Book #3- Picture Books

 

Title: Eat Your Peas Ivy Louise!

Author and Illustrator: Leo Landry 

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company 
Publication Date: 2005

ISBN Number: 0-618-44886-1

Brief Summary: This book is about a small girl named Ivy Louise who has peas for dinner. Her parents instruct her to eat her peas, but instead she watches them roll around her tray and imagines that they are performing circus acts for her. In the end, she launches the peas out the window to make it seem as if she had eaten them! 

Evaluation: This was a cute book with a relatable plot. Many kids have tried clever ways to make their vegetables disappear (me included) and this story makes that situation a lot more fun than it actually is. The book appeals to the kids imagination as it personifies the peas with smiling faces, doing things that peas don't normally do. The font was clear and easy to read, and the illustrations were simple using a consistent color scheme of yellow green and white. I thought the peas were really cute and think that the kids who read this book will think so too. 

Rating: 3 out of 5 peas!

Book #2- Picture Books

Title: Duck Duck Moose

Author and Illustrator: Dave Horowitz

Publisher: The Penguin Group Inc.
Publication Date: 2009

ISBN Number: 978-0-399-24782-8

Brief Summary: This story is about a moose who doesn't want to spend the winter time alone while all the other animals are migrating to the south or hibernating so he hesitantly goes on a road trip to florida with two ducks. The author tells us everything they did on their trip including eating pancakes. By the end of the story, the ducks and moose were back home and moose couldn't wait for the next road trip!

Evaluation: This book teaches little kids to always give new things a try because you might end up enjoying yourself like moose did. The illustrations in this book were detailed, bright and fun.The words had lots of space between each sentence. This makes it easier for kids to read. The coolest two page spread was while the ducks and moose were on the road and Dave Horowitz drew all the different signs that they were passing. He put a lot of details on this page including a turtle behind them yelling slow down and graffiti on the billboard that read "no war" which i thought was clever. Read this book for yourself and pick out all the little details and fun things that moose sees while on his road trip to Florida!

Rating: 5 out of 5 moose!

Book #1- Picture Books

Title: You Are (Not) Small

Author: Anna Kang
Illustrator: Christopher Weyant

Publisher: Two Lions
Publication Date: 2014

ISBN Number: 978-1477847725

Brief Summary: This adorable picture book is about two creatures who are different sizes from one another. They get into an argument over who is small and who is big until some even smaller and even bigger creatures come around and really shake things up. The animals learn that everyone is different from each other but that's ok!

Evaluation: This book had a good underlying message of individuality and had humor in it as well. I think this is an excellent picture books for children and especially loved the ending (which you're going to have to see for yourself when you read the book!). The font was big and easily readable, and it relied mostly on the illustrations to tell the story instead of the words (which I expect from a picture book). Also, the colors were enticing and the author used different sizes and formats of font to keep it looking interesting. This is a book that a young reader might be able to read alone because it doesn't contain any complicated words. The quality of the illustrations were good, they were clear and fun to look at.

Rating: I give this book 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it to young readers!

Book #3- Decodable Text

Title: Who Has A Pet?
Author: Kristi T. Butler
Photographer: Eric Camden

Publisher: Harcort School Publishers
(no date listed)

ISBN Number: 0-15-364067-7

Brief Summary: This decodable book is about children and their pets. It shows each child's name and the name of their pet. Sometimes authors also talk about something special that the pet can do. 


Evaluation: I like this decodable book more than the other decodable books that I have read. The animals were cute and fun to look at and I think young readers would think so too. There was not one consistent word family or letter sound that was introduced in this book however it did teach children the names of different animals.

Rating: I give this book a 3 out of 5.

Here is a link to the online version of this book:

https://www-k6.thinkcentral.com/content/hsp/reading/storytown/na/grk/decodable_books_9780153745546_/DECBKGKB12.pdf

Book #2- Decodable Text

Title: Van in a Jam

Author: Sarah Curran
Illustrator: David Hitch

Publisher: Harcourt School Publishers
(no date listed)

ISBN Number: 0-15-364069-3

Brief Summary: This Decodable Text book is about a van and all the people that ride in it. While riding in the van the people get stuck in traffic and have to find another way to get to where they want to be.

