Jack and the Beanstalk

Jack and the Beanstalk

Author E. Nesbit

Illustrator Matt Tavares

Candlewick 2006

48 pages

Children’s Traditional Literature

This is the famous story of Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack’s mother asks him to go to town and sell the family cow for money; however that’s not what Jack does. Jack sells the cow for magic beans that his mother throws out of the window thinking her son was foolish. Not long after there is a giant bean stalk outside the window that Jack climbs to find adventure. Once at the top he is greeted by the giant’s wife. Hungry Jack asks for food and she lets him in and feeds him, the giant upon arriving thinks that he smells Jack however his wife convinces him it’s not. Jack then takes some of the giants gold and climbs down the stalk to his mother and they go buy food. Once out of food Jack returns this time to get a golden egg from the hen. Pleased again his mother goes and buys food. However Jack is not completely happy with this so he returns once more, and this time it’s a doozy.

                The pictures in this story are very bold and colorful. This actual book got noticed for the incredible way that the illustrations were finally portrayed for Jack and the Bean Stalk. The text in the story varied on the page. The text went from the top to bottom, as well as the illustrations. Matt Tavares is a notable illustrator, and the take that he took on this classic story is a great one. I think that the middle elementary school children would enjoy this book even more because of how it has been “updated”. Jack and the bean stalk is such a good classic children’s book it is hard to not love it. The medium used in this book was pen and ink, as well as water colors and colored pencils.

                Classroom connections for this story can unlimited, you can do math and science lessons with the class. A math lesson could be making a “giant” shoe for a math center. You can have your students count how big the Giant’s shoe is with counting blocks using 1’s, 5’s, and 10’s. A science lesson you can plant beans with your class and watch what magic grows and they can record what they see in their science journal. Lastly you can have the students write what they would have liked the most about traveling up the giants bean stalk.

Chicken Little

Chicken Little

Author Rebecca Emberley

Illustrator Ed Emberley

Roaring Brook 2009

34 Pages

Children’s Traditional Literature

                This is a story about a little chicken who is “Oh my goodness oh my gracious worried for his life”. Chicken little is walking along minding his own business when suddenly Plop a acorn falls on his head. Thinking the sky is falling and it is the end of the word he grabs a umbrella and runs for his life. Along the way he picks up Henny Penny, Lucky Ducky, Loosey Goosey, and Turkey Lurkey. They all get ran into by each other and Chicken Little tells them the “Sky is falling we are running for our lives” and they all follow him not knowing what else to do or where there going. The eventually meet up with Foxy Loxy who has what she says is a plan to help them. Will it actually be a plan to save them or something else? You won’t know unless you read Chicken Little.

                The illustrations in this book were very simple. The pictures were drawn not to look completely like an actual animal in the story. The text mainly stayed at the top of the page, and it went across the pages. The illustrations also had words like “Quack” and “Boink” to go along with them. The medium used was water colors, pen and ink. I think the bright boldness of the illustrations would catch a young reader’s eye. The pictures also go across the pages, as well as some of them are only on one page. This book could be read to preschoolers up to elementary students. I think the underlying moral that the story has is good for any age level.

                You could teach a classroom lesson on good moral behavior with this book. You could write scenario’s down and have the children in groups discuss what they would think of as good or bad. Such as blindly following your friends, picking on a kid at school, or helping a friend in need. This would allow the students to interact their thoughts with each other. Another connection could be allowing the students to write their own version of the story, as what do you think would have happened if one of the friends stopped Chicken Little and asked where they were going. This would invoke their critical thinking skills. Lastly you could have them make their own character from the story and put their own twist on it. Such as they could make Chicken Little but make him have glasses like they do.

Cat Talk

Cat Talk

Authors Patricia MacLachlan and Emilu MacLachlan Charest

Illustrator Barry Moser

Katheren Tegan Books 2013

32 pages

Children’s Poetry book

This book is about different cats and the lives that they lead when no one is watching them. Some cat sneak in windows, others creep through the night, and some even lay on wedding dresses! However some cats are quiet and some are timid, some are the boss, and some even like mice. There at cats that like to romp and play, and cats that were born in the hay. There are Grey cats, black cats, even multi colored cats. Cats love people, and people love cats, however to find the most interesting cat of all you’ll have to read Cat Talk.

