Andiematis

  Summary of Book: Hooway for Wodney Wat is written by. This story follows a rat named Rodney who has a speech disability and cannot pronounce the /r/ sound. In the beginning of the story he is mercilessly teased by his fellow classmates. In the story a new student enters the class. Camilla Capybara is smarter, meaner, and stronger than any of the other students. She is a bully that scares all the rodents and nobody can stand up to her. One day though for recess, Wodney Wat is chosen to be the leader of the game Simon Says. So Wodney starts to say instructions such as "wake the leaves" instead of "rake the leaves" and Camilla Capybara begins to "wake" the leaves while all of the others rake them. The game follows in this matter with Wodney building his confidence as the rest of the rodents back him and start to laugh at Camilla's antics. By the last order, Wodney has come out of his jacket and is yelling confidently. His final order is, "Simon Say...

    Summary of Book: brown girl dreaming was written by Jacqueline Woodson. The book follows a little girl and her family. Her parents are married, but then they get divorced because the mom does not want to live in the North and the dad does, so he leaves. Then Woodson lives with her grandparents in the South and her mom leaves them for New York, then calls for the rest of her kids to come live with her in New York and informs them they have a new baby brother. Baby brother ends up dying, Woodson's Aunt dies, and then her grandpa dies, so their Jehovah witness grandma comes and lives with them in New York. The transition is hard for Woodson from South to North, but she befriends a Spanish girl. Then her uncle gets out of jail and during that time has become a Muslim. He then then teaches Woodson the Mecca and teaches her a lot about the Black Panther and Black rights. He then informs her about the Black revolution and Woodson is so moved by the hardships pf her people that sh...

    Summary of Book: The Tale of Despereaux was written by Katie Dicamillo and is the recipient of the Newberry Award. The story follows the very brave, noble mouse Despereaux. He does not fit in with the rest of his family as he is able to see and actually enjoys reading. This story follows several intertwining stories involving a rat in a dungeon that plots to get revenge on the princess and uses a girl that was sold by her father to do so. And we see that Despereaux is in love with the princess and wants to save her from the rats evil plot. In the end, we see Despereaux was able to save the princess and they remain best friends, the rat is given free range of the castle, and the girl is reunited with the father that sold her and he is so remorseful.  Why you would/would not use this book in your classroom? I don't think I would use this book in my classroom because I'm not sure I see the value of having my students read this book. The fairytale aspect wasn't really the...

  Summary of Book: The Midwife's Apprentice was written by Karen Cushman and is the recipient of the Newberry Award. This story is set in medieval England and the story is set around a homeless, orphan girl with the first name we're introduced to her having as Brat. Brat lives going from village to village, working when she can and stealing when she can't work and needs food. Eventually she ends up in a village and sleeps in poop. She is found by the towns Midwife who takes pity on her and allows her to come and assist the Midwife (or Jane Sharp) in exchange for room and a little bit of food. The situation proves to be beneficial for both parries as Brat, now named Beetle by the Midwife, and the Midwife seem to need each others help. Whenever the Midwife goes to perform a delivery, she never lets Beetle see, but Beetle will usually sneak around and observe through different ways. Beetle also saves a cat from some boys that are abusing it and names it Purr. Eventually, Beetl...

    Summary of Book: Russian Girl: Life in an Old Russian Town was written by Russ Kendall. This book follows the life of a young Russian girl. It gives cultural references as well as showing what the daily life of a child in Russia including going to school, cooking with the family and typical Russian dishes, and then what families in Russia will do for fun over vacations. In the end of the book it gives recipes for Russian food and the Russian alphabet and sayings.  Why you would/would not use this book in your classroom? I would use this book in my classroom as a way to introduce and discuss other cultures and countries.  Appropriate age group for this book: 4-10 Ideas for unit of study to include this book or how you might use t his book in the classroom: This book could be used during a reading time where the teacher reads the book to the students and then has them compare and contrast the life of the girl in the story to some aspects in their own lives. Then th...

    Summary of Book: This story is about 10 year old Augustus who was born with Treacher Collins syndrome. He has had 27 surgeries up to this point of his life and has a deformed face that people will stare at. This book basically follows Auggies journey as he goes into the school system for the first time in his life. It follows as he makes friends, but also gets bullied really badly. This book is also very unique in that chapters will be told from other characters view points. Such as his sister Olivia and how she gets tired of all the attention that Auggie gets. And then one of Auggie's classmates, Summer, in how she was only nice to Auggie out of pity, but now she is kind to him because she genuinely likes him and his personality. In the end of the book, Auggie has formed a close unit of friends and gets an award from his school. It ends very happily and well. Why you would/would not use this book in your classroom? I don't think I would use this book in my classroom becau...

    Summary of Book: Yankee Belles in Dixie was written by Gilbert Morris. This book is the second in this series. We continue to follow the families and their experiences as families that are involved in the Civil War.  Why you would/would not use this book in your classroom? I don't know that I would exactly have this book specifically incorporated into my teaching, but it would definitely be a book I would have in my library for students to read.  Appropriate age group for this book: 10-17 Ideas for unit of study to include this book or how you might use t his book in the classroom: This book could be assigned as as a book report for a classroom as the students are going over the history and learning about the civil war. The students could compare and contrast the characters from start to finish in the book, or they could compare and contrast the views and opinions of the North and South. 