Evaluation: This book introduced words with the "j" sound, and short "a" sound. As are most decodable text books, this book was very short and there was not much to the plot at all. The pictures were bright which made it more engaging but I think the authors should have chosen a different plot since young kids can't really relate to driving vans or getting stuck in traffic.

Rating: I don't like decodable books. I think they are boring and that there are better, more fun ways to introduce letter sounds. I give this book a 2 out of 5. 

See an online of the book here: 
https://www-k6.thinkcentral.com/content/hsp/reading/storytown/na/grk/decodable_books_9780153745546_/DECBKGKB14.pdf

Book #1- Decodable Text

Book #1- Swing Otto Swing!

Author and Illustrator- David Milgrim

Publisher- Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

Publication Date- 2004

ISBN Number- 0-689-85564-8

Brief Summary- This decodable text formatted story is about a robot named Otto who is trying to learn how to swing from a vine. A monkey named Flip tries to teach him but Otto was not successful in swinging from the vine. The book ends with Otto remaining determined to swing by building himself a swing-set safely on the ground.

Evaluation- This book matches the usual decodable text format in that it is simple and only has a few words on each page. It should be considered a good book for children to read because it teaches them the valuable lesson of staying determined when things don’t go your way. This book is unique and attractive to little kids because it pairs up two “beings” that we don’t normally see together (a monkey and a robot). This unusual pairing shows children that even though the monkey and the robot are so different, they can work together successfully and learn from one another.

Rating: I am not a big fan of decodable text. I think that its excessive simplicity makes the book boring at times. However, there are some positive parts about this book as previously mentioned. I give this book a 3 out of 5.  

Book #3- Wordless Picture Books

Book Title: Flotsam 

Author and Illustrator: David Wiesner

ISBN Number: 0-618-19457-6

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company

Publication Date: 2006

Brief Summary: This book is about a little boy who finds a camera while exploring on the beach. After taking pictures underwater, he discovers that this is not a normal camera. The camera took pictures of fantastical fish, and other out of this world underwater adventures including pictures of kids who had the camera before him.

Evaluation: This book was another one of David Wiesner’s quality children wordless picture books. The illustrations were bright and detailed which maintain the attention of younger children. There was no text so it could be read by any age. However, the book might be worn out easier if infants use it because they do not know how to properly treat books and the pages are thin and easily breakable. The story is definitely relatable in that many kids know what its like to go to the beach, yet it has that fantasy element that many of Wiesner’s books have which makes it different from any other beach trip. The story line is like nothing I have ever read before and I really enjoyed the idea that the camera captured moments back in time. I would highly suggest that parents buy this book for their children!

Rating: 5 out of 5 starfish!

Book #2- Wordless Picture Books

Title: Pancakes for Breakfast

Author and Illustrator: Tomie DePaola

Publication Date: 1978

Publisher: South China Printing Co. Ltd., Hong Kong

ISBN Number: 0-15-259455-8

This was a very cute book about a woman who really wanted to make pancakes for breakfast. After finding out that she is missing most of the needed ingredients, the story takes you through her struggle to find the ingredients or make them from scratch. Upon coming home, her pets had eaten all the ingredients, so she goes out to find another family to eat pancakes with but ends up eating most of them and saves hardly any for the family.

This book taught a couple really important lessons and it had an unexpected funny ending. It teaches children to never give up, to not get discouraged, and like the book says at the end “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” which the character certainly did. It also showed children how we get certain ingredients that they probably eat every day like eggs and milk. I think the best lesson however, is the feeling of accomplishment you can get after putting such hard work into achieving your goal.

Rating: I give this book a definite 5 out of 5!

Book #1- Wordless Picture Books

Book Title- Tuesday

Author and Illustrator- David Wiesner

Publisher-Houghton Mifflin

Publication Date- 1991

ISBN Number- 0-395-55113-7

Rating: 5 out of 5!

