big Al--large, brown, and with big white teeth. (As I write this, I feel queasy about stereotyping.) All the other fish in this sea are small and colorful. Because of his appearance, Big Al has no friends. He doesn't predict the negative impact of his efforts to make friends. For example, Big Al dresses up in seaweed to become more visually appealing, and he puffs himself up thinking the other fish will laugh. Rather than warm up to Big Al, Yoshi's schools of tiny beauties are frightened even more by his behaviors. In the end, Big Al's physicality is the reason they change their collective mind. This is not a story about respecting oneself regardless of what others might think. Big Al earns respect for the nice fish he is. I find it a distraction to preface this conclusion with desperate attempts to fit in. Yoshi's fish are befitting the story; however, the setting is primarily an expanse of blue (water).

     G Lee has Big Al Story. Just One Wish Kindness Program has Character Education Lesson Plan for "Big Al". 5th Grade Teacher New York has Big Al's Adjectives.

The Glorious Flight Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot (1987)

      The Glorious Flight Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot July 25 1909 by Allison and Martin Provensen (1987) is a Caldecott medal winner, I love the lesson of persistence in this story. It begins in 1901 in Cambre, France.  Mr. Louis Bleriot, his wife, four children, and two pets sit at their breakfast table. His children grow up as the years pass. Provensen provides a metaphor for change when Bleroit looks up to see an airship, and his car crashes into a horse-drawn wagon. "I too will build a flying machine . . . We will all fly through the air like swallows!" he exclaims.  We read about his multiple attempts, beginning with a craft so small only a cat could fit in it. His glider " rises into the air and shoots down into the river with a splash that frightens the fishes." Several more designs improve upon the previous one. An attitude of expectation despite failure is the glory of the book. The specific changes could be the topic of a research project for the gifted reader.

      More Than a Pencil has The Glorious Flight Sequence Chart. Teach With Giggles has Paper Airplanes. Pyjama Drama Learning has  a Music Video for preschool children - Flying Through the Sky. 

Martha Speaks (1992)

      I was pleasantly surprised that Martha Speaks by Susan Meddaugh (1992) is about the use of social language. Martha gains language after eating alphabet soup. It’s predictively funny because no one expects a dog to talk.  It's also a thoughtful book because Martha "said exactly what was on her mind." She made embarrassing comments and talked too much. Her family doesn’t teach her social language skills, and since Martha doesn’t intuitively pick up the unwritten rules of communication, she's hurt when her family tells her to stop talking. The conclusion is a little scary and unlikely.  Nevertheless, it’s always kind of fun to know something that a character doesn't. Ultimately, Martha begins learning what to say and when to say it. Sometimes she doesn’t say anything at all, and that's ok.  

     Ms Borens Art Room has Elementary Sub Plan: Martha Speaks. Very Visual SLP has Cut Paste TEXT IT OR THINK IT Social Language Counseling.

 

* Hildilid's Night (1971)

      I’ve heard it said that coming up with a good a story idea is the most difficult part of authoring a book. Cheli Durand Ryan's story concept for  Hildilid’s Night  (1971) is an example of a good story idea turned into a great book: the night is not a concrete thing that can be manipulated. This is profound for a child.  If the night is not something that one can hold, then what is it? It's funny to watch Hildilid try to clean, capture, cook, and tie up the night. Ryan employs a variety of vocabulary to describe Hildilid's ineffective attempts. For example, when she tries to boil away the night, “She ladled it, stirred it, simmered it, bubbled it, tasted it, and burned it…”. Some descriptions are poetic: 'She singed the night with a candle, but it skipped outside.”  The ending of the story makes her struggle even more ludicrous. Arnold Lobel's drawings enhance the story elegantly. 

     My Falcons has Hildilid's Night for Literature Circles. Mrs. Proffitt has Day and Night Unit Activities. Briana Nicole has Day and Night Sort.

Cloud Eyes (1994)

      Cloud Eyes by Kathryn Lasky (1994) is "an original tale that flows with traditional cadences". This ambiguous description suits the setting and characters in this book. Lasky writes, "Once, long ago, there was a place where there were more bears than people." The lower case /p/ in people is maintained throughout the story, though the illustrations and text seem to refer to an indigenous culture. Cloud Eyes is a boy unlike the others. "His gift of finding stories in the clouds was as important as the skills of making tools or stitching moccasins; he could see and understand what other people could not." Cloud Eyes leaves his community to determine why honey has disappeared from the people's diet. His journey is both mystical and practical. Barry Moser's drawings, framed with fragile, deep red lines, convey an esoteric tone, implying the perception of legend. His drawings drew me to this book. But I'm left wondering about what place this story has in 2021. I don't see a reference to any authentic narrative passed down through an oral tradition. This leaves me questioning the book's purpose. 

     malena-maestra has a packet of engaging activities with bears and bees. Kim Belcher has Lots of Bears Clip Art. Homeschooling Queen as Bees and Honey Pack. 

