The Witches by: Roald Dahl (Modern Fantasy and Science Fiction)

 

The unnamed "boy" in the story is the main character and is terrified of witches after all of the stories he hears from his grandmother.  His grandmother tells him how witches despise children and can make them disappear, and also teaches him how to recognize a witch.  He thinks his grandmother is making all of it up until he travels to Norway with her and accidentally sits in on the witches' annual meeting.  The witches have disguised themselves as a group of women preventing cruelty to children, but actually are all getting together to find out the plan from the Grand High Witch for how to get rid of all of the children.  The Grand High Witch informs them they will create a poisonous mixture that will turn the children into mice and put it inside chocolate.  The witches will give the chocolates away for free and the children will all turn into mice.  The witches turn both the narrator and his friend into mice at their meeting, but even as mice, they are able to speak.  The narrator works with his grandmother to come up with a plan to stop the witches from turning every child into a mouse.  They use the witches own poison on them and come up with a plan to stop all of the witches in the entire world.

I would use this story to help the students consider multiple perspectives in literature.  I would ask them to choose a part of the story and write a paragraph from the perspectives of the narrator, the grandmother, the Grand High Witch, Bruno, and one of the witches attending the meeting.  I would focus on the narrator's character and ask students to think about how they would feel to live their lives as a mouse that can talk but know that they had saved all of the children of the world from witches.  I would ask them to write a page based on what kind of decision they would make as the narrator and if they would feel accomplished after putting an end to the formula.  Through exploring multiple perspectives, the students will be able to make connections to the story and understand the meaning behind the text.

AR Book Finder Book Level 4.7

A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr. by: David A. Adler (Nonfiction- Biography)

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born during a time of segregation of the races and felt he was treated unfairly by the white community.  He longed for equality and studied black leaders while becoming a minister.  Dr. King fought for civil rights through peaceful protests and marches, but was met with anger and violence.  A man threw a bomb through his window to show his hatred and Martin wanted his followers to remain calm about the violent act.  He led a bus protest to end "White Only" sections on buses, gave very famous speeches, and won a Nobel Peace Prize through his actions.  Dr. King was killed fighting for freedom, but his dream lives on with the country.  His life and ideals changed the history of our nation.

I would read this book aloud to the class to introduce them to the ideas associated with the Civil Rights Movement.  I could use it during the time around Martin Luther King Day which occurs on his birthday or I could use it during Black History Month as I am going over different historical leaders.  I would ask them questions to gear their thinking towards understanding multiple perspectives and help them form opinions on what matters most to them.  I would ask the students to write "I have a dream..." at the top of their blank paper and to write and draw what their individual dream is.  I would encourage them to think of laws they find unfair or things in the world they would like to improve.  For example, students could write that they have a dream that people will not be bullies.  I would hang the drawings up in the classroom and use the book to start a discussion on the Civil Rights Movement.

AR Book Finder Book Level 3.8

Crocodiles (In the Wild) by: Claire Robinson (Nonfiction)

People hunt and kill crocodiles to use their skin for making leather.  Female crocodiles lay eggs and the baby crocodiles swallow their food whole until they can finally chew.  To hunt, crocodiles keep their entire body in the water except for their eyes, ears, and nostrils.  Crocodiles swim by moving their tails and love to bask in the sun since they are reptiles.  They have scaly skin and do not usually run unless they are afraid of danger. Crocodiles have teeth that are all the same shape.  Female crocodiles give birth once a year and look after their young by teaching them how to hunt.  They break their food apart with their teeth to swallow in smaller pieces but cannot chew their food.  The book gives a lot of basic information on crocodiles.

I would use this book in teaching Grade 4 to integrate science and literature.  The NCSCOS for 4^th grade indicates students learn about animal behaviors and adaptations, and this book would be helpful for a student who wanted to find out more information about crocodiles.  I would use this book, along with other nonfiction texts that give information about animals, to provide resources for the students to do a project.  I would have them each choose a different animal to research and create a power point presentation using multiple nonfiction literature sources.  Afterward, they could all present to the class so the class gains a wider range of knowledge regarding animal behaviors for many different animals.  I could also use this book for teaching Grade 5 where the students begin to understand the interdependence of plants and animals.  This book encompasses specific examples of how the food chain plays out in the grand scheme of a crocodile’s ecosystem.

