Bad Bye, Good Bye

Author: Deborah Underwood
Publication Date: 2014
Type of Book: Realistic Fiction Picture Book

This picture book tells the story of a family that is moving from one place to another. They have two children, a boy and a girl. The children are sad and don't want to move. They had to say goodbye to their house and their neighbors. You see their journey to their new home and what they see along the way. When they get to their new home you see everything that is now new to the the family. In the end you see that the little boy made friends with the neighbor next door and he realizes that moving maybe wasn't so bad after all.

I personally was not a fan of this story. I didn't like how it was written using incomplete sentences that contained two or three words. These words were all very easy and must be geared towards beginning readers. I have always been told that the best way to teach students to read is in context. This book to me doesn't use the text to create a story. Instead the text provides fragments of information that the reader has to piece together to create the story. I would have liked it better if the text was an actual story instead of just words describing what is on each page.

I would recommend this story to children who are in kindergarten or first grade and just learning how to read. This story uses very basic and simple words that describe the illustrations. This book would be too simple for students any older than first grade. The author also doesn't include proper punctuation such as periods, so students shouldn't use this text to help them learn about proper sentence structure.

Image References:
http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Bye-Good-Deborah-Underwood/dp/0547928521/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1443583823&sr=1-1&keywords=bad+bye%2C+good+bye

Even Aliens Need Snacks

Author: Matthew McElligott
Publication Date: 2012
Type of Book: Science Fiction Picture Book

This picture book tells the story of a little boy who loves to cook. The only problem is that his creations are a little unique. His sister always tells him that no one would ever eat the things he cooks. So he sets up a snack stand and waits for people to come try his treats. When no one comes he decides to head inside and go to bed. Later that night he sees something outside of his window. Aliens have decided to make a stop at his snack stand before continuing their journey. The aliens all enjoy the different treats the boy makes for them. In the end the boy creates Galactic Pudding using ingredients from all the other recipes he made. None of the aliens like the pudding and the only one who eats it is his sister.

This science fiction picture book is a cute read. I thought that the drawings of the aliens were very creative. I also liked how the treats the boy made for them corresponded to how they were drawn. The illustrations of the aliens capture the readers eye because their colors stand out against the plain colored background.

I would recommend this story as a read aloud for students in any grade level. Some of the words may be too hard for younger students to read independently, but if it is used for a read aloud the whole class could enjoy the story. The teacher could use this book to introduce the genre of science fiction to the class. Students could get ideas from the book to help them create their own science fiction story.

Image References:
http://www.amazon.com/Even-Aliens-Snacks-Matthew-McElligott/dp/0802736521/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1443582833&sr=1-1&keywords=even+aliens+need+snacks

Baloney (Henry P.)

Author: Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
Publication Date: 2005
Type of Book: Science Fiction Picture Book

This picture book tells the story of an alien named Henry P. Baloney. Henry loves to tell wise tales especially to his teacher. When he is late to school again his teacher says that he better have a very good excuse this time. Henry then goes off on a tangent about this crazy story that happened to him causing him to be late. In the end the teacher said that his story wasn't very believable, but he lucked out since the assignment for the day is to create a tall tale.

The coolest part of this book is that is uses words from different languages around the world. When reading the story you can guess what the different words mean but sometimes you just don't know. To help readers the author provided a word decoder in the back of the book. This story did a good job in incorporating science fiction and teaching students about the literary genre tall tales. The story was also written in a way that is fun for readers. Words and pictures move all around the pages and the font is in different sizes. Some of the words that aren't english are in a different color. I thought that overall this was a very cute story that students would find very entertaining to read.

I would recommend this book to upper elementary school students because the author incorporated words from different languages. Students in lower elementary school would have difficulty comprehending the story and would struggle with decoding some of the words. Teachers could use this book to have students practice using context clues to help with their reading. On the pages that contain words from the different languages students can try to see if they can decode the words using clues from the text. At the end they can use the decoder in the back of the book to check how well they did. Teachers can also use this as an instructional tool for teaching about tall tales and students can create their own tall tale after reading the book.

Image References:
http://www.amazon.com/Baloney-Henry-P-Jon-Scieszka/dp/0142404306

Rules

Author: Cynthia Lord
Publication Date: 2008
Type of Book: Award Winning Novel

Rules tells the story about a girl named Catherine who deals with the difficulty of not really knowing where she fits in. Catherine feels torn between two different worlds that in her mind don’t mix. She has a brother with Autism so she has that world, where she takes care of him and has to handle his quirks that she often times finds annoying. Her other world is where she wishes to be a normal girl who goes to school, has friends and doesn’t have to worry about what things her brother is going to do next that will embarrass her. Through this story you see Catherine befriend a boy from the same occupational therapy office that David goes too. Her new friend has a handicap and is bound to a wheelchair and only communicates through picture cards. Catherine deals with the pressure of wanting to fit in and not caring what other people think. In the end you finally see Catherine realize that "normal" is just a word and what other people think isn’t always true. Sometimes have to forget the rules and just dance.

I really enjoyed reading this story. It was one of those stories where I couldn’t believe how quickly I got through it. The chapters flowed very well together and I wanted to keep reading to see what was going to happen next in the life of Catherine. The author did a good job in making the characters personable and interesting to read about. The story line felt very real and was easy to connect to. I think that everyone during their life deals with the issue of being afraid to do or say something because of what others might think. In the end you have to decide what’s really important to you and just go for it.

