Another Day in the Milky Way, David Milgrim

Another Day in the Milky Way is a picture book from the Science Fiction genre.  It is about a boy who woke up on the wrong planet; this was not the first time it happened.  However, he did not know how he got there or how to get home.  He asked for help but everyone was too busy.  He found a horse that was really a donkey that made him even more confused.  They tell him to go see the Starman on the Hill.  He finally falls asleep and wakes up at home.  This is a cute adventure book that I think students would really like.

This book is about adventure.  So as an activity to go with this book I would ask my students to get creative.  I would have them write about how they think he got to the other planet and then have them come up with another way for him to get home other than him falling asleep.  This will give them a chance to practice their writing.  If my students have a blog they will do this as a blog post.  It will be a great activity that students will benefit from.    

The Three Ninja Pigs, Corey Rosen Schwartz

The Three Ninja Pigs is a fantasy picture book that is a spinoff of The Three Little Pigs.  There are three little pigs and a mean, big, bad wolf.  The pigs finally said “enough!”  They called him a bully and wanted it to end.  So to solve this they went to train at ninja school.  The sister pig was the only pig that stuck with karate all of the others gave up or thought they knew enough so quit.  The first pig wished he was more prepared when the wolf came, the second pig just ran away, but when the wolf got to the sister’s house the wolf was the one to run away.  They all went back to ninja school and the wolf never bothered them again.  I love this book and I will have it in my classroom library.

This book has a lot of great teachable components.  There is a glossary in the back explaining some of the karate terms.  I would use this to teach a mini lesson to show how to use a glossary.  The book talks about how the wolf is a bully.  So to create a better classroom community I would read this book aloud to the class and then have students talk about why we should not be a bully and what to do if someone is bullying you.  Also on every page there is some type of rhyming.  So I would connect this to poetry and have students write their own version of The Three Little Pigs in the form of a poem.  This is such a great book that creates many opportunities to use in the classroom.   

Mr. Wuffles, David Wiesner

Mr. Wuffles is a picture book from the Science Fiction genre.  It is about a cat named Mr. Wuffles and a group of aliens in a spaceship that somehow ended up on earth.  Mr. Wuffles found a spaceship toy that he liked and he began rolling it around that happened to be the spaceship that the aliens were in.  Mr. Wuffles falls asleep and the aliens are dizzy and tired and everything is broken in the spaceship from all of the rolling around.  They get out and Mr. Wuffles almost squishes them so they run under a dresser full of bugs they all make a pact and plot a plan to get Mr. Wuffles.  They set up a trap and got back on the spaceship and fly out the window.  It is a great book for a Science Fiction picture book and I think that students would really enjoy the book.

This is a really interesting book.  The text is written in quote bubbles.  However, most of it is like a wordless picture book because Wiesner has the aliens speaking their own language and not English.  So for one activity I might would do with students in have them write down all the different characters that the aliens use in their dialogue and have the students create an alphabet for the aliens.  Then I could put them in groups and have each group take a page and write down what they think the aliens are saying.  Another activity I may do is as a class do a venn diagram for compare and contrast of Hocus Pocus because the book has the same theme of the thrill of the chase like Mr. Wuffles.   This is a great book to base different activities off of.

Feathers, Jacqueline Woodson

Feathers is a Newbery Honor Book writen by Jacqueline Woodson.  It is a novel based on symbolism, sibling relationship and rivalry, hope, change, and equality.  There is the issue between black and white because it is about the seventies.  There is a highway that divides the different races.  Frannie

the main character goes to Price Elementary which is all black students and a new student comes in who is lighter skin the students call him "Jesus Boy."  Everyone picks on him and he ends up getting in a fight but by the end “Jesus Boy” and Frannie are good friends.  You never learn his real name, I kept reading thinking at the end you would know his name but you never do.  Frannie's brother Sean is deaf so when he signs it is in italics in the book so you know he is talking.  So the book talks about disabilities and how to Frannie and her family it is not a disability they are all just bilingual.  Overall the book is about hope and how it is everywhere and in all of us.  "Hope is a thing with feathers."

One thing I found interesting in this book was how much it focused on religion and Jesus.  The students in Frannie's class think that "Jesus Boy" is literally Jesus and that he chose to come to this school.  So I do not know how you could use this book in a public school.  If you could I would because I like this book and I think it has a great message and covers a lot of topics.  It would be great for Social Studies since it talks so much about segregation and equality and since it was based off of the seventies.  I could even teach sign language to the students since it is such a main topic in the book.  There are also a lot of different writing activities in the book itself like writing a list of what all we have in common and then sharing and going over it as a class.  A big thing that I would use in the book to teach would be equality and treating each other how we want to be treated no matter what.  Students can learn a lot from this book and it can create a great classroom community.

Hocus Pocus, Sylvie Desrosiers & Remy Simard

Hocus Pocus is a wordless picture book.  It is a really cute fun book about the thrill of the chase.  There is a magician that has a dog but he also has a rabbit in his magic hat.  The rabbit and the dog do not like each other.  So while the dog and the magician are asleep the rabbit gets out.  The dog wakes up and the dog and rabbit end up going back and forth at each other annoying each other.  The dog ends up being the one that gets in trouble and disciplined, so essentially the rabbit wins.

When I was reading this book it made me automatically think about Tom and Jerry.  So as an activity to go with a lesson on venn diagrams and comparing and contrasting I would read this book with students and have them watch a clip of Tom and Jerry.  Then as a class we would fill out a venn diagram looking at the similarities and differences of Hocus Pocus and Tom and Jerry.  This would be an engaging activity for students.  I will have this book in my classroom library.    

The Giant Seed, Arthur Geisert

The Giant Seed is a wordless picture book.  From what I read one the inside front jacket of the book it is one in a series about pigs.  This particular book is about a giant seed growing in the pig’s town.  It grows big and tall and has huge leaves.  The kid pigs play on the plant.  A volcano erupted and started little fires in the village and caused people to begin to pack up their bags to leave.  Fire lands on the seeds but the pigs climb to the top of the seeds and cut them off and ride them down to an island.

 

To me this book was kind of confusing.  At the end of the book I could not tell what really happened, they were on an island but I do not know if it was where their original village was or if it was a new island that they landed on.  This got me thinking on what I would do if my students were confused.   First I would have them write me a couple of sentences telling me what they think happened at the end of the book.  Then I would have a few students share if they wanted too.  I would make sure that they know that there is no wrong answer.  It would be a great writing activity and would clear up the meaning of the book for students.  

Rainstorm, Barbara Lehman

Rainstorm is a wordless picture book.  With that being said you have to interpret the meaning of the book based off of the illustrations.  In the beginning of the book a little boy is looking out the window and it is raining.  In that illustration there is a ball that your eyes are just drawn too, it is important in the book.  The little boy found a key and finally found that it opened a treasure chest.  Once he opened the treasure chest it took him to a sunny land on the beach full of friends where he was happy and could play.  Then he came home and ate and slept, when he woke up the next morning and it was still raining so he went back to be with his friends.  It is a book that kind of comes full circle and is definitely a book I will have in my classroom library.

As I was beginning to read Rainstorm the first thing I noticed was on the inside jacket of the book there was a synopsis.  It gave the gist of the book saying it was about a rainy day and a lonely boy in a big house who found a mysterious key to an unexpected place.  This helped me to know what is going on in the book instead of just guessing.  In my classroom I would turn this into a mini lesson going over parts of a book and how it is important that we look for clues in those parts that might help us as we read the book.  This will help students become better readers.