AR Book Finder Book Level 3.1

Rapunzel: The Graphic Novel by: Stephanie Peters (Traditional or Folk Literature)

A man and woman are expecting a baby when the wife begins craving rampion from the witch’s garden.  The rampion is also known as Rapunzel, which is where the young girl in the story gets her name.  The husband sneaks into the garden in order to make his wife happy and is caught stealing from the witch.  The witch takes the couple’s baby in exchange for the rampion and keeps the baby girl, Rapunzel, locked up in a tall tower.  A prince finds Rapunzel and promises to save her.  When the witch finds out about the prince, she cuts off Rapunzel’s long hair and leaves her alone in a desert.  The witch blinds the prince and he is able to find Rapunzel by tracking down her singing voice.  Rapunzel heals the prince’s blindness with her tears and they live a happy life with their children.

Video of Rapunzel: The Graphic Novel 

I would use this book to create a discussion based around the book in the classroom.  My first discussion question would be, “When Rapunzel was trapped in the tower, she spent most of her days all by herself.  Imagine you were trapped by yourself somewhere.  How would you spend your time?”  Another question I would ask would be, “Each page of a graphic novel has several illustrations called panels.  What is your favorite panel in this book?  Describe what you like about the illustration and why it’s your favorite.”  My last discussion question would be, “Fairy tales are often told over and over again.  Have you heard the “Rapunzel” fairy tale before? How is this version of the story different from other versions you’ve heard, seen, or read?”  I would also give writing prompts to the students.  The first prompt would be, “Write a new middle and ending for the Rapunzel story.  Imagine that her parents had refused to give the witch their baby.  What would happen?  Would they have to go into hiding?  Would the witch catch them and put all three in the tower?”  The second prompt would be, “Before the prince found Rapunzel in the desert, he was forced to survive on his own.  As a blind person in the wilderness, what do you think was the biggest challenge he faced?”  The last prompt would be, “The story says Rapunzel and her family ‘lived in perfect happiness from then on.’  Write a story about their life together.  Will they stay in their cottage?  Will they try to return to the prince’s kingdom?”  The younger grades could choose one prompt out of the three and the older grades could respond to all three prompts.

AR Book Finder Book Level 2.5

Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything by: Lenore Look (Realistic Fiction)

Ruby is a second grader who goes through an adjustment in her life while her aunt, uncle, and cousin emigrate from China to move in with her and her family.  Ruby helps to welcome her cousin, Flying Duck, into her new school but sometimes feels jealous of her.  She struggles to maintain a friendship with her next door neighbor, Emma, and finds a new dog that her mother desperately wants to get rid of.  Ruby helps her class understand the best ways to communicate with deaf people since Flying Duck is deaf and is in her class.  Flying Duck has a hard time adjusting to the new country, but Ruby learns sign language to help make her feel more accepted and welcome.  She loves learning new things and her life is full of excitement.  Ruby sets goals for herself and sticks to them, such as learning how to swim.

I would use this book in the classroom as a read aloud if there was a new student that joined our class.  Ruby does a terrific job of welcoming Flying Duck and the book would demonstrate how to make other people feel welcome when they are new.  The students would be able to relate to Ruby and make connections to her life and the things she goes through on a day to day basis.  I would also use this book to emphasize the importance of accepting people from diverse cultures.  In the story, Emma calls Flying Duck an “alien,” and Ruby points out on several occasions that different is not wrong, it is just different.  I would use this to highlight the importance of understanding cultural differences.  I would ask students to write down words or phrases that contain unfamiliar words or words that they think are related to Flying Duck’s Chinese customs.  After the story was read, I would go through Ruby’s Amazing Glossary and Guide to Important Words at the end of the book to see if any of the words matched the ones they wrote down.  I would also use this book to talk about differences in every person, whether it is deafness or needing to wear glasses, and discuss ways to help make everybody feel accepted, even if they look or act different.

AR Book Finder Book Level 3.8

Heartbeat by: Sharon Creech (Realistic Fiction)

The book is about a young girl named Annie who loves to run.  She runs barefoot and only for enjoyment, which causes her to despise the thought of running to compete on a team.  Her parents are having a new baby and she is nervous and excited at the same time.  Her grandpa has a hard time remembering things, but Annie always has a way of making him feel more comfortable.  She saves her money to help her best friend, Max, buy new running shoes and he returns the favor by getting her art supplies to draw.  She practices drawing the same apple one hundred times and drawing the apple becomes harder with each successive drawing.  

