Module 9: Where's the big bad wolf

Book Summary: A cute interpretation of the classic tale of the Three Little Pigs, with a twist. 

APA Reference of Book: Christelow, E. (2002). Where's the big bad wolf?. New York, NY: Clarion Books.

Impressions: I liked the book and the illustrations.  It’s a may be a little long for the young readers in the classrooms, but it would be a great book for story-time.  The text is easy to read and is written big enough where the beginning readers can see it well.  There’s also a lot of repetition in the story, which also makes it an ideal book for kids to learn to read from.

Professional Review: Three little pigs get some real bad advice from a wolf in a real goofy sheep disguise in this comical whodunit. The three little pigs are having their homes blown dowry--and escaping by the hair of their chinny-chin-chins--and Detective Doggedly believes it might be the work of the shiftless, no-account neighborhood wolf, the infamous BBW. But the only character found at the crime scenes is a newcomer to town: Esmeralda the sheep. Sure, kids will note, Esmeralda their foot, for her disguise is pretty transparent. She has also been giving the pigs construction ideas: straw is good, twigs are good, and cardboard's not bad. Two cows suggest a brick house, which foils the wolf and ends in his unveiling and incarceration. Short-term incarceration, that is, as he's soon back, this time tricked out as a horse, with more self-serving recommendations: "Pick peas after midnight, when everybody is asleep. They'll taste sweeter." So what if there are a few inexplicables here--How did the wolf con his way into that hospital bed?--this is good clownish fun, and the rough-and-tumble art keeps the farce bubbling. (Picture book. 4-7)

Where’s the Big Bad Wolf? (2002). (Book Review). Kirkus Reviews, 70(14), 1028.

Library Uses: Have the kids split up into groups of two.  The students should come up with a mystery of their own, and when everyone's finished, the students will read their short story aloud and allow the rest of the kids to try and solve or figure out what's happening.

Module 8: Son

Book Summary: This book is a continuation of The Giver.  A young woman who was used to produce a child, and was then supposed to forget all about him, does not follow the conventional ways of the society that she came from.  She goes against everything that she knows and was taught to be right, in order to find her son.

APA Reference of Book: Lowry, L. (2012). Son. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Impressions: I love the way that the author of these books has a way with words.   The Giver, a book that preceded this one in the series, is one of my all time favorites and I have wanted to read this one for a long time.  Glad I finally did.  This book is written very similar to The Giver.   The author provoked deep though as to why we are here and what is it that we do with our time here.  How do we live our lives?  What if society told us to live our lives differently?  What if we never knew things existed, like color?  This was a great ending to the series of the books.  Now, I just need to read the two in between.

Professional Review: Fans of The Giver (1993) and their legion will find themselves immediately pulled back into the sterile, ordered world where conformity is the only virtue. The focus here is on 14-year-old Claire, and when readers first see her, she is strapped onto a table, masked, about to give birth. As a Birthmother, Claire's job is finished once her baby is born, until the next pregnancy. But unusual circumstances, including a cesarean, get Claire moved from the birthing center to the fish hatchery, and someone forgets to give Claire the pills everyone in the community takes the ones that suppress feelings and individuality. Without that wall, Claire begins to long for her son and finds opportunities to see him. Slowly, readers of the previous titles in the quartet will come to understand that Claire's baby is not unfamiliar to them. When the boy disappears, Claire decides, against all odds, that she must find him. That brings her to a seaside community where she strengthens body, mind, and spirit to continue her search. One of The Giver's strengths was the unvarnished writing style that reflected the book's ordered community. Lowry captures that same feeling again and turns it inside out as Claire moves through two more distinct settings, both haunting in their own right. Though her time at the seaside village may seem long to some readers (and it is more than 10 years), the vividness of the descriptions from the hardness of the rock to the roiling of the water makes up for the length. Lowry is one of those rare writers who can craft stories as meaningful as they are enticing. Once again she provides plenty of weighty matters for readers to think about: What is important in life? What are you willing to trade for your desires? And the conflict that has been going on since stories began: Who is able to conquer evil? Don't miss our feature, Another Look at Lois Lowry's The Giver Quartet.

Cooper, I. (2012). Son. (Book Review). Booklist, 108(19/20), 78.

Library Uses: I would ask my students to make a list of the things that are most important to them in life.  I would have them hold on to that list and refer to it throughout the year, and try to remember that when things get tough for them, they need to remember what's most important to them.

