"The Months"

Title: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children

Selected by: Jack Prelutsky

Illustrator: Arnold Lobel

Publisher: Random House: New York, 1983

ISBN #: 0394850106

    Children love words, rhyme, rhythm and beat, so they are already lovers of poetry. Most parents sing lullabies and read poetry stories to children when they are young so this is helping them learn. As long as the sounds have rhyme and rhythm they will stick in a child's mind. When children are learning how to talk they play with sounds. They sing, they listen and they repeat. How many times have you heard "I'm a little tea pot", "The itsy, bitsy spider" or "Mary had a little a lamb"? These songs are poems that teach children about rhyming. The repetitive nature of these songs help their brains develop, grow and expand. Reading and listening to poems also helps children memorize words and phrases they be unfamiliar with. By memorizing poems they are learning to listen, speak, write, and read words just by memorization.
    The book "The Random House Book of Poetry for Children" is a great book to invest in whether it is for home or for school. I choose to discuss a poem from this book because there are over 500 poems to choose from and they are all child friendly. I choose to focus on a poem  called "The Months". This poem is exactly what it sounds like it would be about, the months. The poem describes each month according to what weather that particular month will bring, which types of flowers will sprout, and even which types of fruit will grow. The descriptions in this poem are a great way for children to understand the different seasons. Younger children, such as pre-school and kindergarten students struggle with learning the order in which the months occur, so having them learn this poem can help them to remember. Since this poem has repetition, rhythm, and rhyming language it is a great tool to keep in the classroom when teaching the months and seasons.
    When I was younger I had a very similar book that I looked through every night. Each night I would find and read a new poem. Some poems were funny some were sad, but I learned so many new and exciting things from exploring the world of poems. Poems are a great form of expressing one's feelings. I also remember creating my own poem book because I enjoyed reading the poems in that book so much! To this day I still have the poem book I created and every now and then I go through it. I believe that reading and writing poems helped me to develop my own writing technique, and opened my eyes to a world of free expression. Children need a safe place for expressing their feelings and I think having them keep a writing journal in school is a great way to help them do so.

The Patchwork Quilt

Title: The Patchwork Quilt

Author: Valerie Flournoy

Illustator: Jerry Pinkney

Publisher: Dial Books: New York, 1985

ISBN#: 0-8037-0098-9

    Mulitcultural books are a great way to invite students to explore the culture within their homes, communties, and the world. Even before young children can read themselves, family members and teachers are reading them stories about other children in far-away places, sometimes from the distant past, or about children whose lives are not unlike their own. The impressions and messages contained in these stories can last a lifetime. Selecting good multicultural children's books begins with the same criteria as that for selecting any good children's books - the literary elements of plot, characterization, setting, style, theme and point of view must be interwoven to provide an interesting story. In addition, good multicultural children's books may challenge stereotypes and promote a realistic glimpse into the lives of diverse groups of people. By providing children with accurate and positive representations of the many cultural groups that make up the community, society and the world in which they live, multicultural books can help children learn to identify stereotypes and biases when they encounter them.

    The story "The Patchwork Qulit" by Valerie Flounoy, is an outstanding multicultural book that I throughly enjoyed reading. This story teaches about the joy of creating something from nothing, and that some things we create can hold a little piece of inside. A grandmother and grandaughter work together to create a quilt that the whole family will eventually become part of. At the beginning of the story "Grandma" says

"A quilt won’t forget. It can tell your life story." In my opinion this statement is what brings the story to life, and allows for readers to understand the truth behind why the grandmother makes the quilt. Using scraps cut from the family’s old clothing, a young girl (Tanya) learns the secret ingredient in her Grandma’s special quilt of memories. The quilt in this story serves as a family heirloom so the "memories" of this quilt will be passed down from generation to generation. Tanya's grandmother begins making a special quilt from pieces of worn out clothes that have belonged to various family members. Tanya's mother and grandmother spend many evenings working on the quilt. Tanya's grandmother eventually becomes ill, too ill for even Tanya to see her. Tanya worked on the quilt with her mother while her grandmother lay in bed resting. After a couple of months Tanya's grandmother got better and was able to help complete the quilt that she then gave to Tanya as a gift.
    This book is a perfect tool for the classroom. It teaches the value and importance of culture and relationships. After reading this story to a class the teacher can invite students to tell about projects they have worked on with members of their family. The class can also discuss how working together not only helps them complete a project more quickly and efficiently, but can also bring a family closer together. The teacher and students can discuss what activities they like to do with their family. A great activity to do after reading this book, can be to have students make a paper quilt featuring themselves and their grandparents. The teacher could have students draw a picture of some activity they enjoy doing with their grandparents (or another relative) on their individual squares. They could also write a caption for the picture that tells about the activity. When the students have finished their "quilt" it can be displayed in the classroom. There are so many different cultures around the world, allowing for exploration may help children to understand other cultures, as well as their own.

