Inside Out & Back Again

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai is a book of poems by a young girl and her family. Ha, the ten year old girl, is growing up in Saigon right during Vietnam War. Before the war had not yet reached Saigon but now it is approaching her town. The family is forced to flee Saigon on a ship to America. The family struggles with language barriers and a huge culture change. This is a fantastic story about a girl who goes through a lot of changes at a very young age of her life.

This story would be great for middle school or high school ages students. The family moves and deals with hard times together which many families today go through. Many students could relate to this story but will also learn about the Vietnam War. Teachers could also use this to help students develop a better sense of poetry. Students can learn many things from this book about history while also learning about language arts.

Owly and Wormy: Friends a Aflutter

Owly and Wormy: Friends a Aflutter by Andy Runton is a touching story about friendship. Owly and Wormy want to get butterflies to come to their garden but the butterflies do not want to stay with them. So they go to the nursery to get new flowers and when after they plant them, two caterpillars start eating their plant. Wormy and Owly become good friends with the caterpillars until one day they have to go. Owly and Wormy get very sad to see their friends go and they wait for their friends to come back. But when their caterpillar friends come back they have changed into butterflies.
This is a great story for children to understand friendship and science. It teaches children that caterpillars turn into butterflies and the importance of plants. Students can see how the characters in the book are feeling based on the expressions on their faces. Children in lower elementary would really love this book and the other books in this series.

The Girl And The Bicycle

The Girl and the Bicycle by Mark Pett is a wordless book but contains many lessons. The story starts with a little girl and her brother passing a toy store that has a green bike sitting in the front window. The girl falls in love with the bike but does not have enough money to buy it. She decides to start working to get some money and she rakes leaves for a nice woman she knows. She ends up having to work for a long time and helps shovel the woman's snow too. She keeps working until one day she has just the right amount of money to buy the bike. But when she arrives at the store, the bike is gone. Instead of being so upset, she decides to buy a small bike for her little brother. As her little brother plays on his bike, the girl decides to go back to the woman's house. When she arrives, the woman has a surprise for the little girl.
This is a great story about working hard and being happy for someone else. The little girl works so hard in the story and even though the bike is gone when she gets there, she gets a gift for her brother instead of just buying something else for herself. This is story could be used in a lower elementary classroom for students who need to learn about responsibility and working hard. Students can also help to make up the words for the story which can help them with their writing skills. This book can also help students to notice colors because the whole book is in white and brown except for the green bike. Students can help decide what that means and how color can help something stand out.

Tuesday

Tuesday by David Wiesner is a wordless book with extraordinary pictures. The book is about frogs that take off in the middle of the night on their flying lily pads. They fly all over town and create a disturbance. At the end of the book, there are detectives looking on the street at the lily pads that have shown up there. The last page of the book shows what happens the following tuesday, which is pretty funny as well. 

Wordless books are a great way for students to create their own stories. Students can look at the pictures and by using their own words, they can help decide what happens in the book. Wordless books can be great for parents as well too. Parents can create their own stories with their kids and change what happens every time they read it. The most amazing thing about this book was how elaborate this illustrator made their pictures. They are beautifully done and they make you feel as if you were actually in the story with the frogs. 

Bud, Not Buddy

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis is a story about a boy who lives on his own during the Great Depression. The boy named Bud loses his mother at a young age and is forced to live in an orphanage. He lives there until he is told he is being put in a foster home. He ends up having to leave the foster home because the son of his foster parents starts abusing him. He runs away from the foster home and than has no where to go. Once Bud is on his own on the streets, he realizes that many people are in the same position as himself. Times were hard for most people to find jobs and tried their best just to get some food. This book is very interesting because there are not many books about this time in American history especially from a child's perspective.

This is a great read and children could really relate to Bud's story. In the classroom, this book could be used with upper elementary or middle school ages students. Teachers who are teaching about the Great Depression could use this book easily in their classroom because students better understand texts when they are written from the perspective of another child.

Working Cotton

Working Cotton by Sherley Anne Williams is a book about a girl and her family picking cotton. The book goes through a whole day of picking cotton and how it would have been viewed as a child in this time. This book explains how cotton is picked and how as a child she can only do some of the work. Her parents work very hard but the children also have to work hard to make sure they pick enough cotton.

This book is a great story to be used in schools to explain how cotton use to be picked and how slavery worked. Many children who were slaves were not allowed to attend school and many children now-a-days would not understand that. This book does a great job of explaining how slaves lived and how they had to work very hard.

