REVIEWER: Deidre Schneider
Dianne Snyder's The Boy of the Three-Year Nap is a traditional story takes place in the setting of Japan. The story is based on a boy named Taro, who lives with his widowed mother in poverty. Taro is a very lazy boy who only wishes to sleep and never has any interest in helping his mother. A rich man who is a merchant, moves in next door with his wife and unmarried daughter. Rather than work to help out his mother, Taro comes up with a plan to trick the rich merchant into letting him marry his daughter, by also keeping up with his lazy ways. When Taro's mother comes to the conclusion of what he has done, she ends up tricking Taro into becoming a successful working man. Taro is no longer considered the boy who can take a three year nap. The illustrations are very detailed and really incorporate the feel of the Japanese culture. This would be a very good book to read aloud to students, especially if the lesson is dealing with different cultures. Picture Book/ Easy Fiction. 1988, HMH Books for Young Readers, Ages 5-10, $14.95
REVIEWER: Deidre Schneider
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Laura Amy Schlitz was teaching her students about the Middle Ages when the idea to this book. Her students were going to be putting on a play to show what they had learned and nobody wanted a small part. The thought of wanting all of her students to be able to be a star (even for a few minutes) is what lead to the creation of these monologues. Although the characters themselves are made up, the stories that they humorously tell the listener/reader are very true. Schlitz is able to pass on knowledge in a way that doesn't shock people as they hear about the horrible conditions which plagued the Middle Ages. All of the twenty-three character monologues are able to be read independently, but they also intertwine with each other as more of the individual characters are introduced. Interspersed throughout the character monologues are more factual tidbits on things (such as falconry and the three-field system) mentioned quickly in the monologues. $19.99 Ages 8-12 -Andrea Dow The darkness is a very scary place for such a young girl. Osa, a young African American girl lives in a village in Africa with her mother and grandfather. She is a fearless explorer by day, ready to seek out all the riches of the African valley around her home. But when night falls, Osa is terrified! She cannot even move! Her mother is afraid she will never lose her fear of the dark. However, in one day all it takes is a yellow shining butterfly, and a wise woman to show Osa that the darkness isn’t so bad after all. Osa is not the smallest of the small things out there, and other creatures are smaller yet, but they are not afraid. Osa’s dreams while with the wise woman take her soaring through the night as a shining butterfly herself! She gets to see the light in the darkness. The light of the moon, the stars, and all there is to see, even in the dark. The darkness isn’t so dark and terrifying after all. Osa learns not to be afraid, and she is no longer fearful. Osa is a strong, adventurous child who learns through the help of a wise woman, and a small little butterfly, how to break her fear of the dark. The illustrations contribute to Osa’s story by showing the type of African setting and landscape she would be from. They include plants, animals, and all kinds of wildlife native to Africa. The images bring the story to life by showing how things shine even in the dark. Osa’s journey is beautifully displayed and captured extremely well through the illustrations used. Published: 1987 Company: Little, Brown & Company Age: 6-9 Price: $14.95 Category: Easy Fiction Natalie Hoeksema A creative third grader Ramona enters into her first few weeks of school with a unique and fresh perspective. Her race and her color are never described so much young girls can relate to her and her struggles. Some of these struggles involve public embarrassment. She cracks a raw egg on her head or she throws up in the middle of arithmetic. Even though she went through that she overcame the embarrassment, which is really inspirational for any child to see. Her family struggles throughout the book with finances and fighting. Ramona learns from this that even though it is tough now, she can still smile and have fun. Ramona defies normal, she does not think inside the box. So when her teacher tells her to make a sales pitch about a book. Ramona makes it into a commercial about cats and involves her friends to help her. Children will hopefully take from this that they can go above and beyond and that is acceptable. Ramona's story is a quirky, fun, must read for any age. Reviewed by Kimberly Bowman ISBN: 0-440-47350-0 She was given her name because she was only the size of her mother's thumb. In this fairy tale a widow is desperate for a child, so she goes to the witch who gives her a seed to plant. From that seed comes a tulip with Thumbelina inside. At first Thumbelina is happy and plays, but one day she is not and that is when her mother opens the window at night for Thumbelina to go if she wants. A toad mother comes and takes Thumbelina away in her sleep so she can marry her son. Thumbelina is terribly sad and wishes to go home and not marry the toad. When she escapes a beetle picks her up and says she is beautiful but all his