Reflection

Through this process, I have come across many books that differ in style, genre, and theme. However, my favorite books would have to consist of E for Ethics, Marley’s Treasure, and Mrs. Piggle- Wiggle. Children can benefit from all three stories, and truly learn good moral lessons. I don’t look for anything in particular when I am picking out these stories. I like comedy, mystery, adventures and try to vary in order to accommodate all the kids. I truly enjoyed reading each and every book, and felt that I can use each in perspective to a lesson. I think being creative is the main essence in preparing a good lesson, and books, can be the key.

The New Kid at School By: Kate McMullan (CHAPTER BOOK)

This book is about a young boy, Wiglaf, who got picked on by his 12 older siblings. He then decides to join a special school that trains heroes, The Dragon Slayer's Academy. While there he has a quite interesting first day which ends in him being chosen to save the town. This is an adventurous book, that is filled with many jokes. This book will appeal to children by enticing their imagination with an alternate world of reality. Through reading this book, they will join Wiglaf and his friends on this wonderful journey to find and slay the dragon. In the book, there is also black and white illustrations that gives the kids a visual of what is going on. Wiglaf is a comical chapter to chapter book that, that I highly recommend

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald (CHAPTER BOOK)

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is the neighbor that everyone wishes they had. She's the widow of a pirate, lives in an upside down house, and is always ready for a tea party with freshly baked cookies. But that’s not all, when it comes to kids, Mrs. Wiggle has the answers to every dilemma by letting the kids realize that what they are doing is wrong and has consequences. This book is really simple because the chapters are short and all follow the same pattern. Kids will be captivated by the different symptoms that kids go through, and the cures that Mrs. Wiggles will come up with. This is a light-hearted, silly book that can be a lot of fun to read out lout with young children. It also teaches valuable lessons in a less serious manner, for kids to listen to, and keep in mind.

E is for Ethics Author Ian James Corlett (CHAPTER BOOK)

E is for Ethics; How to Talk to Kids About Morals, Values and What Matters Most. This is truly a beautiful book, which sends out a powerful message. It is a short book that discusses the importance of being kind, understanding, unselfish, and compassionate as well as responsible. This makes life a lot easier for a parent who wants to instill these messages into their kids at a young age. It is divided into 26 chapters, to make it simple and easy for kids. They are short, funny, and conclude with questions to test their knowledge. Kids make everything challenging, and in my opinion, this book is the answer to many prayers.

Imagine Author: Norman Messenger

This book's title reads like a command, “Imagine a door without a room. Would you be indoors or outdoors?” From that introduction, you're invited to imagine all kinds of things from fabulous animals to bicycles with square wheels, and dolls becoming ogre. This is not a typical storybook, instead, it is all about make believe, and how far a child’s imagination can go. I think children will be absolutely delighted with this book and it will give those hours of entertainment as their imagination soars. In the end, this book is much like any creative child's imagination, sometimes creepy, sometimes cool, sometimes weird, but usually interesting. This book is also filled with beautiful, inspiring artwork as well as geometry and math puzzles in the corner of some pages. It is a full package deal.

Fancy Nancys By Jane O'Connor

To Fancy Nancy, who loves to accessorize and making everything fabulous, her parents seemed like they were from a different world. “Even at the ice cream store Mom, Dad, and little sister never even ask for sprinkles.” As a result, Nancy decides to give them "fancy" lessons to which they willingly comply. This sweet book shows that children are who they are, fancy or plain, and that when you love someone you do things you wouldn't normally do, just to please them. Children will also learn great vocabulary words as well as creativity through this wonder. I also think families with their own Fancy Nancy will really get a big kick out of this book.

Marley's Treasure By Gable Yerrid

Featuring cheerful, child-friendly illustrations, Marley's Treasure is a picture book with a strong moral lesson. When Marley, a young monkey, stumbles across a beautiful treasure of shining golden bananas, he hoards them to himself. In the process, he becomes distant from his friends and unhappy. With the wisdom of his friend Pete, Marley starts to understand that the greatest value of a treasure lies in sharing it with friends. This well written tale touches the heart with its message of giving and parents will love reading it as much as their children, who will enjoy hearing it. This story is expressive and full of charm, in the sense that it will interest, as well as educate young kids.

Hiccups for elephant by James Preller

Hiccups for Elephant is a great book for beginning readers because it's short, and funny for the young kids, and the letters are big and easy to see. This book is about a group of animals trying to take a nap, but one has the hiccups, the elephant. In the story all the animals work together so they can find a way of stopping the hiccup. The book is funny and teaches a great lesson about how important it is to work together and try to figure things out. I strongly recommend this book because it captivates the reader by putting them into a mysterious mood. Kids will definitely enjoy it.