    Summary of Book: In this series of 10 books written by Gilbert Morris, Drummer Boy at Bull Run is the first one we see of the series. In this series it follows the families of the Majors and Carters during the civil war. The Majors support the South and the Carters support the North and both families are involved in the war. The series center around Jeff Majors and Leah Carter. These two are best friends. Jeff follows his older brother and father to fight on the side of the South as a drummer boy, and Leah joins her father and follows the North army with her father in a wagon with food and supplies. In this story it follows the effects the war has on both families and also involves talking about wars and seeing the effects of death. At the end of the story we see Jeff go back home to celebrate his birthday with Leah as they share the same birthday. Why you would/would not use this book in your classroom? I would have this book in my school library because it is a really in...

    Summary of Book: Making Bombs For Hitler was writ ten by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. In this story we see a young German girl, named Lida, put into a concentration camp for her families sympathy towards the Jews. Her parents are killed and she is separated from her dear sister Larissa when she gets put in the concentration work camp. She is put to work doing backbreaking labor and is basically starved to death. Eventually the Germans put her and the other prisoners to work making bombs for Hitler which makes Lida very upset. However, she and the other workers devise a plan to sabotage the bombs so that they will hurt the Germans instead. They continue to do this and then one day, they get the news that the war is over. She and a close friend, Lukas decide to return home and look for their family. A year after the war, Lida gets a note from Canada with a Lilac in it. Her sister has immigrated to Canada and been adopted by a couple. She tells her sister that she too can come an...

    Summary of Book:  Rebecca's War was written by Ann Finlayson and illustrated by Sherry Streeter. This story follows 14 year old Rebecca during the Revolutionary War in Boston. She is the adult of the house as her Father and older brothers are both fighting to beat the British and her mother is dead. So she is at home in charge of her younger brother and sister taking care of everything. The British then start to home their soldiers in Boston homes and so Rebecca ends up being somebody that houses a high ranking official who is also wounded in her home. They do end up befriending each other and growing a relationship, however, Rebecca's dad and brother pull her into some spy work using tunnels underground to carry messages between them and their allies while a British general is living in her house! Eventually, the general catches her at the game and Rebecca ends up shooting and wounding him. However, at the end of the story we see the British being driven out of Bosto...

    Summary of Book:  American The Beautiful is a picture book written based off the poem "American the Beautiful" written by Katharine Lee Bates in 1893. This picturebook has the words written on each page along with pictures to go with it.  Why you would/would not use this book in your classroom? I might use this in my classroom because it is a historical song that students should know about America.  Appropriate age group for this book: 4+ Ideas for unit of study to include this book or how you might use t his book in the classroom: I would use this book in my classroom as a resource to teach the song to my students. 

    Summary of Book: China- Countries of the world- was written by Michael Dahl. This book is about facts of China and the culture. The first few pages are about fast facts and some background information of the country. It gives information on what its like to live in the country, going to school, the food, animals in China, the Great Wall of China, the capitol of the country Beijing, and Chinese sports. Why you would/would not use this book in your classroom? I would use this book in my classroom because as with the Japan book, it would teach students about different cultures and a foreign country.  Appropriate age group for this book: 6-11 Ideas for unit of study to include this book or how you might use t his book in the classroom: A way to incorporate this book in my classroom is to have my students do a book report on the country of China and give them this book as a resource for their reports and research. 

    Summary of Book: The Maya was written by Stefanie Takacs. This book talks about the Maya culture, or their way of life. The book has different subjects within it such as the daily life of an average Maya person, ancient Maya beliefs, what happened when the Europeans arrived, and then how the Maya civilization is today. Why you would/would not use this book in your classroom? I would use this book in my classroom because it talks about a really unique culture from the past that students could learn from and take away key information from.  Appropriate age for this book: 6-11 Ideas for unit of study to include this book or how you might use t his book in the classroom: I think an idea of how to use this book in a classroom would be to read the story to the kids and have pictures up of Mayan art and their civilization. And then at the end of the reading instruct the students to recreate their own Mayan art based off what they had learned about them in the book we just re...

    Summary of Book: Journey Through Japan was written by Richard Tames. This book gives descriptions of key Japanese aspects and culture. Each page has a different subject. For instance, one page is about Tokyo- the capitol of Japan, and gives some background information on this city and how it looks now in terms of shops, offices, and factories. Another page has to do with the Beautiful Mount Fuji. This page describes its characteristics and also mentions surrounding parks and lakes.  Why you would/would not use this book in your classroom? I think I would use this book in my classroom as a tool to introduce different countries show different cultures.  Appropriate age group for this book: 6+ Ideas for unit of study to include this book or how you might use t his book in the classroom: I would use this book in my classroom for a social studies unit where we would be learning about other cultures. I would try to find several books like this one to give my students a...

  Summary of Book: In My Enemy's House was written by Carol Matas. This story follows a Jewish girl named Marisa who lives in Germany during World War II. A time when being a Jew seemed to be more a curse than a blessing. The story starts off when things are not all that dangerous for Jews yet. In other towns Marisa and her family hear about others being taken and moved to concentration camps, but Marisa and her family hope that they will be alright. Marisa is fortunate enough to be blonde and blue eyed, so with the help of a kind German, she is able to get papers and pretends to be Polish and takes the place of another girl and is offered a job with a German family to work. Marisa does not want to go, but her family is taken one day while she is out looking for food and the German friend tells her she has to go now. So she goes and lives with the German family and is treated very well, except the man of the house is a Nazi general and the children play games about killing Jews. Af...