A Boy Called Dickens

A Boy Called Dickens by Deborah Hopkinson and John Hendrix is about a young Charles Dickens and his family. The story is written as if the reader is following Dickens but never quite gets to hear and see everything. Dickens grew up in hard times when it was normal for children to work long hours and never attend school, but Dickens was different. Although he worked in a factor and his father and mother were in jail, Charles loved to write and read even though it was tough for him to get his hands on materials. The book explains how Dickens loved to tell stories and write stories as much as he could.
This book is a great story to explain child labor and the life of Charles Dickens. In the story Charles has to work to support his family even though he is very young. Many children in America have never had to work before especially at a young age. Students could learn that back in history children use to work and would only attend school for a short time in their lives. A teacher could also explain that still today in some places in the world, children are still being forced to work and not attend school. This book could also be used in older classrooms, such a high school aged students, who are beginning to read a Dickens novel. The students could learn about how Dickens grew up and why his stories are about the poor.

The Gardener

The Gardener by Sarah Stewart is a great story about the Great Depression. The book is about a girl named Lydia Grace Finch. In this story, Lydia Grace is forced to move in with her uncle in order to help her family make more money in this hard time. The whole story is written in letter format and after she moves in with her uncle she continues to write letters to her family at home. Lydia Grace works for her uncle in his bakery but her real passion is gardening. Lydia Grace tries very hard to make her uncle happy and to put a smile on his face. At the end of the book, she surprises her uncle at the end of the book with an amazing gift.

This book is great for children of all ages who want to learn about the Great Depression and also families. This little girl is a hard worker and she is growing up in a hard time for America. Many children could relate to this story because of all the hard times this country is currently going through. Also this book can be used for teaching people about family and coming together when times get tough. The way this book was written can also teach children how to write a letter and how to communicate with text. The illustrations in this book are fantastic and people can learn so much from just looking at the pictures.

Knit Your Bit: A World War I Story

Knit Your Bit by Deborah Hopkinson is a book about World War I. It is a story of a little boy named Mikey, whose father is leaving to fight in the war and he feels that he needs to do something to support his father and the troops. His mother and his sister begin knitting scarves and hats for the troops but the boy feels that knitting is for girls. At school that week there is a poster in the classroom for a knitting tournament for teams in Central Park. The teacher wants the students to sign up but the boys only sign up to compete against the girls. At the day of the knitting tournament, Mikey tries to make a pair of socks and he makes one sock perfectly. Unfortunately, he drops a stitch at the beginning of the second sock but does not notice till he is almost done. Right when he is about to give up a wounded soldier walks over to Mikey and begins to tell him to never give up.

This is a great story about the United States during World War I. This book would be great for any teacher talking about this time in their classroom. This story is also about trying your best and that any little act of kindness can go a long way. In this book, Mikey struggles to understand how knitting can do so much for soldiers but he realizes later that the clothes they are making are being worn by these soldiers to keep them warm. Parents could read this story to their children to explain that doing charity work can go a long way.

Fraidy Zoo

Fraidy Zoo by Thyra Heder is a great family book. Its an easy read with great illustrations. The book is about a little girl who is very excited about going to the zoo but her little brother, Little T is scared to go but he cannot remember why. The whole family spends the rest of the day dressing up as different animals to try and see why the boy was so scared. They keep dressing up but the little boy continues to say he is not scared of any of the animals. The family spends the whole day doing this that they are unable to go to the zoo that day. At the end of the day, Little T asks if they can go to the zoon tomorrow and the mother says yes. When they go to the zoo the boy realizes what he is scared of and it was not an animal.
This book is a great book to talk about family fun. This whole family works together to find out what the boy is scared of but at the end of the day they all are able to go. This would be a great book for families who need to become a little closer. After reading the book families could even dress up as animals just like they did in the book. This could also be used in school to teach students about different animals. The book would be a great book to read right before or after going to the zoo because they could point out what animals they see or saw at the zoo.

The Lion And The Bird

The Lion and The Bird by Marianne Dubuc is a newly published book with amazing illustrations and a great read. The pictures itself could tell the story and for the most part it does. There are very little words and children can look at the pictures to discover for themselves what this story is about. This is a great book for lower elementary students. This story deals with making a new friend but having to see them go. The story is about a bird and a lion who become friends because the bird gets separated from his pack while they were flying south for the winter. The lion keeps the bird safe and warm during the long winter. They become very good friends and do many things together. Once spring comes around the bird must go back to his family and the lion becomes very lonely while the bird is gone. Winter is coming back around and the lion hopes the bird will come back. The bird does and they spend another winter together.
This story would be a great one for students or children who is having a hard time at home or feels lonely. The lion and the birds friendship could make a child feel better and warm that maybe one day they will have a friendship like that. This story also has a great lesson in that even different people or animals can be great friends and care for one another.