Under Your Skin: Your Amazing Body By Mick Manning & Brita Granstrom

Get under Your Skin invites children to explore the structure and operation of their own bodies. It goes on a journey through the body, from how your tongue detects taste, to how your body sends messages to your brain. Each paragraph or related group of short paragraphs is headed by a key word or words in bold type, to make it easy and simple to fallow. This book also uses flaps and vivid illustrations to contrast the external and internal view of various anatomical systems and features. This is a clever means of introducing body structure and functions in a way that children will enjoy reading and viewing. Similes and metaphors also keep the emergent scientist engaged and entertained. The skeleton “is your body’s framework – without it you‘d be like wibbly, wobbly jellyfish!” (p. 10).

More Spaghetti I Sat ! by Rita Golden Gelman

More Spaghetti, I Say, is one of my favorite books. This is a comical book about a monkey who loves spaghetti and his friend wants him to play with him, but he is too busy eating spaghetti. At the end, the monkey who loves spaghetti gets sick and then decides he has time to play, but then his friend starts eating spaghetti and can't play. This story is quite silly and amusing with great illustrations. It is also a great choice for a read out loud, because of the rhyming words, which makes it a lot of fun for young kids. This book repeats itself and would be good for younger children who have sight words because it has great ones like not, can, I, see, etc..

Snowmen at Nigh By Caralyn Buehner

This is about a kid who builds a snowman, and notices it has changed overnight. He then imagines all the things that snowmen do overnight, like have iced cold coco, snowball fights and sled down the hill. The illustrations in this story are very animated and the text is graphically designed to add to the fun. "Then the snowman games begin: They line up in their places,/ each one anxious for his turn in the snowman races." The imaginative description and lively art could provide an entertaining read-aloud for bedtime sharing or winter story times. It would also be great for teaching prediction because children could draw their own idea of what snowmen do at night and write a caption.

The way I feel By Janan Cain

The Way I Feel illustrated a girl with a wide range of emotions. My favorite quote sums up the essence of the book, “Feelings come and feelings go. I never know what they’ll be.” Silly or angry happy or sad -They‘re all part of me!” This book shows how one might feel dependent upon different situations and circumstances. It is a great way to teach young kids to express how they feel as well as learn new vocabulary. The texts in this book are fun, silly, exciting, and full of images. Educators could also engage the students into acting out different scenarios that can trigger different emotions. I believe this would be the perfect lesson for young kids, and an important part in evolving.

All Summer’s Fun By Daniel Skalak

All summer’s fun takes you through the adventures of few friends who manage to make the most of everything. From belly flops at the pool to nights spent camping in a tent with all the mandatory flashlights, snacks, and ghost stories, to the boldly colored lizard-like monsters making breakfast of ice cream and a whole chocolate cake. The rhyming text and fun pictures make this a good book for sharing as a read-aloud or creating a writing assignment about summer activities. All summer’s Fun is the perfect story for kids who thinks they’ve run out of things to do during a long hot summer, because their imagination will be sparked. This book portrays the true nature of young kids, in the sense that they should be creative to entertain themselves.

Can You Count to a Googol? By Robert E. Wells

Can You Count to a Googol? In this fun book of numbers, Robert E. Wells explores the wonderful world of zeros and tells how the googol came to be named. It begins with number 1 and adds zeros one page at a time. “One is the number of bananas you could balance on your nose if you were a good banana balancer.” The silly drawings do a great job of illustrating the various numbers (Picture one hundred penguins each holding ten scoops of ice cream in a cone), multiplying by ten all the way up to a trillion. After this, it jumps to a quadrillion, a quintillion, an octillion, and then a googol. The book makes a point of showing the numbers as numerals and written numbers with cartoons that can illustrate the growing numbers. The imaginations make this book great for read-alouds and for encouraging kids to enjoy math. The very last page even tells of the googol's history, and kids will love knowing that a 9-year-old named it!

Good Morning Sunshine: A Grandpa’s Story By Sharon McKenna

Grandparents are special people. Somehow, they make waking up grumpy, eating your vegetables, and going to bed when you don't really want to easier. In Good Morning Sunshine, little Katie shares how her grandpa teaches her to feel better through the ups and downs of an overnight visit. The simple story does a nice job of showing how much a supportive adult in a child's life can mean. This is a wonderful story which is charming, and joyful. I love the way it portrays the stresses in a child's every day life with innocence, and how grandpa makes the best out of every situation. All in all I do recommend this book, because it’s a warm and fuzzy reading for children as well as a gentle lesson on good parenting for parents.