Paddington Bear By: Michael Bond

     For this week's Book Talk I chose a cute and charming book about a bear that was a stowaway and was left at a train station.A family was waiting to pick up their daughter from the train station when the mother notices that there was a bear in the station. Frightened and confused as to why there was a bear in the station, the family approached the bear. They found out that he didn't have a home or a name, and that he hadn't eaten or drank anything in a long time. They named him Paddington after the train station that they had found him at. After picking up their daughter they went home with a new family member. They took him to eat and not to their surprise he ate just like a bear and made a ruckus! They took him home, and there he resided. 

     I found the book very cute and a fun read aloud for any classroom teacher to read to their students. The book is very engaging and keeps the students engaged with the words and illustrations that take up most of the page, and wasn't too busy at all! The illustrations are done really well, and are very colorful and warm, making the book easier to relate to and feel happy and excited to read. One thing I found that you can teach your students is to help people who are in need. This family so graciously opened their home to this cute and fuzzy bear, and though students can't necessarily do that, they can help students and other people in a number of different things. I would really love reading this in a classroom and I think you all will too!

In the Tall, Tall Grass by: Denise Fleming

     This week I read the book, In the Tall, Tall Grass. This book is a very fun and interactive book that would be good for preschoolers, kindergarteners and possibly 1st graders. This book is about this boy who finds a caterpillar in the grass and then the caterpillar takes the place of the boy as it travels through the grass. As the caterpillar is traveling through the grass, he comes across several things that you can find in the grass. This book is just a cute little adventure of the nature and what the grass encompasses.

     The illustrations are really cool. They are very bright and bold colors that are used, which makes the illustrations more engaging. The story line and the words are helpful for students to foreshadow what the next animal or insect that they're going to find in the grass, which makes the book fun and interactive. Overall, this book is really cute and is a good book to read possibly during a science activity dealing with grass and nature. Kids would for sure love this book!

Stellaluna By: Janell Cannon

Stellaluna is about a baby bat who is lost in an attack by an owl. Her mom was holding her close when all of a sudden an owl came out of nowhere, and knocked Stellaluna into the air and out of her mothers sight. She lands on a branch and hangs there until a bird nest takes her in. She then takes on what the birds do. She eats what the birds eat, she sleeps like the birds, and she has to follow all of the rules that the momma bird sets out for her kids. Stellaluna is a fruit bat, so she eats fruit not insects, sleeps in the day, and sleeps hanging upside down. As she continues to stay in her "new family" she starts to lose her real self. As the book goes on, Stellaluna ends up finding her mom unexpectedly and still keeps close intouch with her old temporary family. Overall this book was super cute and not anything that I was expecting it to be.

 This book has amazing illustrations which really helps the authors story flow throughout the book. The illustrations are so well done that it even looks like someone had taken a snap shot with a camera and placed it in the book. Another thing that I really enjoyed about the book is it has very vivid language that helps students stay engaged and helps the words flow more throughout the book. The use of the vocab words helps the teacher or person reading it have kids get engaged and ask them if they know certain words. Overall I would love this book to read to my class. I think that the illustration really makes the book what it is. I definitely recommend this book for everyone to read to their students. Never lose your roots even if you might get lost!

Olivia by: Ian Falconer

     Olivia is about this little pig named Olivia who just loves to do all kinds of things. She likes to go to the beach, but before she goes to the beach she has to find what to wear. And of course, that means you have to try on the entire closet full of clothes. This book is a really cute and heartwarming book about Olivia and how rambunctious and feisty she is. If she wants to do something, she will do it. She has a lot of sass with a sweet twist at the end. I enjoyed this book only because it was cute. There wasn't really any kind of plot which would make it hard to use any of the literary elements used to read and engage kids in the text.

 

     The one thing that I can say was interesting were the illustrations. Everything was black and white, except there were pops of color every once in a while. My thought was that the author was using the highlight of red to emphasize that certain part of the text or illustration. The illustrator also had a lot of blank space in the book suggesting a cold feeling or that they wanted the reader to focus solely on Olivia.It is a very cute book, and it would be a good read at the end of the week, but I wouldn't really use it for any lesson type stuff.

If You Give A Moose A Muffin by:Laura Joffe Numeroff

This week during my book talk, I brought in a very cute and enjoyable book called "If You Give A Moose a Muffin". This story is part of a series of books that deal with the same concept. This story is about a young boy who has an unexpected guest in his backyard. He lures the guest in with a delicious muffin with blackberry jam that he made! With this, the moose falls in love with the muffin and eats all of them until they run out. Because they run out, the moose wants to eat more so they need to go to the store. But going to the store is a task in itself. They have to overcome a series of tasks that get them sidetracked on a different adventure. Towards the end, the moose spots the blackberry bush and then remembers the delicious muffins and remembers the reason why he was doing all of these things! This story is a really heart-warming and fun book that kids can enjoy reading and can get engaged in! The way that I related to the book is when I was younger and I had guests over I had to entertain them and make sure that they had the most fun and that they are having fun and are comfortable. The illustrations are very engaging and allow students to predict what is happening and use soft colors giving it a warming tone throughout the book. I would definitely suggest this book to any kindergarten-3rd grade class! It's really fun and I enjoyed reading it!

