Genre 2- The Story of Lightning & Thunder

Bryan, Ashley. The Story of Lightning & Thunder. New York: Atheneum Books, 1999.

ISBN: 978-0-689-31836-8

PLOT SUMMARY

The Story of Lightning & Thunder explains to the reader why lightning and thunder now live in the sky with rain instead of living in the village they once occupied. Ma Sheep Thunder and Son Ram Lightning are cast out of their village to the sky because Son Ram Lightning is so uncontrollable and damages parts of the village and market place. Once banished to the sky, Son Ram Lightning tries to strike back to earth when his mother, Ma Sheep Thunder, calls after him!

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Starting with illustrations, The Story of Lightning & Thunder includes bright, colorful pictures and patterns that allow the reader to really visualize the feelings the Sheep and the Ram are having. The illustrator used thick outlines around the pictures which I love. The way that the illustrator drew the pictures really made the main parts of each page stand out to the reader. Again, the illustrations are stunning with the way to colors and patterns are matched up together to create a harmony of color and words.

Educationally, The Story of Lightning & Thunder offers great opportunities to teach students about morals and folktales. As I read recently in Children’s Literature in Action, students are missing out on the classics. This The Story of Lightning & Thunder is a wonderful example of a recreation of a story passed down from a time before ours. Children have a difficult time wrapping their mind around the fact that stories existed long before they did. This book gives a teacher a great opportunity to teach children a out folktales and to include those classics that students miss out on.

Vardell, Sylvia M. 2008. CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN ACTION. Libraries Unlimited.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

· Publishers Weekly: "Joyful in both word and palette," said PW, "this African story tells why lightning and thunder reside in the sky and not on earth, as they once did."

· The Kirkus Review: “There is one of Bryan's uniquely vibrant, swirling, light-filled paintings on every page.”

CONNECTIONS

· Compare and Contrast: When you have a classic folktale its always fun for students to be able to compare one story to another that is familiar to the folktale.

· Students could work on a research project on other folktales. This would allow for them to not only become more familiar with other folktales but they could also learn more about using databases and researching.

Genre 2- The Lion and the Mouse

Pinkney, Jerry. The Lion and the Mouse. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2009.

ISBN: 978-0-316-01356-7

PLOT SUMMARY

The Lion and the Mouse is a story of friendship. Placed in an African Serengeti, the lion and the mouse find themselves amidst a problem. The lion becomes trapped by hunters and finds himself in need of help. Eventually, after the Lion calls out for help the mouse comes to rescue. In the end, both the mouse and the lion return to happy families!

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The illustrations in this story are absolutely stunning. The illustrator used a variety of colors to bring out the details of the animals in the story. The illustrations look like they’ve been drawn with colored pencil. The content on each page is very detailed and makes each picture a story in itself. The pictures in this book range from full (across the seam of the book) illustrations to smaller illustrations drawn on one page within a box. This variety keeps the reader very interested in the plot.

This story has no dialog, which is very interesting. There are several onomatopoeia's in this story. The mice say “squeak, squeak, squeak” and the owls say “who, who”. I found it very different and educational to include the animal’s sounds but no dialog. This gives a ‘teachable moment’ for both librarians and teachers by allowing younger students to identify which animals might makes those sounds. The Lion and the Mouse won the Caldecott Medal in 2009 and has been widely recognized for its distinctive illustrations. Overall, this is a very beautifully illustrated children’s fable and gives a reader a chance to let their imagination guide the story.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

· School Library Journal- “Beautifully designed and rendered artwork… make this book stand out.”

· Booklist- “Delightful… just right for [a] preschool audience.

CONNECTIONS

· Drawing Conclusions: Given that there isn’t any major dialog in the story gives the reader a chance to guide the story’s plot. A fun activity could be creating the words for the story. Each student could create the text for the picture and compare to what other students thought about the illustrations. This activity is more appropriate for grades 3-6.

· Having young students identify the sounds of the animals to a picture of the animal. This would be excellent for ESL learners as well.

Genre 2 - The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!

Scieszka,Jon. The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. New York: Puffin Books, 1989.

ISBN: 0-670-82759-2

PLOT SUMMARY

The Wolf from the original Three Little Pigs story gives a high energy, very opinionated version of what really happened to the three little pigs when the pigs died a tragic death from according to the wolf, a very bad cold.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Just looking at the illustrations on the front of this story gives you a mischievous feeling. The reader can almost immediately see that they are reading a story that is unlike what they’ve come to know about the 3 little pigs.

The story is told from the viewpoint of the Wolf who likes to be called ‘Al’. Scieszka does a great job of keeping the dialog of the Wolf and all the Pig’s distinctively different and allows those of us reading the story aloud to have fun with different character voices. The illustrations are captivating as many of them expand over the threshold of the binding. The comedic aspect that Scieszka incorporates into this book is one of the best qualities of this story. Students find the pictures of the pigs funny and interesting, as they don’t resemble what they are used to seeing. Overall this story offers great educational opportunities as well as a creative take on a classic story.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

· School Library Journal: “It's the type of book that older kids (and adults) will find very funny.”

· Booklist: “t invites readers to step beyond the boundaries of story and picture book altogether.”

· Publishers Weekly: “"Imaginative watercolors eschew realism, further updating the tale."

CONNECTIONS

· Compare and Contrast: Students can become more familiar with graphic organizers by comparing The Three Little Pigs to The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.

· Morally there is a lot to learn from this story. For younger students it is really nice for them to understand that there is almost always more than one side to the story.

