Just A Second

Just a Second is my favorite Steve Jenkins book. It talks about what happens to things in a second, minute, hour, day, month, and year. This information picture book also discusses what happens extremely quickly and what takes and extremely long time. One of my favorite parts about the book is that in the back of the book, it includes different graphs that organizes things like the history of the universe or the life span of plants and animals. Another feature that I really like about this book it that it continues some of the facts and information through a day, month, and year and explains what happens along the way. This is very interesting and intriguing book that puts time into perspective for students. It gives the students a different way to look at time and put the rest of the world around them into a new perspective. 

For this book, I would want my students to do an activity that is called analyzing an informational text using a visual profile. In this activity, it has the students rate the nine elements of informational text and how prevalent or not it is in the book. This makes students think past the words and the pictures and think more about the features of the text. Another activity that I would like for my students to do using this book is to track something (anything they would like) on what happens to it in a second, minute, hour, day, month, and year. An example would be the students could look up what happens to trash when we do not dispose of it properly in a second all the way to a year or whenever it decomposes. It will give the students a better understanding of time. This informational picture book should be used with older elementary students because it has a lot of complex information that would be too hard for younger elementary students to understand. Overall, I really enjoyed the book and I think it would be a great addition to any classroom.

Just a Second

Author: Steve Jenkins

Year Published: 2011

What Do You Do With A Tail Like This?

This Caldecott Honor Book is one of a kind. It first gives a part of animals like their noses, ears, tails, eyes, mouths, or feet and then on the next page describes what they use them for. For example, on one of the first pages it shows an elephant’s trunk. It asks the question, “What do you do with a nose like that?” On the next page, it shows the elephant and it using his trunk to give itself a bath. It does this for noses, ears, tails, eyes, mouths, and feet. This can show students how animals use their different body parts to defend themselves and help them to survive. For the audience, this informational text provides so much information in a very simple way. It is not complex and allows you to make connections throughout the entire text. In the back of the picture book, the author included information about every animal that was written about. It gives some background information on the animal and more information about the body part and what they use it for.

This is another great book that I would definitely want to use in my classroom one day. I feel that this text could be use with lower and upper elementary students. For lower elementary students, this book could be used when learning about different animals. I think lower elementary students would enjoy this book in a classroom library. The pictures are fantastic in this book and students can learn a lot about different animals too. Steve Jenkins and Robin Page do an excellent job of using animals that are not traditional animals that we think of like a lion, tiger, or bear. They use animals like a platypus, hyena, pelican, or a star-nosed mole. These animals might make the students want to learn more because they are ones that most would not know a lot about. This book would work with upper elementary students because you can use it to look at adaptations of animals. For example, on one of the pages it looks at how the horned lizard squirts blood from its eyes. Students could look up this characteristic of this animal and find out why they do this. This informational text would be a great resource for students to use and can jump-start them into finding more information out. Steve Jenkins and Robin Page do a great job of making information fun and exciting for their audience to read.

What Do You Do With A Tail Like This?

Author: Steve Jenkins

Illustrator: Robin Page

Year Published: 2003 

Move!

This informational text picture book talks about the different ways that animals move. It was a very creative story that went over the different movements of animals like jumping, slithering, waddling, etc. It relates the movements that one animal does to another animal who does the same movement. It asks the audience at the end how do you move, which makes automatically makes the reader think of all the different movement words that were just talked about in the book. Steve Jenkins and Robin Page have a very unique writing and illustrating styles. The pictures of the animals are realistic but still have that cartoonish effect to them. In the back of the picture book, there is an information page that includes every animal written about. It gives information about where the animals are from and interesting facts about them.

This picture book would be perfect in younger elementary grades. Students can learn a lot without it being overwhelming to them. Something that I really liked about the book was there were a few animals that I had not heard of before. I thought this was a good idea because then it provokes children to want to find out more about them. I also liked how the verb or movement that was the main idea for the page was large and the center of focus. The sentences were not traditionally written and continued onto the next page. This could show students another way to be creative when writing their own stories. Using this book with younger elementary students, I would want them to get active with this book. During a read aloud, as I was reading, I would give the students time to figure out a motion that goes along with the movement verb that it used. Then I would reread the picture book having the students do the movement along with it. I think is a very fun piece of literature that is also informational.

