Milo's Hat Trick

Milo's had trick was written and illustrated by Jon Agee. I thought this book was really funny. It is about a man who does hat tricks with a bear at his magic show. This book is very funny. When Milo looses his hat with the bear in it and the bear pops out of his hat with a random man at a resturaunt, I even laughed out loud a little bit. The book isn't predictable and that is what I liked about it. The pictures in the book were very interesting. They were simple sketches with lots of color. One thing I noticed about the illustrations were that none of the people in the pictures had eyeballs. They had a place for their eyes, but they were just white circles. I didn't think that it made the people look bad, but I thought it was kind of different and wondered why the illustrator made this choice. I think this would be a fun book to show kids. I feel it would make them laugh and learn a little bit about magic at the same time!

Twister

Twister was written by Darleen Bailey Beard and illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. I liked this book because it seemed so real to me. It told about a family who was caught up in a twister and had to hide in their storm cellar. The author did an amazing job of using descriptive words. She describes scenes in such detail that you are able to paint amazing pictures in your head. Her word choice is also very descriptive and makes the story very enjoyable. I noticed she used a lot of sound words. Instead of describing the sounds in the story she actually wrote them and I thought this was really neat. I thought there was a lot of emotion in the story. It made me feel really sorry for the family in the story and also very scared. The illustrations looked like colorful sketches. They were different from most picture books and I thought they were very pretty. The book is more about family,friends, and feelings than about twisters, but it does a nice job of describing what it would be like to be caught up in a twister.

Arthur's Eyes

I couldn't pass up an Arthur book as I roamed the shelves at the library. Arthur used to be my favorite show on t.v., so it was fun to read a book about him. Marc Brown is the author and illustrator for these books. I like them becuase most of the Arthur books teach a lesson or talk about an issue most children will come accross. This book tells about how Arthur needs glasses. When he gets them, everyone makes fun of him. In the end, Arthur sees how it is important to wear his glasses and his friends envy his new glasses. It was a kind of wierd when looking at the pictures in the book, because I used to watch the t.v. show so much and the characters look very similiar, but not really the same as the show. This didn't distract me from the text, but I definately found myself looking at the characters a lot. I really do like the Arthur books. I think they are fun for kids to read becuase I feel like most people, especially children, will be able to connect to them. Also, I liked how the pages right inside the cover were pictures of glasses. It was just a fun way to introduce the story.

Love That Dog

I have never read a book like this ever. I really really enjoyed it. I felt like I could feel the character grow as a person and as a poet as the story went on. It was very captivating and I couldn't put it down. I definately think that it is a book you should read all at once. I like when the author did the repitition of the words such as wag-wag-wagging. This really stuck out to me and it added to the poem. Also when the author chose to write descriptive words in a certian ways such as writing the word thin in a thin way. I also liked the format. I'm not really sure if I quite understand the format or why it was in diary for, maybe to get a sense of time or so you could see Jack grow. The poem I thought really made you imagine and visualize a lot. The whole time I was thinking about what the poems that the boy was reacting to were like. I was so glad at the end they were shared so I could read them. I noticed the boy didn't really say his name ever until around page 60. This was a big step for him and I felt like this was a huge turning point in the story. I definately got the feeling of a rythm when I was reading. Page after page I just felt as if there was a beat that I was reading to. The story was very heartwarming to me. It was this young boy who never believed in himself and he was so very inspired by a dog that he used to have. Then he discovered this poet who truly inspired him and in the end he finally got the confidence he needed. I really liked this poem a lot. Not having read a book like this before, I was definately intrigued by the format and would enjoy reading more poems like this.

Oliver Button Is a SIssy

In quite a few of my classes in the readings I had to do the book Oliver Button Is a Sissy kept coming up. I decided I had to see what all the fuss was about. Tomie de Paola wrote the book about a boy who didn't like to do stereotypical boy things and instead he liked to dance. He got made fun of for it and got called a sissy. He showed off his dance skills at the talent show and then his classmates thought of him as a star. This book teaches a very important lesson. Never giving up is such an important thing for children to learn and this book gives such a great example. I enjoyed looking at all of the pictures in the book. The facial expressions of everyone portrayed how they felt very well. I feel this story is in so many of my classes and books I read because of the language in the book. I think it would be a really good level for a younger reader. The language was pretty simple so I feel it would be a perfect fit. I really enjoyed how the book ended. It didn't come out and tell you how the feelings of his classmates changed but it showed you. I was so proud of Oliver at the end of the story! Never giving up and believing in yourself are such good virtues for young kids to learn.