Genre 1- Mo Willems

Mo Willems, City Dog, Country Frog (New York: Hyperion Books, 2010) 1-40

ISBN 13: 978-1423103004

PLOT SUMMARY

Meeting new friends is always exciting, and in Mo Willems City Dog, Country Frog, the City Dog makes a new friend with a Frog from the country. Their friendship blossoms and grows throughout the seasons while they share games and stories together. Although coming from different backgrounds and cultures, they find common ground in their friendship. As we read on though, Country Frog begins to age. When City Dog returns for another season of games and friendship, he sees that Country Frog is nowhere to be found. City Dog feels as if all hope is lost, but he eventually finds a new friend in Country Squirrel.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Mo Willems (author of the story) and Jon Muth (illustrator) collaborate to put together yet another book that hits a home run with kids of all backgrounds. Instead of trying to write to a specific audience, they gracefully tell the story of friendship. It can be argued that the maturity of this story is not suitable for younger audiences. Inferencing, which Willems requires of his readers in this story, is a skill refined at a 4^th and 5^th grade level. Although this book requires me, as a 3^rd grade teacher, to explain quite a bit to my students, I believe that they will learn to appreciate this book’s story the older they get.

The illustrations, to the reader, look like the actual paintings Muth created, not prints or recreations of those paintings. Therefore, readers can feel the intimate setting that this book has so fantastically created. City Dog and Country Frog did not meet in the city, where people and other animals would constantly be bothering them. Rather, they met at a country pond, a peaceful place without disruptions and distractions so that they could focus on the friendship at hand. Due to the importance of setting in this book, it is easy to see why Muth used such intimate illustrating techniques.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

* School Library Journal: “This understated picture book allows plenty of room for young readers to interpret the animals' feelings for themselves and perhaps discuss their own emotions”

* Booklist: “The pictures are imbued with hope and happiness…’

CONNECTIONS

* City Dog, Country Frog tells a story of friendship. A teacher could incorporate pin pals as a supplement to this story because writing to pin pal would mean students communicating to friends that, like country frog and city dog, would have come from different lives to find friendship.

Genre 1- Caldecott Award

Kevin Henkes, Kitten’s First Full Moon (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2004) 1-40

ISBN 13: 978-0060588281

PLOT SUMMARY

Henkes describes to the reader a comedic story of a little kitten who desperately wants the illusive bowl of milk which readers come to understand is really the moon. The kitten finds itself in silly situations like eating a bug while trying to enjoy that big bowl of milk, or pinching its tail! After many sticky situations, the kitten returns home to find that while searching for that big bowl of ‘milk’ in the sky, there was a bowl of milk left for the kitten at home.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Kevin Henkes blows the reader away with his simplistic and very intricate black and white illustrations. The reader can easily place itself in the story because the illustrations are so beautiful. There isn’t a question in the readers mind that the story takes place at night and that there is a beautiful moonlit glow on each page. This story keeps the reader guessing and entertain and is a very good example of a well thought out and wonderfully illustrated picture book.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

* School Library Journal: “The rhythmic text and delightful artwork ensure storytime success. Kids will surely applaud this cat's irrepressible spirit.”

* Booklist: “Henkes creates another winner in this simple, charming story…’

* Awards Include:Publishers Weekly Best Book, New York Times Best Illustrated Book, Caldecott Medal, School Library Journal Best Book, New York Public Library's "One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing", ALA Notable Children’s Book

CONNECTIONS

* Other books to supplement: Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert

Shapes Shapes Shapes by Tana Hoban

Mooncake by Frank Asch

Happy Birthday Moon by Frank Asch

Papa, Please Get Me the Moon by Eric Carle

Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! I’m Off to the Moon by Dan Yaccarino

*Kiiten’s First Full Moon is a fun resource for writing or journaling. Students could document a time when they were fooled by something or when the found there way home. The teacher could use a graphic organizer to help students organize their work.

Genre 1- Picture Books

“Are you my Mother?”

Phillip D. Eastman, Are You My Mother? (New York: Random House Children’s Books, 1960) 1-64.

ISBN: 978-0-394-80018-9

2. PLOT SUMMARY

In this picture book, Eastman writes about how a young bird goes far and wide to find its mother. The bird’s mother has left the baby bird to find food though the baby bird has no idea. Along the baby birds adventure it meets several other ‘animals’ like a tractor, a kitten, and hen before, in the end, eventually it’s mother.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

I appreciate the simplicity of this book’s wording and illustrations. Eastman makes it very easy for a younger reader to understand the plot. The illustrations are exceptional and easy for a reader to practice his or her predicting abilities.

Eastman also gives a teacher several teaching ‘moments’ by writing a book that offers differentiation opportunities. An example of these opportunities could be by using the concept of ‘imprinting’ in relation to science or by using the creatures the little bird comes in contact with to encourage a students ability to draw conclusions.The repetition of the story plot also is a great resource to those students who are early readers.

Overall, Eastman created a lovely balance of fun illustrations and simplistic wording that together create a great story and helpful teaching tool.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

* The Reading Tub: http://www.thereadingtub.com/index.php

* Beyond the Carseat: http://www.beyondthecarseat.com/?p=1198 “Are You My Mother is a simple story, but one with a lot of heart.”

* GoodReads.com

5. CONNECTIONS

* Are you my Mother? Basically tells students that there is someone out there for all of us. A teacher could easily make a connection to family.

* As I mentioned previously, there is a great opportunity for a science connection.

* A teacher could use this book to create a sorting activity. Give each student pictures of the animals the baby bird meets and have students match up with picture is actually the birds mother.

* Are you my mother is also a great resource for mother’s day activities!