Move!

Author: Steve Jenkins

Illustrator: Robin Page

Year Published: 2006

Seedfolks

Being honest, I have never heard of this book before I had read it. I didn’t really know what to think about it. All I knew is that it involved multiple people telling a story about a garden. From the back cover and the title, I wasn’t really excited to read the book. But when I began reading it, I couldn’t put the book down. Each of the thirteen characters told their own story of why they wanted to plant flowers or vegetables in this community garden. It was amazing to read in the story and visualize how a vacant lot could turn into a beautiful and magnificent garden. But besides talking about how the garden changed and grew, the book also focuses on how a diverse part of Cleveland became one because of this garden on Gibb Street. People who would never have talked to one another because they had differences in the way they look or where they are from, started to appreciate one another. 

I would love to use Seedfolks in my classroom one day. This book could be used perfectly to talk about people’s points of views and how to convey that in a story. It also could be used to talk about people’s differences and the diversity that surrounds us. Seedfolks is a great book to help discuss how people don’t get along and how people are judgmental towards each other. I would want to use it as a class book and have the students plant their own garden someone outside of the school. This book has a lot of life lessons that can be learned and it all started with a little girl and a hope to grow lima beans in memory of her dad. An activity that I would like my student to do is write a chapter that could be added to this book describing their life and what flower, plant, or vegetable they would have chosen to plant in the garden. It would be a nice way to bring this book full circle for the students. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and definitely plan on using it in my classroom one day.

Seedfolks

Author: Paul Fleischman

Year Published: 2004

Red Kite Blue Kite

Red Kite Blue Kite is truly a touching story. The relationship between a father and a son cannot be broken even through the toughest of times. Tai Shan, the son, loves to fly his red kite and his father, Baba, would fly a blue one. They would go to the roof of their home and fly them together all the time. But then bad times come and Baba is taken to a labor camp. Tai Shan is sent to live with Granny Wang. Baba comes up with a secret way for him and his son to keep in touch with one another. The same day of the week, at the same time, Tai Shan would fly his red kite and Baba would fly his blue kite. They fly the kites until Baba is freed. Then Baba surprises Tai Shan with hundreds of red and blue kites. The kites were freed just like Baba.

I thought this book was a great picture book. The illustrations and the meaning behind the story were incredible. Once again, this story looked at the Chinese culture. I have noticed that war and dictatorship is a common theme between these stories. This is a part of the culture that I would want to explore more about. This book was inspired by the Cultural Revolution in China and I think it is important for kids to learn what that means. In this book, Granny Wang explains to Tai Shan that the leaders do not like his father because he thinks differently than most. This is a problem that a lot of other cultures deal with as well. This book would be a great stepping stone of finding out more about the Chinese culture. A lesson that I would like to do with my future students is having them create their own way of communicating with someone if they were not allowed to talk or see them. For my upper elementary students, I would want them to find the symbolism of the kites in the story. An enjoyable book and definitely one that I would want to include in my future classroom library.

Red Kite Blue Kite

Author: Ji-li Jiang

Illustrator: Greg Ruth

Year Published: 2013

A New Year's Reunion

A New Year’s Reunion talks about a little girl named Maomao who cannot wait for the Chinese New Year to begin. Not only is she excited for the ceremonies and the delicious sticky rice balls, but her dad gets to come home. He only comes home once a year because he works very far away. The little girl tells the exactly what she and father does to celebrate the New Year and to celebrate being together. When Maomao and her dad are making sticky rice balls, he puts a fortune coin in one of them. Maomao discovers it and the coin is supposed to bring her good fortune for the year. The little girl and her dad celebrate the New Year together watching the dragon dance from the roof of the house and spending quality time with one another. Before her dad leaves for the year again. Maomao gives him the good fortune coin so they can bury it in a sticky rice ball again next year.