Module 7: Hatchet

Book Summary: It’s a book about one boy’s survival after his plane crashes and the pilot dies.  He spends months on his own, surviving on berries and using the only thing he has – a hatchet, to survive.

APA Reference of Book: Paulsen, G. (1987). Hatchet. New York, NY: Bradbury Press.

Impressions: I thought this book was engaging and interesting.  This is something that I think 5^th graders and up would enjoy reading.  The book is easy to read, uses simple words and is easy to understand for the young readers.  I think this is a great book for kids to get into chapter books.  The chapters leave you wanting more and not wanting to take a break from the reading.

Professional Review: Gr 8-12 Brian Robeson, 13, is the only passenger on a small plane flying him to visit his father in the Canadian wilderness when the pilot has a heart attack and dies. The plane drifts off course and finally crashes into a small lake. Miraculously Brian is able to swim free of the plane, arriving on a sandy tree-lined shore with only his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother had given him as a present. The novel chronicles in gritty detail Brian's mistakes, setbacks, and small triumphs as, with the help of the hatchet, he manages to survive the 54 days alone in the wilderness. Paulsen effectively shows readers how Brian learns patience to watch, listen, and think before he acts as he attempts to build a fire, to fish and hunt, and to make his home under a rock overhang safe and comfortable. An epilogue discussing the lasting effects of Brian's stay in the wilderness and his dim chance of survival had winter come upon him before rescue adds credibility to the story. Paulsen tells a fine adventure story, but the sub-plot concerning Brian's preoccupation with his parents' divorce seems a bit forced and detracts from the book. As he did in Dog song (Bradbury, 1985), Paulsen emphasizes character growth through a careful balancing of specific details of survival with the protagonist's thoughts and emotions.

Chatton, B. (1987). Hatchet (Book Review). School Library Journal, (34), 103.

Library Uses: I would use this book as a discussion for the students.  I would ask them if they think that they could have survived if they were in Brian's place.  Why or why not?  What would they have done differently if they had been in his place?   So they know any survival skills?  Is it important for them to know some survival skills and where can they find materials to learn more about this?  I would help them find books in the library that relate to survival.

Module 7: Because of Winn Dixie

Book Summary: The story is one of a little girl that lives with her father the preacher and they move to a new town.  There she meets a stray dog that she adopts and they become friends.  She then realizes that not everything is as it seems.

APA Reference of Book: DiCamillo, K. (2000). Because of Winn-Dixie. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Impressions: The book is very easy to read and it sucks you in from the first moment that you pick it up.  The voices in the book are friendly and the book is one of those that teaches a lesson to the kiddos that not every book should be judged by its cover.  This book will teach the kids how to see beyond what’s on the outside, or beyond other’s perceptions.  This book has a thing or two that kids and adults alike can learn about giving people a chance.  I also enjoyed that the dog that was such a terror at the beginning, becomes someone that the little girl relies on.     

Professional Review: Like Kimberly Willis Holt's When Zachary Beaver Came to Town (1999), this novel joins the long tradition of fiction exploring a small southern town's eccentric characters. It's summer, and 10-year-old India Opal Buloni moves with her preacher father to tiny Naomi, Florida. She's lonely at first, but Winn-Dixie, the stray dog of the title, helps her befriend a group of lovable, quirky locals, eventually bringing her closer to her father and the truth about her mother, who left the family when India was 3. Told in India's sensitive, believable voice, the story is most successful in detailing the appealing cast of characters, including Otis, an ex-convict, musician, and pet store manager; Miss Franny, a Willie Wonkaesque librarian whose "Litmus Lozenges" candies taste like sorrow; and nearly blind Gloria Dump, whose tree hung with empty liquor bottles reminds her of "the ghosts of all the things I done wrong." While some of the dialogue and the book's "life lessons" can feel heavy-handed, readers will connect with India's love for her pet and her open-minded, free-spirited efforts to make friends and build a community.

Engberg, G. (2000). Because of Winn-Dixie.  (Book Review). Booklist, 96(17), 1665.

Library Uses: I would ask the students to tell me what they have learned about friendship from this book.  I would also ask all the kids to make a list of 10 things that we may not know about them, or 10 things that they think are amazing about them and then we would share these lists, so that we can learn more about each other.