Sunday, February 28, 2016
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Module 3 Newbery Winners
Book Summary
Number the Stars is a book about innocence and how some girls were trying to keep theirs during a horrible time. Annamarie and her sister, Kristi along with Annamarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, are the main characters. Nazi's have occupied Denmark, and Jewish members of the community had started disappearing. Annamarie's parents help Ellen's family to escape to Sweden. Annamarie's oldest sister had died, and as the Nazi's were checking for Jews that were being hidden, Ellen was passed off as the third sister. The three girls travel out of Denmark and to see their Uncle. They were not aware that their Uncle was helping the Denmark Underground resistance and helping Jews escape. While they were there, they try to make the most out of their situation and help as much as they could. Annamarie's mother falls and breaks her ankle and Annamarie takes up the cause to help a boat of Jewish people make it across the strait.
Number the Stars is a book about innocence and how some girls were trying to keep theirs during a horrible time. Annamarie and her sister, Kristi along with Annamarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, are the main characters. Nazi's have occupied Denmark, and Jewish members of the community had started disappearing. Annamarie's parents help Ellen's family to escape to Sweden. Annamarie's oldest sister had died, and as the Nazi's were checking for Jews that were being hidden, Ellen was passed off as the third sister. The three girls travel out of Denmark and to see their Uncle. They were not aware that their Uncle was helping the Denmark Underground resistance and helping Jews escape. While they were there, they try to make the most out of their situation and help as much as they could. Annamarie's mother falls and breaks her ankle and Annamarie takes up the cause to help a boat of Jewish people make it across the strait.
APA Reference of Book
Lowry, L. (1989). Number the stars. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Impressions
I really like this book. My mother grew up during Nazi occupied Germany and I have heard some of the stories first hand. This book, and many like this, are hard to read, because of the horrors that were committed to a race of people. The story is well written and shows the compassionate side of people during troubled times. This book might be hard for the younger grades, but 5th and up should be able to understand the story and understand why we must learn our past so we will never repeat it again.
I really like this book. My mother grew up during Nazi occupied Germany and I have heard some of the stories first hand. This book, and many like this, are hard to read, because of the horrors that were committed to a race of people. The story is well written and shows the compassionate side of people during troubled times. This book might be hard for the younger grades, but 5th and up should be able to understand the story and understand why we must learn our past so we will never repeat it again.
Professional Review
The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabbi Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction--a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943. Five years younger than Lisa in Matas' book (below), Annemarie Johansen has, at ten, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events--but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as a courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors. A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards--not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen but for their Jews.
NUMBER THE STARS by Lois Lowry | Kirkus Reviews. (1989, March 15). Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lois-lowry/number-the-stars-2/
Library Uses
This book would be a great resource to add to the lessons on Europe and the WW's.This would be a great book to read and compare to Annie Franks Diary, to see how the lives differed and how they were the same in so many ways.
This book would be a great resource to add to the lessons on Europe and the WW's.This would be a great book to read and compare to Annie Franks Diary, to see how the lives differed and how they were the same in so many ways.
Module 2 Caldecott Winner
Book Summary
The story is about a young boy who is at the beach, looking for items that have been washed ashore. The title of the book means things that have been discarded and thought useless. He examines all the items to see if he can use them, then discovers a camera. He needs to clean it up and discovers film in the camera. He takes the film to be processed and sees another child in the developed picture. After looking deeper into the picture he notices, that the child is holding a picture of another child who is holding another picture of another child and so on. The young boy realizes what he needs to do, and follows the pattern. This book has amazing pictures. They are very detailed and makes the story.
APA Reference of Book
Weisner, D. (2006). Flotsam. New York, NY: Clarion Books.
Impressions
I am not a really big picture book fan, however, I feel in love with this book. The pictures are amazing and very detailed. The story line is really cute how he takes a boring day at the beach and turns it into an adventure for this young kid. The cuteness of the picture that everyone adds their own image before returning it back to the sea. The basis of this story is very clever.
Professional Review
A bright, science-minded boy goes to the beach equipped to collect and examine flotsam--anything floating that has been washed ashore. Bottles, lost toys, small objects of every description are among his usual finds. But there's no way he could have prepared for one particular discovery: a barnacle-encrusted underwater camera, with its own secrets to share . . . and to keep.
Each of David Wiesner's amazing picture books has revealed the magical possibilities of some ordinary thing or happening--a frog on a lily pad, a trip to the Empire State Building, a well-known nursery tale. In this Caldecott Medal winner, a day at the beach is the springboard into a wildly imaginative exploration of the mysteries of the deep, and of the qualities that enable us to witness these wonders and delight in them.
Each of David Wiesner's amazing picture books has revealed the magical possibilities of some ordinary thing or happening--a frog on a lily pad, a trip to the Empire State Building, a well-known nursery tale. In this Caldecott Medal winner, a day at the beach is the springboard into a wildly imaginative exploration of the mysteries of the deep, and of the qualities that enable us to witness these wonders and delight in them.
(Flotsam. (2008, April). Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/138070.Flotsam)
Library Uses
This book could be used in the lower grades to introduce them to science and the wonders of the ocean, plus the damage we are doing to it.
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Module 2 Miss Rumphius
Book Summary:
For being written in 1982, I am pleased to note that it is dedicated to Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children, sailors and maidens.The main character is Alice. She lived by the sea and loved listening to her grandfather tell his stories of travel. She was very close to her grandfather and she loved to help him in his gallery, by painting the skys.