Guess How Much I Love You

Guess How Much I Love You was written by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram. It is a book about a mom bunny and her little baby bunny telling each other how much they love eachother. This book really reminded me of when I was little and I used to hold my hands out as far as they would go and tell my mom how much I loved her. We kind of did the same things the bunnies did by trying different ways to make our love for eachother grow and grow. There were only a few colors used in the illustrations but I thought that was all that was needed because it really focused you on what the rabbits were talking about. I think this book could be read with younger kids and it would be fun for them to read with parents or loved ones. I think they would definately immitate the story. One thing that I kind of struggled with during the book were the names of the characters. There was Big Nutbrown Hare and Little Nutbrown Hare. I kept having to read the names over again and for some reason, I don't know why, the Nutbrown name just threw me off. Overall, I thought this was a very special book and it would be one that I would want to share with kids that I love.

Olivia Saves the Circus

I thought Olivia Saves the Circus was an excellent book. Ian Falconer did such a great job making the book funny and unique and the illustrations were definately one of a kind. The book tells about how Olivia tells a fib to her classmates about how the circus was all sick with ear infections so she had to take over. I found myself smiling a lot during the book. It is just really cute and really well written. The pictures are really interesting because they are in black and white and then certian things are in color. They really catch your attention. I liked how one of the pages folded all the way out. This is a really fun feature for kids... and me! Right when you open the book there are small pictures of Olivia doing different things and I thought they added to the book. I think the author did a great job of creating the character of Olivia. She seems like a very special little pig. The storyline of the book was really cool because Olivia had to do all of the things that go on in the circus all by herself!!! One thing I could not understand was the picture above Olivia's bed in the book. It is a grandma waving her hands in the air. I thought it was very very random and I tried for quite a while to figure out what is was.

Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry

This book was written towards children who's parents suffer from a mental illness. The little girl's mother in the story is very nice to her and they have a good time together before school, but after school she is mean and yells at her and doesn't spend any time with her. I didn't really like this book. I can see where the author is coming from in addressing a hard topic like this one, but I just thought it was a little hard to understand. Some of the wording was a lilttle confusing and I just didn't really like the way that the topic was addressed. I feel that the book didn't really help the girl in the book, it just told her story. I think the book could have shown the situation a little better. I was thinking that if I knew a child that was in a similiar situation I would not read them this book. I just don't think it would really help them cope with the situation. Other than the little girl's grandma telling her to think happy thoughts, it didn't really help the girl and her situation. I don't think it told enough about the situation and I found myself wanting to know more. When I first read the book I didn't see the informative page that told that the mother had a mental illness, so when I read the book I really had no idea what was going on. I think that the informative page needed to be a little more obvious.

Stellaluna

Stellaluna is a very heartwarming book. It's about a bat that gets lost from her mother and ends up living with a family of little birds. She even starts acting like the birds. After doing all of the goofy things that the birds do, she is reunited with her mother. In the end the story is about friendship. This story reminded me of how I have some really good friends who I am exactly alike and some who I am completly different from. This story was a really good example of how people can look and even act totally different but still be reallly close friends. Janell Cannon was the author and illustrator for this book. I think the pictures in the book are really simple, yet fun to look at. I would probably scream if I ever saw a real bat, but the whole time I was thinking about how cute the bat on the cover and the pages was. The birds were very accepting of the bat and I think this is a really important virtue that the book shows.

Soccer

Soccer is a guide for being a soccer player. It includes skills and drills, an overview with rules, and a "Putting it All Together" section. I think if you were a person who had never played soccer before, this would be a great way to start. I used to play soccer all the time, so it was a little different from my point of view. Even though I know how to play soccer, the skills and drills section of the book gave many different drills for things you can work on as a soccer player and some of these were beneficial to me. The pictures were also a great visual representation of the text. I thought the book was really long, but if you didn't know how to play, you would need all of these differnt categories of the game to be taught to you and I think the book did a nice job describing and showing them.