*Kermit The Hermit (1965)

      Kermit the Hermit (1965) is a story of personal growth. Bill Peet's main character, a crab (not a hermit crab!), is  selfish and mean. His fight for survival in Monterey Bay has made him greedy. "Unless it is cured sometimes greediness grows . . ." Kermit's cure comes by way of a life-and-death experience. His genuine gratitude for having been saved pushes him out of his comfort zone, and he walks far from the shoreline into a deeper part of the bay. "So Kermit kept on till he came to a ledge Where he stopped to peer cautiously over the edge." And this risk changes his life. When his world becomes less self-centered, he discovers a self larger than his personal cave full of clutter. The illustrations feel dated, but the rhyme remains entertaining.

     Caffeine and Colored Pencils has Contraction Crabs. childrenarethefuture has Crab Name Tags. Drawing with John has How to Draw a Blue Crab. 

    My Picture Book Talk lesson for this book is here. 

*The Lion & The Mouse (2009)

      Jerry Pinkney generously shares his beautiful paintings in the form of picture books. The Lion and The Mouse is one brilliant example of a (nearly) wordless picture that beckons children to gaze at  the pages. Do you notice the pattern on the title page or the dark brown splotch of fur behind the mouse just after it escapes an owl? Let's talk about each magnifient illistration. What might the creatures be thinking and feeling? What's happening?  His author's note reads, "For me, this story offers far more than a simple moral of how the meek can trump the mighty. . . these engaging characters led me to make the story even fuller by providing a sense of family and setting." Pinkney, a masterful artist and storyteller, was rewarded with a Caldecott Honor for this book. 

     Hollie Michaels has Readers theater: the Lion and Mouse Script. Sherri Cheshire has The Lion and the Mouse Emergent Reader. Fireside Tales has The Lion and the Mouse - An Aesop's Fable. 

Circus Family Dog (2000)

     Circus Family Dog by Andrew Clements (2000) tells a story about what I, as a child, understood the circus to be--one big happy family.  Andrew Clements's dedication is "For my family near and far, the greatest show on earth." Grumps is a friendly old dog who's trick is to yawn, close his eyes, and lay down instead of jump through a flaming hoop. Children love this trick. Then, one day,  an energetic little dog named Sparks joins the circus.  Sparks does lots of tricks and the children love Sparks.  Grumps's response is delightful. If you seek rose colored memories of the good old days, with a side of work ethic, you may love this happy tail. Sue Truesdell's illustration style adds to this sincere fun.

Lusiana Gibson has Opposite flashcards - Dog theme. Mister Clips has Dogs Clipart. A Teacher's Purpose has Counting to 10 with Dogs.

The Chalk Doll (1989)

      The Chalk Doll by Charlotte Pomerantz (1989) is a conversation between a mother and young child. When little Rose asks about her mother's childhood in Jamaica, her mother first remembers sewing a ragdoll. Frane Lessac’s illustration shows her sitting at a table in a small house surrounded by a bright green Jamaican countryside. She’s folding cloth to cut and sew into the Black doll we see beside side the text. However, she covets the dolls in shop windows and is thrilled to receive a broken chalk doll discarded by her aunt’s employer. The chalk doll is White. I felt a deep uneasiness seep into the story at this point. Rose's mother received only  a teaspoon of milk each day. She did not have birthday parties nor wear shoes, except for church on Sundays.  Lessac shows Rose's grandmother sewing dresses at night by the light of an oil lamp. She has little  time to make her own child a dress. The illustrated scenes of Jamaica contrast with Rose's home. I like how this story implies three points of view about a childhood: those of daughter Rose, her mother as an adult, and her mother as a child.

Bright Gems Learning has Introduction to Jamaica PowerPoint Lesson. Color By Culture has a Jamaica Coloring Page.

The Wind in the Willows (1908, 1996)

      TheWind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908, has lasted through generations of readers. It's been adapted for the stage and screen. The book I have is the 1996 edition with illustrations by Rene Cloke. It struck me a rambling narrative, written without the expectations of contemporary fiction. It felt to me like reading someone's journal. This is the first time I've searched for an opinion about a book, and I found one at "What on Earth is the Wind in the Willows" by Peter Hunt. Hunt suggests that "The Wind in the Willows is an allegorical self-portrait: all the main characters can be seen as facets of Grahame." Hunt claims that  "neither the author nor the publisher thought it was a children’s book." Well, whatever it is, The Wind in the Willows has staying power.