Her goal was to travel and when she grew old she wanted to live by the sea. HEr grandfather told her she needed to do one more thing, and that was the making the world a better place.
She didn't know that would be but as she grew and traveled, she experienced the world and its beauty. After she hurt her back, she laid in bed and thought about how she can make the world a better place. Her beautification was to throw lupine seeds everywhere she went. The following spring purple, blue and rose colored flowers were every where.
For being written in 1982, I am pleased to note that it is dedicated to Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children, sailors and maidens.The main character is Alice. She lived by the sea and loved listening to her grandfather tell his stories of travel. She was very close to her grandfather and she loved to help him in his gallery, by painting the skys.
Her goal was to travel and when she grew old she wanted to live by the sea. HEr grandfather told her she needed to do one more thing, and that was the making the world a better place.
She didn't know that would be but as she grew and traveled, she experienced the world and its beauty. After she hurt her back, she laid in bed and thought about how she can make the world a better place. Her beautification was to throw lupine seeds everywhere she went. The following spring purple, blue and rose colored flowers were every where.
APA Reference of Book
Cooney, B. (1982). Miss Rumphius. New York: Viking Press.
Impressions
The drawings and colors are beautiful. The message this book has, is a powerful one. The message of leaving the Earth a better place and more beautiful than when you found it, is a message that still needs to be shared in today's times.
The drawings and colors are beautiful. The message this book has, is a powerful one. The message of leaving the Earth a better place and more beautiful than when you found it, is a message that still needs to be shared in today's times.
Professional Review
Starting tomorrow, we celebrate National Wildflower Week (May 6-12th), created by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, to “encourage the observations, cultivations, and study of native wildflowers.” Today’s book, Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, completely embodies the spirit of this week. In this story, a spinster librarian travels around the world and eventually returns to a home by the sea. Wanting to make the world a more beautiful place, she decides to scatter lupine seeds wherever she goes.
Published in November of 1982, when Barbara Cooney lived in Damariscotta, Maine, Miss Rumphius was one of hundreds of books that Cooney, a two-time winner of the Caldecott Award, illustrated in her lifetime. By the time she worked on Miss Rumphius, she had over forty years of experience in children’s book illustrations. An autobiographical picture book, Cooney drew on the life of her great grandfather, who painted pictures and allowed his young daughter, Cooney’s grandmother, to help. “I see that little girl—painting away, making yards and yards of fluffy clouds and sunsets and storms with lightening and rainbows.” Cooney also based the character of Alice Rumphius on an historical figure who traveled the world planting flower seeds. Probably even more important, Alice became what Cooney described as her “alter ego.” She later mused, “Perhaps she had been that right from the start.”
What makes Miss Rumphius memorable for many young readers, however, is the exquisite artwork, executed in the purples, pinks, and blues of the lupines—breathtaking landscapes marked by their beauty and soft color. With its positive and idealistic message of making the world a more beautiful place, this book has captivated both young readers and the parents and teachers who share the book with them. It reminds all of us that with just a little effort we can add beauty to our world.
If you are planting wildflower seeds, pick up a copy of Miss Rumphius, a great read-aloud for kindergarten through third grade, and share it with children and adult friends—both will love it. Not only does Alice Rumphius make the world a more beautiful place by scattering lupines in the story, but Barbara Cooney enhanced our visual world by giving us this breathtaking picture book that we can return to again and again.
A. S. (2011, May 5). Book-A-Day Almanac. Retrieved from http://childrensbookalmanac.com/2011/05/miss-rumphius/
Library Uses
This book can be used for all grade level in elementary. For the older grades, ecology and ways that they could help without costing a lot of money. The younger ones, colors, discussing wildflowers, and how the flowers add to the ecology. How flowers also add to the landscape.
This book can be used for all grade level in elementary. For the older grades, ecology and ways that they could help without costing a lot of money. The younger ones, colors, discussing wildflowers, and how the flowers add to the ecology. How flowers also add to the landscape.
Monday, January 25, 2016
Module 1 The Runaway Bunny
Book Summary
This book by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd, is a very sweet book about a bunny who has decided he needs to go out on his own by running away. Every time he gave away he was going to run away, his mother has a counter offer.
An example of the story is I will be a bird and fly from you" Little bunny said. "If you become a bird and fly away from me," said his mother, " I will be a tree that you come home to."
APA Reference of Book
Brown, M. W., & Hurd, C. (1942). The runaway bunny. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
Impressions
This book written in 1942 had perfectly encaptured the love that a mother has for her child. This book fits with the year it was written in. The values of family and the innocence of the young is what this book is based on. However, probably would not be a best seller in today's time. This book would be a special book in most young child's collection.
Professional Review
A little bunny keeps running away from his mother in an imaginative and imaginary game of verbal hide-and-seek; children will be profoundly comforted by this lovingly steadfast mother who finds her child every time.
The Runaway Bunny, first published in 1942 and never out of print, has indeed become a classic. Generations of readers have fallen in love with the gentle magic of its reassuring words and loving pictures.
The Runaway Bunny, first published in 1942 and never out of print, has indeed become a classic. Generations of readers have fallen in love with the gentle magic of its reassuring words and loving pictures.
The Runaway Bunny. (2007, September 13). Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58922.The_Runaway_Bunny
Library Uses
This would be a great book for kinder or first graders. This could be used to show relationships, friendships, and love. This could be used for LEP students to also expand their knowledge at a young age.
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