I would use this book to help teach students some of the elements of literature.  The book discusses footnotes and how to use them, and I could allow class time for the students to practice using footnotes in their writing or adding footnotes to other books.  I could also discuss the importance of using a wide vocabulary since Annie often times uses a thesaurus to help her find more exciting words.  I would ask the students to choose twenty words from the story and use the thesaurus to find better words to replace them with.  I would allow the students to gain practice writing in a different style than the typical paragraph structures by asking them to mimic the author’s style using their own writing.  Each sentence is broken up into multiple lines and constructed in a particular way and the students would have a chance to explore Sharon Creech’s writing style.  I could also ask the students to explore the way dialogue is used in the story since the author chooses to use italics to represent quotations rather than quotation marks. 

AR Book Finder Book Level 5.0

Rules by: Cynthia Lord (Realistic Fiction)

Catherine is a young girl who longs for a next door neighbor that she can become best friends with.  She has an autistic brother, David, and knows exactly how to best communicate with him.  She presents clear, direct rules that he knows he must follow.  A new girl moves in next door and Catherine desperately wants to be her best friend, but also feels slightly embarrassed about David.  She meets a boy in a wheelchair, Jason, and completely changes his life.  She draws pictures to enhance his language book and helps him to experience life in a new way.  Catherine realizes that accepting others for who they really are is more important than impressing others.

Wallwisher: David's Rules

I would use this book in the classroom by integrating technology and all and to put each rule on a sticky note on their wallwisher.  I would help students identify goals they can set for themselves and ask them to add those to their wallwisher.  The students will be able to respond to questions I can pose for them to answer at certain points in the book as they are reading.  The questions would be focused around comprehension and making connections with the text.  For example, I would ask students if they would tell Kristi that Jason is in a wheelchair when she asked about him or keep it to themselves and have them explain their responses.  I would also have a whole class discussion based around the ways in which Catherine helps David.  I would ask the students if they ever have to help take care of younger siblings and have them imagine how different it would be to help care for a sibling with autism.  I would help students recognize the way Catherine is initially nervous to become friends with Jason because he is different from her but eventually looks past his differences to find a really great friend.

AR Book Finder Book Level 3.9

Rapunzel by: Rachel Isadora (Multicultural and International Literature)

 

A husband and wife had a child on its way when the wife became very ill due to her strong desire for rapunzel.  The man climbed into the garden to get it for his wife because he wanted her to get better.  The wife wanted more and the husband returned to the garden.  He was caught by the sorceress who was very angry.  She made the man promise to give her his child when it was born in exchange for the rapunzel he had taken.  The sorceress named the girl Rapunzel and locked her into a tower that could only be reached by Rapunzel dropping down her long hair for the sorceress to climb up.  The prince heard her singing and promised to come back every night to visit her.  The sorceress realized Rapunzel was pregnant and cut off her hair before leaving her alone in the woods.  The prince came back that night and was blinded by falling onto thorns.  He wandered around until he heard Rapunzel's voice and found his family.  When Rapunzel cried, her tears healed the prince's blindness and the family returned to the kingdom.

I would use this book in the classroom to show a diverse side of fairytale genre books.  Most of the fairy tales have Caucasian families and a beautiful skinny main character for the princess.  This book would be good to use in the classroom because it does not fit into the stereotypical idea of a prince and princess that is instilled in the children by Disney movies and most fairy tale illustrations.  I would ask the students if they have seen the movie Tangled and ask them to compare and contrast the two versions.  I would ask the students to search in the library for other multicultural or international literature that could be compared to the standard fairy tales that they are already familiar with.  If they find any books that are diverse versions of popular fairy tales I would read them aloud to the class.  I would ask the students to pay special attention to the details in the illustrations and to think about how they are different from the illustrations they are used to seeing in most fairy tales.  

AR Book Finder Book Level 4.2

Playtime in Africa by: Efua Sutherland (Multicultural and International Literature)

The girls in Africa enjoy a jumping game called “Ampe.”  The boys enjoy playing soccer.  All of the children enjoy skipping rope, playing hopscotch, and going down the slide.  The children have fun playing with toy cars and with marbles.  They love to play hide-and-seek and checkers, but most of all they love see-saws.  They like to play in the rain and find insects and bugs in the grass.  The children love hearing stories and using their imaginations.  Some of the girls enjoy stringing beads to create necklaces and earrings for themselves and their dolls.  The kids like to play instruments, draw, cook, and ride bikes.  They like playing in the ocean and joining in on festival days.  They fly kites, fish, and create things out of clay.  They also enjoy blowing bubbles and being in parades.