Rainforests

Rainforests is a book that tells a child all they need to know about the rainforest. Some of the things talked about in this book include climate, different types and layers of the rainforest, Indigenous peoples, etc. It includes many pictures of the rainforest, animals, and other helpful visuals. I thought the book was very informational for a younger child. It made me think of a report I did on the rainforests when I was younger... I wish I had this book to use while writing it! The pictures are very good visual aids for the text. Some of the things that the book talks about such as the layers of the rainforest might be kind of hard to understand without the pictures. All of the pictures are real pictures of the rainforest and animals in the rainforest.

Team Moon

Team moon tells about how 400,000 people landed Apollo 11 on the moon. Not only did the astronauts land on the moon, but it took the help of 400,00 others who worked in the control rooms and in the engineering departments to help this mission be a success. The book tells about all of the different difficulties the team faced when trying to land the Apollo 11 on the moon. In the text it includes details and facts from this amazing adventure, but also different things the astronauts in the spacecraft thought and said to eachother. I really liked reading this book becasue I had never really studied or learned about the Apollo 11 mission. I knew we had landed on the moon, but that is all I really knew about the situation. Reading this book really opened my mind to what really went on.

The most amazing part of the whole book are the pictures. I looked through the book numerous times admiring them. The picures are real photos from the mission. There were pictures on the astronauts, the beautiful moon, the earth at different distances, and

Move!

Move! is a really fun way to learn about all the different ways in which animals move. The books is filled with different animls and shows how some move in the same way and some move in different. Some of the different ways include waddle, slide, float, dance, run, and fly. I thought the illustrations were a big part of the book. Each animals was drawn in a very eye catching way. I read the book twice and the second time I just looked at the pictures. I also liked the ways the words were written on the pages. Sometimes they curved around the animals or climed up the page. I think this is something that attracts kids because it is not just straight accross and it is something different for them. At the end of the book there is a small paragraph about each of the different animals that the book talked about. I really enjoyed reading these especially when the paragraph contained a really fun or interesting fact about the animal. I would definately recommend this book. The excellent pictures along with the interesting way the text was written and the fun facts at the end made it a very appealing book.

Oh, Rats!

Oh Rats! is a book that definately caught my eye. I, like many other people would scream as lound as I could and jump to the highest spot in the room the instant I saw a rat. They are definately an animal with an extremely bad stereotype. After reading this book I definately have a much softer side for the animal.

The book begins by telling about a young boy who was deathly afraid of rats and his father told him they are not a bad animal and he should learn about them...so he did. The book has many interesting facts about the animal. The facts are told in a way that they are intersting to read. They were very easy to understand. The book seemed a little lengthy because there was a lot of text, but there were little boxes on every other page that told about a specific species of rat or interesting rat detail that I always looked forward to. For example, one box told about a rat that lived long ago that was the size of a small rhinoceros! The pictures in the book were simple, but definately needed to keep my interest. If your one of those people who would let out a high pitched yell if you saw this rodent...read Oh Rats! and give rats a chance.

Gone Wild

In this book David Mclimans shows an interesting way to learn your ABC's. Each page gives a letter, and next to the letter there is the name of an animal that is an endangered species. A big letter is shown on each page and the letter is shaped in the shape of the animal it is representing. This was really fun for me to look at. It was interesting to look at the drawings because they were all drawn simply in black and white yet they were so detailed and unique. I found myself looking at the letter and trying to guess what animal it was going to stand for before I read the actual name of the animal above.

The book also told a little bit about endangered species before it started with the alphabet and I thought this was a good choice because it really got me focused on what the book was going to be about. On each page the book told the animals class, habitat, range, threats, and status. Since the pictures were in black and white I used my imagination to picture what the animals would look like in color and also in it's habitat. It was a fun way to use my imagination and also learn more about endangered animals I had never heard about. I think this book is especially cool because it can be used for all different ages. If your looking for a fun way to learn your ABC's....Gone Wild is an excellent choice.