I really enjoyed how this picture book describes the Chinese culture and what happens during a Chinese New Year. The book did not only focus on this. It also discusses the sad reality that sometimes families cannot always be together for whatever reason. What is important is that the time you do have together, you enjoy every second of it. I feel that students who have family members in the military or who may work very far away like Maomao’s dad would be able to connect with this story. They would know how it feels to get to see that person for only a short amount of time, maybe once a year. This would be a book that I would want to use in younger elementary grades. It would be a great book that could segway a class into learning more about the Chinese culture and New Year.

A New Year's Reunion

Author: Yu Li-Qiong

Illustrator: Zhu Cheng-Liang

Year Published: 2011 

Little Eagle

This book was a story I probably would not have just chosen off of the book shelf. I am glad that we have to look at different multicultural authors because this story would have quite an impact on students. It tells the story of Master Yang who saved a little boy from dying in the snow. The little boy lost both of his parents to the cruel leader and he was orphaned. Master Yang and his eagle took the little boy in. One night, the little boy saw Master Yang doing Eagle boxing. From that night forward, he would watch Master Yang and practice every move until he knew them by heart. The little boy thought it would be a good idea to use these new Eagle boxing skills to ward off bullies, but this angered Master Yang. But seeing his potential, were after performing a Buddhist ritual, the little boy promised to perfect his new skill. Master Yang named him Little Eagle. After a long and evolved process of perfecting his Eagle boxing, it came time for Master Yang and Little Eagle to take on General Zhao, the cruel leader. Zhao fatally injured Master Yang and before he died, he fully passed on the secrets of Eagle boxing to Little Eagle.

I really enjoyed how this story began on the first page of the entire book. Even before the title page, we knew that China was dealing with a treacherous and cruel leader. This page also introduced Master Yang. This makes an audience prepare and begin to predict on what is going to happen in this story. A common piece of the illustration is the eagle. It appears in every page of the book. I would want my students to reflect on why they think the eagle is in every illustration and what the eagle is supposed to represent. I really like how the Chinese culture is portrayed through the book. It talks about their religion, Buddhism, and some of the ritual ceremonies that occur. This book really made me interested in the Chinese culture and made me have a new respect for their diversity.

Little Eagle

Author: Chen Jiang Hong

Year Published: 2007 

All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom

This picture book tells the story about what a girl saw and did as soon as the African American found out that they had been freed. She woke up like she did every other morning. The little girl never thought that today would day that would change the rest of her life. She went with her family and friends to work in the fields like every other day, but later on they received word that they were freed. The little girl explains the joy that everyone felt and how many cried, sang, and prayed. She talked about how her and her family went to the beach later one and were able to eat and laugh being free people. They did not have anyone to report to any longer. These people could begin their true lives which was “all different now.”

The phrase, “All Different Now” is repeated multiple times through the book referring back to the title of the book and the fact that these slaves’ lives were going to be “all different now.” The illustrations of the book really intrigued me. The pictures were not very clear, but when the African American found out they were freed, the reactions of the individuals are very clear. They are excited, joyful, and in disbelief. In the illustrator’s note, the reason why the pictures are unclear is because it is supposed to resemble that what these people were experiencing was so close to a dream. It had to be such a blur and overwhelming day for them. The colors of the illustrations also reflect the events occurring in the book. The sky was gray when they had to go to work in the fields, but as soon as the people found out that they have been freed, the colors of the illustrations become brighter and yellow. I would want to use this book in my classroom to allow students to connect with how African Americans must have felt when they found out that they were freed. Also, I use a picture from the book to have my students analyze and look at to make predictions about what they think is going to happen in the book. The illustrations truly make this book come to life and the emotions fly off the pages.

All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom

Author: Angela Johnson

Illustrator: E.B. Lewis

Year Published: 2014

Feathers

This novel tells the story of a girl named Frannie who is in the sixth grade. It takes place in the 1970’s in an urban, all African American school. One day, things change at their school. A white boy who becomes known as “Jesus Boy” begins to go to their school. This brings problems and misunderstandings as to why a white boy would come to an all-African American school. Jesus Boy and Frannie become friends. She is amazed that he knows sign language like her. Frannie has an older brother who is deaf. Students begin to think Jesus Boy is actually Jesus because he does not retaliate when the bully Trevor picks on him. One day, Trevor and Jesus Boy get into a verbal fight and Jesus Boy says some very hurtful things to Trevor. Trevor tries to fight Jesus Boy but only ends up falling. This idea that Jesus Boy is Jesus disappears in the students. They realize that both Trevor and Jesus Boy are just normal kids. In the end of the novel, Frannie realizes that her friends like Samantha, began to see Jesus Boy as a symbol of hope. She realized like her favorite poem that through everything in life, people look for hope.