A Pocket Full of Kisses by: Audrey Penn

 

This week, I read the book, A Pocket Full of Kisses, which I had never heard of before this class. Before I read this book, I didnt really know what the book was going to be about based on what the cover illustration was. I knew it would be about a raccoon family, but I never would have thought it would be such a heart-warming and endearing story. The book is about a raccoon family that just got a new addition, a little brother. Well, momma raccoon had always given her oldest son a kissing hand, which is a prequel to this cute little story. As the story goes on, Chester, the oldest son, gets upset that momma raccoon is giving his little brother these Kissing hands that momma always gave him. He begins to cry and then momma looks at him and has a long talk with him about being an older brother, but, she gives him something different. He gives him a pocket full of kisses that will be special to him because he is the older brother. The book ends in a really cute way. I really enjoyed this book. I think it is a good lesson for all students to learn because so many of them have other siblings. By learning to share time, space, and love with their sibling, it can help them out at home and in the classroom. The illustrations are wonderful, and you can have students predict what will happen, or connect the text to what the picture is displaying. Overall, I would definitely suggest this book for 1st-3rd grade as a read aloud.

It's Okay to Be Different by: Todd Parr

     As I was looking to expand my variety of books that I was picking I came across this book and decided to read it. Based off of the title and the different pictures on the cover, I kind of predicted what the book was about. My book list is an inventory of Read-Aloud books and this book is an AWESOME book for that. It doesn't have a plot line but, it makes a really strong moral and ethical point that kids should know about being different. 

     Each of the different pages has things such as "Its okay to have no hair, its okay to not want to do anything bad, its okay to have a different nose." and so on. This is a very strong lesson about bullying which is a subject that each teacher needs to teach continually throughout the school year. Looking at the different illustrations it had two different affects on me, not only did it draw me in by the vibrant and loud colors, but also the simplicity of each illustration allows for the reader to focus on what the text is actually saying. I am wanting to teach the lower grades and with their attention span, any picture that has too much going on can get their mind off track and solely focusing on the pictures. I would definitely recommend this book to any teacher. You can do a lot of fun activities with this book, its a fun read and kids will really enjoy and benefit from the underlying message the book portrays! Grab a copy and check it out!

Corduroy by: Don Freeman

     This week, my book talk was on one of my favorite childhood books. Corduroy by Don Freeman has had my heart since day one. When I was younger I used to always make my parents or my brother read this book to me. This book is about a bear who desperately wants to have a home and comes so close when a young girl spots him out of the entire department store. To Corduroys disappointment, the young girls mother notices that the bear is missing a button and is therefore "old" and does not allow her daughter to purchase the stuffed bear. That night Corduroy goes on a hunt to find his lost button. Going all over the store he finds what he thinks is his button and tries to rip it off of the mattress he found it on. He makes a huge ruckus and draws the attention of the night time security guard. The guard takes him back to where he belonged, in the case downstairs. The bear, disheartened that he wasn't able to retrieve his lost button, sits in his case waiting for day to come. To his surprise the next day he sees the same little girl. The little girl wants to buy the bear! The book ends in a really cute and fun way and is an awesome read!
     I will DEFINITELY be reading this book to my class. As I know, though this book is near and dear to my heart, the kids might not take to it as I did when I was younger. This book is a good representation of "if you want something bad enough, you'll get it with hard work." The little girl was determined to get that bear and Corduroy really wanted a friend and a home. Through these obstacles they both overcame, they were able to achieve what they had always wanted! Such a good read, and I encourage you all to read it as well!

The Giving Tree 

By: Shel Silverstein

     The book, The Giving Tree, was a book that I had never read before this class. I picked the "Read-A-Loud" book list which really caters to the grades I am wanting to teach (Kindergarten-3rd). I had seen it around when I was a kid but I never read it or had it read to me. Reading this book now that I am older has had a completely different effect than it would have had if I read it when I was younger. The children's book is a story about a relationship between a boy and a tree. The tree loves him so dearly and gives everything that she can in order to make the young boy happy. The book continues as the boy grows and continually "needs" more things to be happy. The tree is so selfless in that she does everything she can in order to make the boy happier in his life. I LOVED this book for the story and moral behind it. So often we forget to "pay it forward" if you will. Good deeds can change a persons day entirely and if we teach that to our students, it would be very beneficial throughout their lifetime and change the way they treat their peers and elders. I think it would be an awesome book for any age to read, but I would recommend to read it in a 2nd or 3rd grade class (though you can read it to any of your classes)so you can really stress that point of "you don't need something in return in order to do something nice." Some of the different activities you could do would be to create an actual "Giving Tree" and have students make books and crafts to hand out to other students and families around the holidays, or have the students think deeper as to what else the tree could have given, or what the boy could have done for the tree, and the third and final tree was to create an actual tree out of construction paper and have the students create the branches and put what they are thankful for or encouraging words that they would like to tell their parents or friends or siblings. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book: READ IT!!! :)