I would use this book to help the students relate their own personal lives to the lives of the children living in Africa.  I would read the book aloud to the class and ask the students to write down the things they hear about that they also enjoy doing.  For example, when I would read the pages about drawing, they would write down drawing if they also like to draw.  At the end of the read aloud, I would ask the students to share the activities that they have written down to show them how similar their lives are to the children who live on a completely different continent.  I would then ask them to point out some of the differences between the ways they play games compared to the ways the children in Africa play games.  For example, in Africa, the children use cups and marbles to play checkers and call it “Oware.”  Through exploring the similarities and differences between playtime in America and Playtime in Africa, the students can relate to the text and find similarities between their own lives and the lives of children in Africa.

George Washington's Breakfast by: Jean Fritz (Historical Fiction)

A boy named George W. Allen wants to find out information about George Washington since he was named after him and has the same birthday.  George Allen already knows a lot of information about George Washington as far as battles, presidency, and his pets, but he wants to find out what George Washington ate for breakfast.  The librarian helps him research and the more George Allen reads about the prior president, the more connected he feels to him.  George Allen and his parents decide to go to Mount Vernon, Virginia to investigate George Washington’s hometown.  They go to the Smithsonian Institute and to Washington’s old house to investigate, but are left with no answers.  George Allen finally figures out what George Washington ate for breakfast and his grandmother makes it for him.

I would use this book to inspire students to research the topics, ideas, and questions they are curious about.  The main character of the story, George, uses multiple methods of investigation through books and encyclopedias, the internet, and museums.  I would ask students to think of their own question they want to investigate and use this book as a read aloud to introduce the assignment.  I would assist them in researching their question and encourage them to use the same resources that George Allen uses in the story.  This will not only spark the students’ creativity, but it will also allow students to gain valuable experience using multiple methods of investigation.  I can take them to the school library to look for books and encyclopedias, and help them to find websites that would give accurate information based around the topic of their choice.

AR Book Finder Book Level 4.1

Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares by: Frank Murphy (Historical Fiction)

Ben Franklin was a famous inventor who loved to think of new things and test them out.  He invented flippers to help him swim, an almanac for useful information, the Franklin stove which burned less wood than a fireplace, and special rocking chairs to keep flies away.  He wrote a newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, and found out that lightning produces electricity by tying a key to a kite.  Ben Franklin also founded many important places in our nation, including America’s first library, fire station and hospital.  He worked with Thomas Jefferson to help write the Declaration of Independence and also invented magic squares.  The magic squares he invented have a three by three grid and each of the lines of numbers, including diagonal lines, all add up to fifteen.

 I would use this book to help students decipher what is fictional and factual in the story.  Some of the events are embellished on and other events are true events that actually occurred.  I would ask students to create a time line of Ben Franklin's major accomplishments and use the dates that are given in the story.  I would have the students compare this book about Ben Franklin's life to other books that consist of events or accomplishments related to Ben Franklin and see what other information is provided.  I would have the students go online and research each event on their time line to write down a fact about each event that they did not know before doing research.  Through gaining practice navigating the web, the students will be able to learn how to find out additional information based around a particular person or subject matter.

AR Book Finder Book Level 3.6

Princess Academy by: Shannon Hale (Traditional or Folk Literature)

Miri is a fourteen year old girl who lives on top of a mountain and dreams of seeing the palace.  She also longs to work in the quarry but is forbidden by her father because she is so small and fragile.  Once she finally has a chance to leave home and live a life like a "lowlander," Miri realizes that she misses her sister, her father, and her friend, Peder.  Miri has a hard time fitting in with the other girls at the princess academy and becomes an outcast after ruining the girls' chance of going home to visit their families.  Tutor Olana does not like Miri, either, and Miri faces a very challenging year at the academy.  Miri discovers that she can communicate in a nonverbal way through "quarry speech" and uses her skills to help others.  The girls are held hostage and Miri shows bravery through risking her own live to save the lives of her classmates.  She changes the entire way of life in Mount Eskel and feels accomplished after gaining a higher education and learning to read.

               

                   <-- click here for my example Wordle

I would use this book in the classroom to incorporate technology into my lesson.  I think this is a good book to use with older grade levels (fifth, sometimes fourth) but could be recommended to a third grade student who has advanced reading skills.  I would ask students to write down descriptions of Miri, the main character, as they read and then highlight or underline one word from each of their descriptions.  I would then pass out laptops and have the students create a wordle using words that describe Miri.  I would show them my example but tell them that they could not use any of the same words that I used.  I would allow them to use their creativity by designing the wordle to look however they want it to and then print them out so each student can keep their creation.  I would have the students get into small groups and choose the wordle that best encompasses all of the dimensions of Miri's character and have that person share theirs with the entire class.

AR Book Finder Book Level 6.0