                The illustrations in this book are nice, there very simple, and are colored. The medium used in this book was transparent watercolor on hand made paper from England. Actually it was interesting because it gave in great detail in the back of the book how the illustrations were made, and on what type of paper. As well as the type of font used and who made it. I liked that it was so detailed for the reader. The text in this book is easy to read. It is mostly text that flows down the page like a typical poem. However there are some poems that lead over onto another page. The illustrations are mostly on two pages, the picture just rolls right onto the other page. The pictures are big and bold and easy for the reader to understand.

                Classroom connections for this story can be fun for your students. One could be for the poem Tough Tom it’s about a cat that snuck into a house because the window was left open. The students could group together and write about different things they might find in the house if they were Tom going into a strange new house. Another connection is with the poem Alice. Alice is a cat that loves bath time and likes eating the soap bubbles! The students could draw a picture of their favorite part of bath time and then write a sentence describing what they drew. Lastly the students could do a compare and contrast of two of their favorite poems in the story and tell how those two cats and the places they lived were alike and different.

 

Toad by the Road

Toad by the Road

Author Joanne Ryder

Illustrated by Maggie Kneen

Henry Holt and Company 2007

37 pages

Children’s Poetry

This is a lovely book on a year in the life of a toad. It starts off by going through the different seasons of the year and what the toad goes through in each of them.  In the spring it talks about how toads sing songs together, calling the female toads to come so they can breed. Baby toads start off as tadpoles and even move from pond to pond.  Summer is all about staying cool and catching yummy bugs for the toads. It even says the only thing on the agenda for them is sleeping, skipping, hopping and eating. Toads enjoy the summer rain that falls on them, and even soak it in their skin. In the late summer early fall the toads shed their snug skin and feel so much better. Toads also play dead to trick people into walking away from them. In the winter time toads hibernate like bears do and wait until spring time.

The illustrations in this book are colorful and depict the life of a toad. The text jumps all over the page, and sometimes is even on top of the illustrations themselves. The medium used in this story was water colors, pen and ink. On top of the poem text on the page there is little sentences on the bottom of each page giving facts about the toads, and their lives to the reader. This helps because It allows the reader to be told information but still in a fun way. There also is bolded words, italicized words, as well as words in all capital letters. I think this may be difficult for a new reader who is just learning how print is supposed to look.

You could have wonderful science connections with this story. You can have the students make a life cycle chart of the toad and the seasons that go along with it. This will help the students really understand what the toads life is like. The students also could draw/ make their own toad out of art supplies. This can get the students thinking about the unique features that toads have. Lastly the students can write their own poem of what they would like about being a toad.

 

 

 

 

My Parent's think I'm Sleeping

My Parent’s think I’m Sleeping

Poems by Jack Prelutsky

Pictures by Yossi Abolafia

Harper Collins Publisher 2007

48 Pages

Children’s Poetry book

This story is full of 44 different poems, there is a new poem on almost each page.  This story is about a young boy who has a wild imagination and is trying to fall asleep.  He starts off by saying his parents think he’s asleep and that he keeps a flash light to explore all the happenings in his bedroom. He travels to a creek; he listens to the alley cats singing along throughout the night. He thinks about the clouds that he saw this afternoon and how calm they looked, and how now they look like their trying to eat him. He dreams of chocolate cake and how he wishes he could eat it, but he’s afraid his dad has already eaten it. The little boy travels to wild imaginative places and tries to go to sleep along the way but just cant seem to. Find out if his parents discover that he’s wide awake, or if he finally falls asleep in My Parent’s think I’m Sleeping.

The illustrations in this book would greatly appeal to younger readers especially little boys. The pictures are very colorful, as well as are full of detail and eye catching. The text is not normal on the pages it goes from top to bottom, different sides of the page, it is based on where the pictures are. The medium used in the story was pen and ink, as well as colored pencils, and water colors. The pictures in the story move all over the page, they go from the top to bottom, as well as from side to side, some pictures overlap onto the next page.  The pictures go along with the poems and are used as a visual aid to help students follow along with the story.

Classroom connections with this story could be used in different ways. One connection you could use could be an English lesson including poetry. The students can write a poem on what they would do if they couldn’t sleep and were laying in their rooms imagining before they fall asleep. This could help their critical, and imaginative thinking. Another connection could be having the students take the story and find all of the rhyming words in the story and then make their own poem using only those words. This would be a great experience for the students to know that writing can be fun, and sometimes you can make funny poems that do not go together. The last connection you can have is an art lesson.  You can have the students into groups and they can make a poster of their favorite picture parts of the stories, and make it like a collage. Once the collages and poems are done you can hang them on the wall in the classroom.