Alice in Wonderland

Title: Alice in Wonderland
Publisher: Walt Disney Enterprises, Inc.: Grolier Books, 2000
ISBN: 0-7172-8909-5

As a child I always loved Disney stories and all the imagination and excitement that comes along with reading them. when I was a child my mother read several stories to me such as "The Little Mermaid", Cinderella, and "Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs" but the one that stuck out the most and perhaps became my all time favorite book was "Alice in Wonderland". As a child I would get lost in a fairytale story. I would sit for hours and reenact the story by taking on different roles of the characters.
    In my opinion, fairy tales can be a  controversial issue. Some stories have been past down from generation to generation and the writing has changed a bit over the years. Most fairytale stories (the ones that have been revised) are meant to show children the value and importance of imagination and creativity, but I feel some send a bad message. For example, throughout the story of Alice in Wonderland Alice goes through a series of strange ordeals. She falls through a rabbit hole after falling asleep and gets thrown into a world where down is up and up is down. She comes to a small door which has a talking doorknob. It becomes clear that Alice is a young girl who has vivid dreams of nonsense things, such as talking animals, insects such as a caterpillar who smokes and she also meets an evil queen who wants to cut off her head! I believe for a young child this may seem frightening.
    Memorable songs and whimsical escapades highlight Alice's journey. As the story progresses Alice becomes more curious of this strange world and decides to investigate the world her mind has created. I guess that's why its called Wonderland! After getting into trouble with the evil Queen of Hearts, she tries desperately to escape this strange nonsense world. Alice runs as fast as she can for the small door from which she came. She sees herself through the keyhole fast asleep, and realizes that everything she has experienced was a figment of her imagination.
    There are so many fairytale stories that have hidden meanings and underlining themes. In most fairytale stories today, children experience worlds that would never exist in real life. It is up to children to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Even though fairytales are widely interchangeable and popular among children, it is up to adults to help children realize the characters in the stories are not real. Fairytale stories were not written to teach lessons. The story of Alice in Wonderland plays with logic and has left a lasting impression on children and adults everywhere. This classic story is full of philosophy and it will always be my favorite fairytale story.

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly

Title: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
Author/Illustrator: Simms Taback
Publisher: Viking Children's Books: New York 1997
ISBN: 0-590-63264-7

    As a child, the nursery rhyme that follows this story has always fascinated me. I have read this story numerous times, and every-time I read it with children they seem to pick up on the language very quickly. I choose to discuss this book because I think it is a great picture book to use with children who are learning to read. This book tells the story of an old woman who swallows a fly, and continues to swallow an absurd array of different animals. Each page shows the old woman with a hole cut out in the page to show the readers the animal she swallowed inside her stomach. Each page also shows a great amount of detail. The pictures in the story match the print, so as children are reading along they can make a text-to-picture match.
    This story also has the three R's of early reading: Rhyme, Repetition, and Rhythm, which are important factors to keep in mind when selecting a book for early readers. As I mentioned this story was inspired by an old song which dates back to 1953, so I think playing the song while reading this story would be fun! This story is an interactive, as well as pattern style picture book for readers. Throughout the book a few lines repeat on each page: "There was an old lady who swallowed a 'blank' I don't know why she swallowed that 'blank' perhaps she'll die". There are also a number of picture ques for readers to follow along with. On each page the old woman swallows something different and there is usually a picture of the animal in her stomach, so they may use this in order to complete the sentence mentioned above.
    I think this book would be great for teachers to use in the classroom, for a read aloud, or just to keep it in the class library for the students to explore independently. I believe good picture books are very important for children to explore when they are learning to read. Children need structure and plenty of active methods that contain repetition when they are focusing on reading. Books that are easy to follow along with are a great way to boost a child's self-confidence while reading. Picture books (such as this one), that also have high-frequency words, are also a great way to help children stay in rhythm with the story. Teachers and students can learn to have fun with reading, if they choose books that can stimulate their prior-knowledge. Fun books can make reading fun!

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems

Title: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
Author/Illustrator: Mo Willems
Publisher: Hyperion Books For Children: New York 2003
ISBN: 978-078681988-1

     This book was hilarious! I really enjoyed the humor as well as the illustrations. The manner, style, and tone of this book really spoke to me. I liked the fact that the main character (the pigeon) had bubbles from his mouth every time that he spoke, and the words are large print, which is great for those learning to read. The pictures really matched the pigeon's emotions as well. The main seller of this story, is that the book is speaking to you, the reader. In the very beginning the bus driver says "Hi! I'm the bus driver. Listen, I've got to leave for a little while, so can you watch things for me until I get back? Thanks. Oh, and remember: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! right there and then I could tell I was in for a ride. On each page the pigeon is speaking to you, the reader.
     I liked the fact that children can play along with the book, and answer the pigeon back. The author makes a joke on the back cover which states "Finally a book you can say no to!" which I found to be true, after I read the story. The children are in control of the story. They get to be in charge of the pigeon's fate when it comes to driving the bus. The pigeon's funny antics, questions, and comments throughout the story are also a great way to keep children interested. It kept me interested in finding out what he would say next in order to get me to let him drive the bus. There are two particular pages which I perceived as the main comedic piece; they are set up as a comic strip of only the pigeon. In each square he is coming up with a different excuse or way to make you let him drive the bus, which I thought was really cute.
     This book teaches children responsibility and patience. If a teacher were to use this book in a classroom, there are many lessons or games they could do with the students. The bus driver clearly said not to let the pigeon drive the bus, but how can we be sure everyone reading will listen? The teacher could do so many reading activities with this book. I have so many in my head already! For example, students could be grouped, or partnered, and be asked to illustrate or write down all the things that could go wrong if the pigeon drove the bus. Another idea is during a read aloud for this book, have the students turn and talk to a neighbor, explaining why they think the pigeon should or should not drive the bus. The possibilities are endless, which is why I would definitely recommend reading this book whether you are a child or an adult. The story really comes to life! I completely understand why this book won a Caldecott Honor in 2003. Its illustrations are amazingly funny as well as perfectly depicted for the setting in the story.