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