I would definitely use this novel in my upper elementary grades: fifth and sixth grade. These aged students would appreciate the story more. If I were to use this novel in my future classroom, I would want to use this book for the specific lesson of helping students learn how to identify and analyze themes. The symbolism in this novel is very important and leads the themes of the book. A big part of this story was the metaphor of hope which revolved around the theme of the novel: hope. This theme is introduced through one of Emily Dickinson’s poem that describes hope as, “Hope is the thing with feathers…” I would first of all want my students to read this poem before reading this book. The students could obviously connect to the poem and this book in a different way then. Jesus Boy is also another symbol of hope in the book. When Jesus Boy does not automatically act like a normal boy, getting into fights and defending himself, the children begin to associate him as Jesus. They begin to see him in a different light and maybe a sign that different days are coming. Understanding was another theme that was incredibly important to this book. The children in the book were always trying to understand something, whether it was trying to figure out Jesus Boy or why people had to be mean. These two very important themes are relevant to an upper elementary grades classrooms. I feel that it would bring some difficult topics up to be discussed in class, but I believe that it could lead students to find a new understanding of these hard concepts of life.

Feathers

Author: Jacqueline Woodson

Year Published: 2010 

The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos

This informational picture book told the story of Paul Erdos, a boy who loved math and grew up to become one of the greatest mathematicians in the world. Paul was a typical child who hated school and hated rules. He wanted to do his own thing and do it his way. Paul was content staying at home with his mom and Fraulein, his nanny. He could do math all day and every day then. When he got a little older, he invented his own way of life. Paul traveled the world sharing his knowledge of math and numbers. As he got older, the more his life became filled with not only math, but with friendships he had made because of it. Eventually, he passed away while he was doing math at a meeting. Paul Erdos was a man of numbers and one that made an impact on every one he met.

A common theme that I have realized with informational picture books is that if the story is about a person, they start out with them as a child. I think this is very important for children to see. It gives them a way to connect with the person immediately. I like how this book highlights numbers and math specifics. It discusses Erdos numbers, prime numbers, infinity, negative numbers, and formulas. For some of them it explains how to find the answer while others it gives examples. The last page in the entire book is my favorite. It has buildings and children from everywhere in the world surrounding Paul. Each building is made up of numbers and the children even have numbers on them. It supports a multicultural classroom and this book could be used to slide into many different topics. Students could be given one of the buildings from the last page and do research about what it is and where it is from. They can then find out how math was applied to it in order to be built. This book portrays math in a way that is fun and applicable to every student. 

The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos

Author: Deborah Heiligman

Illustrator: LeUyen Pham

Year Published: 2013

Different Like Coco

This informational picture book tells the story of Coco Chanel and her life before becoming a huge fashion success. Its starts out explaining her childhood and how difficult it was. She was orphaned at the age of twelve and had to live in a convent with nuns. This is where Coco learned how to sew. She would sew herself ribbons for her hair and make little dolls out of scraps of fabric. Coco was treated like a second class citizen because of her economical state but yet she did not let this bother her. She studied the way the “rich girls” acted at Notre Dame and began to master their manners and confidence. Coco went and worked for a tailoring shop when she finished at Notre Dame. She realized that she was never going to look like the ladies of the high society, so instead of trying to fit in- she remained true to herself. Coco was different. She was skinnier than everyone else. Coco did not want to wear the same clothes as everyone else. She began to make her own. One day, she met a man named Boy Capel and he bought her a small shop so she could sell her clothing. For years, she grew her business. As the tables turned in society, the conception of what women were to look like changed. Everyone wanted to be Coco and this was all because she remained true to herself and stayed different.