     OUPblog: Oxford University Press's Academic Insights for the Thinking World. August 18, 2010, https://blog.oup.com/2010/08/wind-in-the-willows/

     

 

*Emily (1992)

      Emily by Michael Bedard (1992) is a story about Emily Dickinson. It's not a biography, but first-person fiction, a memory told by a young girl who lives across the street from Emily. In an afterword, Bedard writes, "In writing this book, I went to Amherst to visit the house where she [Emily Dickinson] lived. I sat in the parlor with the piano, visited the room where she wrote. I stood beneath her window and she lowered this story to me." Does this explain the poetry in his prose? For example, as our protagonist's father sings her to sleep, "Like flakes of flowers the words fell to the sheets. I listened to them fall and fell asleep." Bedard's language transforms narrative into magic. What could have been an ordinary story is instead a lyrical tale. The young girl's father defines poetry by referencing how her mother plays the piano: "'Listen to Mother play. She practices and practices a piece, and sometimes a magic happens and it seems the music starts to breathe. It sends a shiver through you . . .it's a mystery.'" And so does this book. It breathes.

     GTM has Emily Dickinson's "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass" Word Cluster . Teacher Shei has Emily Dickinson Clip Art. Gillian Healy has Powerpoint on Emily Dickinson poem "Hope." 

   

 

 

In The Tall, Tall Grass (1991)

      In The Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Fleming (1991) appears at first glance to be a simplistic book of rhyme intended for the toddler. Brightly colored creatures leap, dance, fly, and slither across two-page spreads of grass. Just a few words precisely describe their actions. Dilys Evans' book Show & Tell: Exploring the Fine Art of Children's Book Illustration explains how these images are extraordinary. On page 125 is a sequence of six photographs that show the complex process by which Fleming produces pictures. "Fleming's first step is to make the paper itself. . . the paper is the medium from which the artwork is created." If I understand correctly, colored paper pulp is layered to create her artwork. The results are amazing. Wouldn't it be fun if every picture book had backmatter that celebrated the illustrator's process!

      Yulia Kotets has Visualizing - In the Tall, Tall Grass. 

Harold's Circus (1959)

      Harold's Circus (1959) by Crocket Johnson is a story for the history  student, in my opinion. It archives social attitudes of the 1950's with its circus theme. As Harold's life unfolds, he responds with quick-witted solutions. Despite the minimal text and simple line drawings, Johnson's content draws us in to a child's responses to the unpredictable. This may be why I enjoy Harold books so much. However, attitudes of the 1950's don't generalize to 2021. The circus is no longer sanctioned and topics once funny are no longer. For example, "Like all circuses, it had a fat lady. She was really amazingly fat." The ideas of being supported (by an elephant's trunk), finding success (riding a circus horse), and discovering courage (looking into a lion's mouth) are universal lessons cleverly captured by Harold's adventures. Children who read this book in 2021 will need help with its images.

     Kay Rose has Circus Bingo. Melissa Mundy has The First Grade Math Circus. Alyssa Grubbs has a Circus Theme Parent Newsletter.

Gloria's Voice (2018)

      Aura Lewis wrote Gloria's Voice: the Story of Gloria Steinem, Feminist, Activist, Leader (2018) in the present tense, giving it a powerful present-day strength. Gloria's life seems fueled by witnessing her mother's unrealized dreams. Her mother stays at home, eventually separates from her husband, and later becomes chronically ill. Gloria wants what her mother couldn't have, and "She realizes that, just like her, women everywhere want to be heard." Gloria and Dorothy Pitman tour the country spreading the word about equal rights for women. They cofound Ms. magazine in 1971, which becomes a longstanding success. I appreciate the backmatter in this book: a single page summary of Gloria's life, a list of recommended readings, and page-by-page annotations. I wonder why Lewis chose light, pastel colors to illustrate the story of such a strong woman. 

     Jennifer Gillen has Fighting for Women's Rights. Alex's teaching Adventures has Women's Suffrage 3rd Grade 5E Lesson Plan and Materials. Made by Mia has Diverse Women's History Month SAMPLE WEEK Biographies.

I Wish You More (2015)

      I Wish YouMore (2015) by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld has illustrations with very spare settings and brief text. This is not one of my favorite books because there's not enough content for to me understand the authors' meaning. The first page says, "I wish you more ups than downs." It's paired with children flying a kite and running downhill. The second page says, "I wish you more give than take." The illustration of children sharing makes this message more transparent. "I wish you more tippy toes than deep.", and  "I wish you more snowflakes than tongue." What do these lines even mean?

     Interactive Elementary has I Wish You More Read Aloud Activities. Big Hearts Little Learners has  I Wish You More: A Mother's Day and Father's Day Writing Activity for K-3.