Book #3- Informational Text

Title: Platypuses Web-Footed Billed Mammals

Author: Rebecca E. Hirsch

Publisher: Lerner Publications
Publication Date: 2015

ISBN #: 978-1-4677-5581-8

Brief Summary: This is an informational book about Platypuses. The author takes you through every detail about Platypuses including the following: their living environment, how they hunt, their physical characteristics, and how platypuses compare to many other animals.

Evaluation: This book is very colorful and can attract the attention of young children. However, children, especially young readers might need help reading some of the scientific words and interpreting the units of measurement that the book describes Platypuses with and describes how Platypuses compare to other animals with. It was definitely very informative and if you love to learn about Platypuses like I do this is the book for you!

Rating: 4 out of 5 Platypuses

Book #2- Informational Text

Title: Diana The People's Princess

Author: Richard Wood

Publisher: Steck-Vaughn Comopany
Publication Date: 1998

ISBN #: 0-8172-3998-7

Brief Summary: This is an informative history book for young readers about princess Diana. The book explains her upbringing, marriage, children and family, and most importantly her humanitarian efforts. It really brings to life how beautiful of a person Princess Diana was both inside and out.

Evaluation: I chose to do my blog on this book because I have heard wonderful things about Princess Diana but I didn't know that much about her and I was interested in knowing more about her. This book really describes her shining personality well and shows how amazing of a person she was. However, I don't think that this book is appropriate for all young readers. Elementary school aged children don't need to be seeing pictures of her car after it crashed for example. Also the vocabulary used in this book was complicated at times so that young readers might not be able to read this book on their own. Also, young children most likely won't be interested in this book because they probably have never heard of Princess Diana and the information that it talks about takes place way before there time. For those reasons they have no way of relating to the books information. I could see this book being useful if it was used by a child doing a project on Princess Diana who has to learn everything there is to know about her. This book is even more informative because it contains a glossary of complicated or medical terminology and the terms definitions.

Rating: 3 out of 5 crowns.

Book #1- Informational Text

Title: EMTs

Author: Kristin Nelson

Publisher: Lerner Publications Company
Publication Date: 2005

ISBN #: 0-8225-1690-x

Brief Summary: This book is all about what EMTs are and what they do. It describes the supplies EMTs use and things they do to help their patients in a medically accurate yet child friendly way. It also contains a fact sheet and history of EMTs synopsis at the end of the book.

Evaluation: As an EMT, I saw this informational text and knew I had to use it for my blog. I was surprised to see how accurate the author was regarding the information provided and how child freindly the wording was. EMTs can handle violent and dangerous situations and I think the aspects of the job were explained in a way that was appropriate yet informative for young readers. This book really makes an ambulance and the poeple who work on it less scary for kids and I love that! I think all schools should be reading this book to students becuase the chance that they will come across EMTs or an emergency situation is highly likely. The only critique I have is that it is outdated. Medicine, especially pre-hospital medicine, is changing everyday. Many of the facts on the facts page are wrong. For example, there is no longer such a thing as an "EMT-Intermediate", also the supplies shown in the pictures look alot different now, especially the stretchers. If children read this today they probably wouldn't be able to recognize that the supplies they see in the book are the same they might see if on an ambulance or scene of an emergency. The author should write an updated version of the same book because she did an excellent job with this one!

rating: 4 out of 5 Ambulances!

Book #3- Fantasy

Title: Bartholomew and The Oobleck 

Author and Illustrator: Dr. Seuss 

Publisher: Random House Inc. 
Publication Date: 1949

ISBN #- 0-394-80075-3

Brief Summary: This classic Dr. Seuss story is about an egotistical king who wishes to have something new fall from the sky. The King summons his magicians who create the horrible Oobleck that is sticky like glue and destroys the kingdom. After realizing this is a horrible idea, with Bartholomew's help, The King is able to say that he is sorry and that it is all his fault which made the Oobleck go away! Everything in the kingdom returned back to normal because those simple words saved the day! 

Evaluation: This has always been one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books. I love how all the drawings are gray scale except for the Oobleck which makes the mysterious slime look even more magical. The bright green color really catches readers attention. This story also has a great underlying message for children which is that it is always better to admit when you are wrong. Obviously there is no such thing as Oobleck, there is magic involved, and the setting takes place in a kingdom. These are all characteristics of fantasy books. This book is not appropriate for all reading levels because of the difficult vocabulary at times and the amount of words per page. The story would be more effective for young readers if teachers or parents read the book out loud to them as my parents did for me when I was younger. 



Rating: 4 out of 5 drops of Oobleck!

Book #2- Fantasy

Title: The Day The Crayons Quit 

Author: Drew Daywalt 
Illustrator: Oliver Jeffers

Publication: Philomel Books 
Publication Date: 2013

ISBN #: 978-0-399-25537-3

Brief Summary: This is a hysterical book about crayons who wrote a letter to their owner Duncan. Each crayon had their own problem with Duncan's coloring that they each addressed to Duncan in their own letter. After reading all the letters Duncan colored an awesome picture at school which got an A plus for creativity.  

Evaluation: This author really has quite an imagination. This idea is so unique and hysterical I know that children of any age would really enjoy reading this book. Most of the illustrations were drawn with crayon but there were also realistic illustrations that seemed to pop off of the page! I laughed out loud while reading each crayons letter and I know you will too! 

Rating: 5 out of 5 crayons!
 

Book #1- Fantasy

Title: Bedtime Monsters

Author and Illustrator: Josh Schneider

Publisher: Clarion Books
Publication Date: 2013

ISBN #: 978-0-544-00270

Brief Summary: This is an adorable story about a little boy who is scared to go to bed at night because of the monster that comes out and bites toes. The monster comes out and turns out to be just as scared of monsters as the little boy is. Soon the little boys bed is filled with monsters who are all scared of monsters too! The little boy scares all the monsters away and is finally able to get a good night sleep. 

Evaluation: I had high expectations for this book because the cover says that it was a winner of the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award. This book met my expectations and then some! I think it has a great moral for little kids who are afraid of monsters at night like I was when I was little. The moral is that there is nothing to be afraid of. The illustrations were cute and made the monsters alot less scary than they sounded. I recommend this book to all young readers. 

Rating: 5 out of 5 monsters under the bed. 

Book #3- Realistic Fiction

Title: Odd Velvet

Author: Mary E. Whitcomb
Illustrator: Tara Calahan King

Publisher: Chronicle Books
Publication Date: 1998

ISBN #: 0-8118-2004-1

Brief Summary: This story is about a girl named Velvet who everyone at school thinks is a little odd. Velvet has an odd rock collection, gives the teacher odd first day of school gifts and wears odd clothes. As the children get to know Velvet, they see that she is a talented painter, throws fun birthday partys and is really nice. They realize that Velvet isn't so odd after all!

Evaluation: This is a story with a great moral for young children. It teaches them to give the kids that they think are odd a chance and really get to know them before they judge them. This is a problem that leads to bullying in schools and I really like that the author chose to write about such an important topic. Also, the book was written in 1998 but I couldn't tell. I figured it was written more recently because the picutres don't look outdated at all. This is still a very relevant message for kids that they can still relate to and learn from.

Rating: 4 out of 5 crayons.