I would recommend this story to upper elementary age students and up. This story had a great message and does a wonderful job with educating readers about living with disabilities in a way that everyone can understand.  I think that this book would help those students who may not understand a lot about living with disabilities. This book would be especially helpful for students to read if they’re in an inclusion classroom.

Image References 

http://disabilityinkidlit.com/2015/04/12/review-rules-by-cynthia-lord/

Pool

Author: JiHyeon Lee 

Publication Date: 2013

Type of Book: Wordless Picture Book 

This picture book told the story of a young boy who goes to the town pool. He is all ready to go swimming when a swarm of townspeople come barging into the pool. Soon the pool is filled from one end to the other with people of all shapes and sizes. The little boy uses the small section that isn't filled to go down into the water away from the chaos. Under the water he meets a little girl and together they have a wonderful time exploring the bottom of the pool. They see all different types of mystical creatures, some large and some small. When it is time to get out of the pool the townspeople are all sad and don't want to leave but the two children are content because they had experienced something wonderful. They even took a shell as a souvenir. 

I really loved how the illustrations were drawn using only colored pencil. The colors stood out really well against the simple baby blue background of the water. I liked how this story showed just how large a children's imagination can be. This little boy could have looked at the unfortunate situation of the pool being overcrowded and walked away. Instead the little boy found a way to escape the crowd and enjoy the time he had in the pool. The creatures they ran into while swimming were also very unique and creative. 

I would recommend this story to children of any grade level. There is a lot that could be done with this story. Children could do a writing or art project about a time they had an adventure. They could also work on a writing assignment where they could pretend to be marine biologist and write about the different creatures from the book and tell readers all about them. This could also just be used as a fun read aloud with the class. 

Image References

http://thispicturebooklife.com/pool-by-jihyeon-lee-pool-floats/

Unspoken

Author: Henry Cole
Publication Date: 2012
Type of Book: Wordless Picture Book

This wordless picture book tells the story of a young girl who lives during the time of slavery. She lives and works on her families farm. She is spooked one day when she sees someone in the stacks of corn stalks in the barn. She doesn't tell anyone that she saw something but she keeps going back to get a better look. During dinner she stashes some of the food in a napkin and brings it to the barn and leaves it outside of the cornstalks in hopes that the person hiding would eat it. One day she is listening in to the adults in the room talking about an escaped slave. The little girl knows that the person hiding in her families barn is the slave but she doesn't turn them in. When she goes back out to the barn later that night she finds a doll outside of the cornstalks were she was leaving food for the stranger each night and knows that they have moved to another hiding place.

The story told in this picture book was very interesting. I was personally surprised that the little girl didn't tell her family that she thought someone was living in their barn. I would have been so scared if I saw someone that I would have screamed. The girl is so kind and keeps bringing the stranger food because she knows that they must be hungry. I was also surprised that the little girl didn't turn the slave in for the reward. I felt that in the end since the little girl never turned the slave in, the reward she received was the doll given to her by the slave. This was a perfectly good reward for the young girl. I also really loved the illustrations in the story. The pictures all looked like they were sketched using a pencil. They were so detailed yet very simple all at the same time. It wasn't overwhelming looking at the images but they did a fantastic job in telling the story.

I would recommend this story to anyone learning about the underground railroad or slavery. This book doesn't tell you what to think because it is wordless, so students really have an opportunity to use what they know about this time to help interpret the book. This book should definitely be looked at more than once because there are so many conclusions you can come to each time you read it. I didn't even make the connection the first time that this little girl was participating in the underground railroad. Even though this is mentioned on the cover page, I didn't even think about it while reading the story the first time around.

Image References
http://www.amazon.com/Unspoken-Story-From-Underground-Railroad/dp/0545399971

BlueBird

Author: Bob Staake
Publication Date: 2013
Type of Book: Wordless Picture Book

This story is about a young boy who is very lonely. He is bullied by boys at school and doesn't have any friends. One day he notices this little bluebird that had been following him. The boy and the bluebird became friends and had many fun adventures. This story ends tragically when the bluebird is killed by the bullies. The boy is then lifted up into the sky by birds of all different colors so he can bring his friend to heaven.

This was a very powerful picture book but do NOT read it unless you want to be depressed for the rest of the day. When I first started reading this story I was thinking how sad it was because the boy had no friends and he was being bullied at school. Then this little bluebird came around and befriended the little boy. They had so much fun together and I was so happy for the little boy. Then thats when everything went downhill. The boy and the bird ran into the bullies and they killed the bird when they threw a stick and it hit the bird. I did not expect this to happen! I was shocked and so sad because I couldn't believe the bird was actually dead. Then it became a little more uplifting when birds of all different colors came and carried the boy up to the sky, so the he could bring his friend to heaven. This book was very intense for a picture book so I would make sure the audience you read it to is mature enough to handle the topics brought up.

Since this is a wordless picture book I would use recommend this book  for small groups. Students could work in their groups to interpret the book and use a graphic organizer if necessary. Once they finish the story the whole class could get together and discuss what the different groups thought the story was about. They can also discuss why they came to the conclusions they did. This book can be used for any grade level but if it is used in lower elementary school the teacher should make sure their students will be okay handling the topic of death.

Image References
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15799165-bluebird