This story is truly an inspiration for all my future female students. I think this informational text picture book portrays both Coco’s personal life and her fashion life in a way that helps remind students that they must be true to themselves. Coco was different from everyone and instead of changing herself, she embraced her differences. She did not let anything stop her or get in her way of letting her achieve her goals of living a life in the higher society filled with her passion for fashion. I would want all my students to reflect on this story and think about something that they are so passionate about that they would stop at nothing to be able to accomplish it. As they are reflecting, I would want them to think about some of the obstacles that they may have to face along the way. The students would write about how they may overcome these barriers of life. Lastly, I would want my students to write about what makes them different from everyone else. We could create a published book called “Different Like Us.” This has become one of my favorite picture books. I never thought I would enjoy informational picture books this much! 

Different Like Coco

Author: Elizabeth Matthews
Year Published: 2007

Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade

“Every little movement has a meaning of its own.” This quote was said by Tony Sarg, the main character of the story. The book told the story of Tony and how he went from being a boy with a dream of becoming a marionette man to a genius who created the Macy’s Day Parade. Tony was born to bring happiness in the world. When he was younger, he lived in London and created puppets for the boys and girls who lived there. As soon as Tony moved to New York City, the Tony Sarg Marionettes performed on Broadway and soon were in the “Wondertown Windows” of the Macy’s stores. On Thanksgiving Day in 1924, Macy’s had their first parade to honor their employees. Tony was hired to create the floats and costumes for everyone. He soon realized that he wanted to create balloons so everyone could see the parade. So he figured a plan of how to create upside down marionettes for the parade. It was an instant success and to this day we still celebrate Thanksgiving Day mornings by turning on the television or going to New York City to see this very special parade.

This has got to be one of my favorite picture books of all time. I absolutely fell in love with not only the way the book was worded but with the pictures as well. It turned a story that had a lot of information into a fascinating story about a boy with a dream and who now makes everyone so happy on Thanksgiving Day. I never had realized that the Thanksgiving Day parade originally was created to honor the immigrants who worked in Macy’s. It provides students with a new perspective of immigrants that we normally do not see or think about when we think back to this time period. I would want to use this book around Thanksgiving time so my students could watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with their family. This novel makes this story come to life for the audience and children would really enjoy it. An activity that would go great along with this picture book would be to have the students come up with their own float or balloon idea that they would want to be included in the parade. The students could work in groups to create smaller versions of their floats and draw sketches of what their balloon would look like. Lastly, it provides the audience with information in a way that you do not even know you are learning about a person and their actual life. It took me a second at the end to process everything I had just learned. Truly an extraordinary picture book!

Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade

Author: Melissa Sweet

Year Published: 2011

The Unfinished Angel

This novel was about an angel, named Angel, and a little girl named Zola. Angel is not used to people being able to see her. But Zola is something special. She has been able to see Angels ever since her little brother, Jake, was born early and almost died. Zola finds out that there are homeless children living in a barn without families or food. She decides that she must do something, but knows she cannot do it alone. Zola begs Angel to help her find a place for the children to live so Zola can bring them food. Angel lets the children move into her tower and they work together to take care of them. Zola and Angel fight for justice for the children and they end up being successful. The children are able to stay at the new school that Zola’s dad built and receive a great education with a new, loving family.

I chose to read this novel because as a child, I read every Sharon Creech book published. I was obsessed with her as an author. When I came upon this book in the library, I was shocked to see that she had come out with another novel. To be honest, I was a little disappointed with this novel. After remembering how much her stories made an impact in my own life when I was younger, I was hoping this book would do the same. But instead, this book provoked me to question a lot. It discussed some of the harder topics that you could discuss in a classroom like life after death, homelessness, child hunger, and family issues. These social justice issues are brought into a perspective that children can think about and reflect on. Even though this was not one of my favorite Sharon Creech books, I feel that this book was not supposed to be like the rest of her books. I think she wanted to push the limits of what she talked about and wanted to alert her audience of the social injustices that surround us every day. 

The Unfinished Angel

Author: Sharon Creech

Year Published: 2009