Tuesday is about frogs that inhabit a community at nighttime. The frogs aren’t looking for trouble, rather they are curious and want to experience human objects and ways of living such as going through the laundry, peering into a homes window, and watching tv. Come morning, the frogs go back to their pond like nothing ever happened, but some people know that something definitely happened, that it wasn’t just another normal Tuesday night.

This wordless picture book is nothing like I have ever read before. Without words, the reader (of any age) is encouraged to fill the book with emotion, sounds, and think for the characters because there are no words to think about those things for them. This book not only stimulates a child’s vivid imagination, but it could help children learn how to accept others points of view if used in the classroom setting being that someone else reading might have a totally different opinion on characteristics such as what sounds are being made, what the characters are thinking and the emotions that the characters are feeling. Before opening this book, I asked myself: “How is it even possible to read a wordless book?” What I did not realize is the words are not printed on the page, rather painted on with watercolor along the edges of Wiesner’s illustrations that are thoughtful and detailed enough to tell the story without saying a single word. 

Book #3- Cardboard Books

Title: Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs!

Author and Illustrator: Sandra Bounton

Publisher: Workman Publishing Company Inc.

Publication Date:  1993

ISBN Number: 978-56305-441-9

            This was another rhyming book about all types of Dinosaurs. The book used many different adjectives to describe how each dinosaur was different i.e- tiny, plump, and spiky. There was no plot because after all the dinosaurs were described, the book ended. 

            I thought the message of this book went deeper than just talking about dinosaurs. In my opinion, the author was trying to convey to young readers the same kind of message as Dr. Seuss was when he wrote: “A person’s a person no matter how small.” In this book, Boynton was explaining that no matter how different each "person" (or Dinosaur)  is in this world, we are still all people (or Dinosaurs). This is a very important message for children to grasp early on so that by time they go to school, they are aware that not everyone is the same. In other words, the moral was that some people may look or be different compared to yourself or your group of friends, but that is ok! 

Rating: I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars and highly recommend parents to buy this book for their children!

Book #2- Cardboard Books

Title: Sheep in a Jeep

Author: Nancy Shaw 

Illustrator: Margot Apple 

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company 

Publication Date: 1986

ISBN Number: 0-395-86786

Rating: Two Thumbs Up!

            This rhyming story is about four sheep who are poorly driving a jeep. They get stuck in mud and get help from pigs to pull the jeep out, and then they crash the jeep into a tree. Luckily all the sheep were okay by the end of the story!

This was a fun book to read although I found myself getting tongue tied often while saying sheep and jeep multiple times throughout the book. The colors in each illustration remained the same (white, blue, green, brown and red). Also, there were usually only two or three words per page. I think the moral of the story is that poor decisions such as "forgetting to steer" have consequences, but I also think that reading this book aloud is an effective way for young children to learn the pronunciations of the "sh" and "J" sounds since they are repeated over and over again.

 

Book #1- Cardboard Book

Book Title:  Little Gorilla

Author and Illustrator: Ruth Bornstein

Publisher: Clarion Books

Publication Date: 1976

ISBN Number: 0-395-28773-1

     This story begins by introducing Little Gorilla, the main character, and all of the animals who love him. One day, Little Gorilla starts to grow, and he becomes worried that not everyone will still love him because he is bigger than he used to be.The story ends with Little Gorilla coming to the realization that even though he is growing up, the love that his animal friends and family have for him is everlasting.

      I think that this book is very cute. The message that this book carries helps to alleviate a fear that many small children may have: “Will everyone still love me as I grow up?” It also helps the young readers to realize that they will be growing up and will be changing, but that is ok. The illustrations were simple. There was not a vast array of colors, but the illustrations still caught my eye. For example, the Gorillas looked fuzzy because of the way they were painted. Also, I appreciated how all of the animals had pleasant emotions and facial expressions. This makes animals that could be frightening to young children less so. 

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars!