Chapter Book # 2

Title:  Bud, Not Buddy

Author:  Christopher Paul Curtis

Illustrator:  Cover by Barry David Marcus

Readability Score:  Interest level=5, Grade Level Equivalent=5.2, Lexile=950L, DRA=50, Guided Reading=T

Genre:  Fiction

Subgenre:  Historical Fiction

Theme:  Music, runaways, the Great Depression

Primary and Secondary Characters:  Primary=Bud, Secondary=Herman E. Calloway, members of the jazz band, people Bud meets on the road

Awards:  Newbery Medal winner, Coretta Scott King winner

Date of Publication:  1999

Publishing Company:  Random House Publishing

ISBN Number:  0553494104

Summary:  Bud has been without his mom for four years when he decides he has had enough. He leaves the limited security offered at the Home for orphaned boys and decides it is time to find his father. His mother died when he was six years old, and she left behind clues. These clues include rocks with writing on them and several ads  for a musician named Herman E. Calloway and his band. Bud decides that this man must be his father and he travels to Grand Rapids, Michigan in order to find him. Along the way, Bud meets several people and finally ends up with Herman E. Calloway and his band. They take him in even though Herman does not believe that he is his father. All the pieces of the puzzle slowly come together when Bud sees rocks that have writing on them in Herman's car. After questioning Bud about the rocks that he has been carrying with him that are similar to Herman's, they realize that Bud is Herman's grandson. The band presents Bud with his own band name as well as a saxophone, and he finally feels like he is home.

Applications for Teaching:  This would be a good book to accompany lessons on the Great Depression as well as the history of jazz music in the early nineteen hundreds. Once Bud starts living with the band, the author introduces elements such as figurative language and onimonipea to his writing. Mature themes such as running away, foster care, and death are addressed within this story.

Chapter Book # 1

Title:  Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Author:  Mildred D. Taylor

Illustrator:  Cover by Jerry Pinkney

Readability Scores:  Interest level=4-6, Grade Level Equivalent=6.9, DRA=60, Lexile=920L, Guided Reading=W

Genre:  Fiction

Subgenre:  Historical fiction, classics

Theme:  Equality, civil rights

Primary and Secondary Characters:  Primary=Cassie, Stacey, Little Man, Christopher John, Secondary=T.J., Papa, Mama, Big Ma, Jeremy

Awards:  1977 Newbery Medal winner, winner of the Pacific Norwest Young Readers Award

Date of Publication:  1976

Publishing Company:  Novel Units Inc.

ISBN Number:  9781561375257

Summary:  This book is set in rural Mississippi in the early 1930s. The central characters are all members of the Logan family. They are lucky because they own farming land instead of sharecropping like their neighbors. This also leads to several struggles as the family tries to pay the mortgage and taxes each year. The Granger family wants the land back since it originally belonged to them prior to the Civil War. Mr. Granger tries to buy the land, but the Logan family knows its all they have. Cassie and Stacey are the two oldest of the Logan children, and they are faced with struggles as they learn that civil rights does not exist in rural Mississippi. This is a dramatic coming of age story, in which the primary characters struggle with the unfairness of racial inequality. They are faced with the cruelty of the time when they see neighbors burned and friends beaten. Through each struggle, they are taught the importance of family and what it means to own their own land. A fire threatens to destroy the cotton crop, and the Logan children finally understand what Papa, Mama, and Big Ma have been trying to teach them about life and equality.

Applications for Teaching:  This is a wonderful book to accompany lessons on the events leading up to the Civil Rights Movement as well as lessons discussing the inequalities faced by African American families living in the South following the Reconstruction. This book would be best suited for middle school students due to the violence and mature themes it contains.

Picture Book #5

Title:  Beyond The Great Mountains

Author:  Ed Young

Illustrator:  Ed Young

Readability Score:  Interest level=k-2, Grade Level Equivalent=2.6

Genre:  Poetry

Subgenre: General Fiction

Theme:  China's landscape

Primary and Secondary Characters:  No characters only narrator's description of China

Awards:

Date of Publication:  August 25, 2005

Publishing Company:  Chronicle Books

ISBN Number:  0811843432

Summary:  This book contains a single line of prose on each page accompanied by a striking visual image of the artist's interpretation of what China looks like to him. The pages also contain different Chinese symbols for some of the words that are contained within the prose.

Applications for Teaching:  This would be a great book to show students an example of a different type of poetry. This would also be a wonderful multicultural book to use to introduce students to the Chinese culture, especially since it contains some of the Chinese symbols for words contained within the prose.

Picture Book # 4

Title:  The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Author:  Eric Carle

Illustrator:  Eric Carle

Readability Score:  Interest level=k-2, Grade level equivalent=2.6, DRA=16, Lexile=460L, Guided reading=J

Genre:  Fiction

Subgenre:  Classics, animals

Theme:  Days of the week, counting, metamorphosis

Primary and Secondary Characters:  The little hungry caterpillar is the only character

Awards:

Date of Publication:  First published in 1969, latest edition Sept. 18, 2008

Publishing Company:  Philomel

ISBN Number:  9780399250453

Summary:  This books goes through a week in the life of a very hungry caterpillar. It starts with the egg hatching, and describes what the caterpillar is eating each day of the week. At the end of the week, the caterpillar makes a cocoon and emerges as a beautiful butterfly.

Applications for Teaching:  This book could be used to discuss several educational items. The days of the week are listed, counting and numbers could be discussed, and of course a discussion regarding the life cycle of a caterpillar/butterfly could be a key point. This book uses vivid drawings that will grab the attention of younger students.

Picture Book #3

Title:  Into the Forest

Author:  Anthony Browne

Illustrator:  Anthony Browne

Readability Scores:  Grade level equivalent=2.1, Lexile=430L, DRA=28, Guided reading=L, Interest level=k-2

Genre:  Fiction

Subgenre:  Fairy tale

Theme:  Animals, character and value

Primary and Secondary Characters:  Primary=young boy, Secondary=mother, father, grandmother, fairy tale characters

Awards:

Date of Publication:  September 5, 2005

Publishing Company:  Walker Children's Books

ISBN Number:  9781844285594

Summary:  This book is based on the tale of "Little Red Riding Hood". A young boy has to take his sick grandmother a cake, and he decides to take a shortcut through the woods even though his mother warned him against it. He wants to hurry home in case his dad returns because he did not come home last night. Once in the woods, he meets several fairy tale characters. He gets to grandma's house safely and discovers his father stayed the night here.

Application for Teaching:  This book could be used to illustrate how authors can take original stories and make them their own. The different fairy tale characters could be discussed in relation to the story in which they belong. The illustrations are very unique in that they are mostly gray and the color that has been added is strategic. Excellent book to discuss emotions such as fear, worry, and anticipation.

Picture Book #2

Title:  Spiders

Author:  Nic Bishop

Illustrator:  Nic Bishop (photographer)

Readability Scores:  Interest level= k-3, Grade level equivalent=4.7, Lexile=1050L

Genre:  Nonfiction

Subgenre:  Informational

Theme:  Early Science, spiders

Primary and Secondary Characters:  No characters, information about different types of spiders

Awards:  2008 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book

Date of Publication:  September 1, 2007

Publishing Company:  Scholastic Nonfiction

ISBN Number:  9780439877565

Summary:  This book is a nonfiction informational book. It contains several high-quality photographs of various species of spiders along with basic information about each type of spider. Facts given are short and concise, and the photographs of the spiders provide readers with an up close and personal view.

Applications for Teaching:  This book is an excellent nonfiction book that could be used to enhance student learning in the science classroom. It could also be used as a paired reading with Charlotte's Web. This would provide students with factual background information regarding  spiders as they read about Charlottte.

Picture Book #1

Title:  Interrupting Chicken

Author:  David Ezra Stein

Illustrator:  David Ezra Stein

Readability Scores:  Interest Level=k-2, Grade level equivalent=2.2, Lexile=300L, DRA=20, Guided reading=L

Genre:  Fiction

Subgenre:  Bedtime story

Theme:  Storytelling, bedtime, fairy tales

Primary and Secondary Characters:  Primary=Little red chicken, papa, Secondary=fairy tale characters

Awards:  2011 Caldecott Honor Book

Publication Date:  2010

Publishing Compancy:  Candlewick Press

ISBN number:  9780763641689

Summary:  It is bedtime for Little red chicken, and as Papa starts reading a story he encounters a problem. Little red chicken keeps interrupting each fairy tale story by putting herself into the story and finishing with the Little red chicken saving the day. After a few attempts, Papa runs out of stories. He asks Little red chicken to write him a story, and when she starts reading her story to Papa, she puts him to sleep. The story ends with both chickens asleep.

Applications for teaching:  This book could be used to introduce fairy tales such as Hansel and Gretel, Chicken Little, and Little Red Riding Hood because they are the stories Papa is trying to read. This book could also be used as a pre-writing activity. The story Little red chicken writes is shown within the book. This would be a wonderful book to read prior to having students write their own bedtime story.