friends do not think so and he sets her free. Thumbelina searches for her mother through the summer then to fall and then winter. When winter came a kind field mouse took her in, but said she had to marry the mole who was a grumpy thing. During this she saves a swallow who leaves and when he comes back he takes Thumbelina with her so she can stay in the sun. At this new place she meets the fairy king who asks for her to marry him and she says yes. Thumbelina gets wings, is now the queen of the flowers, and is finally happy. This story is more for girls but its such a good read anyone could read it. It teaches you that you can't make anyone happy until you make yourself happy which is a great life lesson. Author: Hans Christian Andersen Retold and illustrated by: Lauren Mills Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2003 Age group: 5-8 Category: Fairytale/folk Price: Hardcover-$16.99 Haley Burdette rikki cohen
“Hansel and Gretel” by Beni Montresor is one of the many versions of Hansel and Gretel. In this version, Hansel and Gretel are told by their mother to go out into the woods to find strawberries for them to eat. As they travel deeper into the woods they fall asleep, and once they awaken they find themselves outside of the witch's castle. The witch takes them prisoner and forces Gretel to cook a soup that her brother will be put into. This book is a great read for children but still contains plenty of spooky moments: "They knew that in the woods there was sometimes an evil monster, not to mention terrifying devils and witches. One of these witches, more wicked than the others, eats children." In the end, the siblings trick the witch shoving her into the soup, and they save the children who were taken as prisoner. Montresor does a great job of using cut out illustrations. They uniquely grab the audience. PUBLISHER: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2001 AGE: 4-8 REVIEWER: Crystal Scott Squids Will Be Squids written by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith is a compilation of silly fables about all of the "annoying, weird, pain in the neck people you know." Squids Will Be Squids is divided up into different sections split up into these moral lessons, which can relate to being like chapters in a book. From procrastinating, being late, or just "squids will be squids", this picture book shares both common and not so common moral lessons. The ends of each section, the directed morals are explained clearly, some being more realistic than others. This story is very silly, but can be used as an early introductory on a lesson of fables and moral lessons. Each student could pick which one they like the most, or relate to the most and discuss why they chose that specific one. Picture Book. 1998, Viking Press, Ages 5-9, $17.99 Reviewer - Deidre Schneider Written by Helen Ketteman Illustrated by Will Terry The Three Little Gators is a similar story to the Three Little Pigs, the three animals all go out and build houses. Two of the houses are not made well enough and fail under the pressure of the evil animal character. That is where the similarities end though. The gators live in a Texas swamp. This location is a very interesting pick because there is not a lot of picture books a reader can think of that are located in a swamp in Texas. The gators say bye to mama gator and set off on their journey to build houses. The first obviously smarter gator comes upon rocks and builds a house out of them while the other two gators say that is too much work. The second gator comes upon sticks and makes a house. Finally, the third gator comes upon sand and thinks this is perfect house making material. The big bottomed boar comes around and instead of blowing down the house like the wolf. The boar apparently has no pride and just wiggles his big bottom on the sandy house and then the stick house. When the boar gets to the rock house, with all of the three gators in, he fails at knocking it down. He also tries to go through the chimney but then his big bottom gets burnt. This boar's life choices are just not that smart.The gators end up scaring away the burnt boar and each gator builds its own sturdy rock house. The story is hilarious and the idea that a boar wiggles his bottom to knock down houses is also rather hysterical. The pictures compliment the story perfectly. Readers are sure to appreciate the twist on this classic tale. Reviewed by Kimberly Bowman The Mitten is a charming and humorous children's book that is a great read. This story is about a little boy named Nicki who asks his baba to knit him white mittens. His grandmother warns him that the white will be hard to spot in the snow, but however he still wants them. When the mitten gets lost a mole, then a rabbit, then a hedgehog, an owl and a fox all crawl into the mitten. Then finally a big bear sniffed out the mitten. The animals were packed in tight but the bear didn't care he crawled in anyway. The mitten then comes apart and goes flying in the air. Nicki finally spots it and happily takes it home. Author: Jan Brett Published: October 4th, 1996 Publisher: G.P. Putnam's sons Publishers Age group: 4 to 8 Price: $12.23 Taylor Dunlop |
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AuthorStudents from Kutztown University enrolled in LIB 221 and LIB 222
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