George's Marvelous Medicine

George's Marvelous Medicine is an amazing book by one of my favorite authors, Roald Dahl. George has to stay home with his grouchy grandma who is not very nice to him. Instead of giving her her normal medicine at 11:00 he concocts his own medicine. This new medicine does some crazy things to grandma and the farm animals George gives it to.

Roald Dahl is a very talented author. I think this book would be perfect for children who are just getting to the age to read chapter books. It is a pretty easy read for children and I think they would find it quite funny. I actually found the book quite interesting. It is the kind of book that you don't want to put down because you just want to see what is going to happen next. Along with the text the author also adds pictures to the story. The pictures are very simple, but also detailed at the same time. I think this is a really cool part of the book because not all chapter books include pictures and they style of the pictures was really different and unique. Also, the pictures are very humerous as they show all of the different things things that happen when George gives out his medicine. This book was really fun to read and brought back a lot of childhood memories of reading it.

The Hello, Goodbye Window

The Hello Goodbye Window, is a book filled with amazing pictures that give you a very heartwarming feeling. Norton Juster wrote about a special window this little girls likes at her grandparents house. The story talks about all of the fun things that she likes to do when she spends time with her grandma and grandpa. The window, I feel, is symbolic for being able to look in on the time the child spends with her grandparents. They are very special to her and she talks about all of the fun memories she has with them. The book reminded me of all of the fun things I used to do when I would spend a week at my grandparents in the summers. It brought back lots of fun memories.
Chris Raschka does such a wonderful job with the illustrations in this book. They actually look like they could have been watercolored on by a child. They really brought out the concept of childhood and the memories that the young girl had. I read the book and then went back just to look at the pictures. They are so very beautiful and quite unique.

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

I read this book a few times and was blown away. It is an absolutely beatifully written lyrical book with illistrations that truly touched me. Phileppe Petit performed juggling and tightrope walking in a New York City park. One day he looked up at the twin towers and On August 7, 1974, with the help of a few of his friends, he secured a tightrope between the towers, a quarter of a mile high in the sky. When the sun rose in the morning, the young man walked out onto the rope and performed for hours.
This book truly touched me in many ways. Mordicai Gerstein is the author and illustrator of the story and just does an amazing job. His book has many different features that make it unique. It is written in a beautiful lyrical form. I feel that sometimes the author uses some symbolic phrases about being free and believing. On some of the pages there are a few different pictures on the page. I loved how some of the pages folded out into a few pages put together to show how high he was up on the tower. The pictures were drawn so well I actually felt like I was high in the air with Phileppe. I had never heard of this before so I was shocked when I read the book. I can not believe someone would do such a thing. A part in the book that really touched me was a page at the end of the book that simply read, "Now the towers are gone." I read that page over and over. I thought this book was just wonderful and I recommend it to everyone! It's definately one of my new favorites and I can't wait to read more stories by this author.

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

When walking through the library I could hardly pass up the Dr. Seuss section. You can never go wrong when you choose on of his books. "And to Think That I Say It on Mulberry Street," is a book that is full of imagination. It starts off with a boy who sees a horse and wagon on Mulberry Street on his way home. As he keeps walking his imagination flows and he begins adding different things to his story of just seeing a horse and wagon such as having an elephant pull a brass band instead. As his imagination soars, his story becomes more and more extravagant!
I absolutely love books that rhyme so I of course adore Dr. Seuss books. This story is extremely creative and you never know whats coming next. It is really fun and makes you excited to see what's coming next. It would be an awesome book to show kids how they can use their own imaginations and creativity.

Officer Buckle and Gloria

Officer Buckle and Gloria is a really funny book for children to read. It was written and illustrated by Peggy Rathmann. Nobody listens to officer Buckle when he shares all of his saftey tips, until he gets a dog Gloria who does funny things during the speaches to demonstrate the saftey tips, however, Officer Buckle does see her doing this. When he finds out he becomes upset but finally realizes he needs Gloria so that the children listen and they become best buddies.
I read this book a couple times because there are lots of little details I didn't take time to notice the first time I read the book. On the inside cover it shows lots of Officer Buckle's saftey tips with Gloria acting them out. When some of the students write letters to the Officer and his dog it shows a lot of the letters and you are able to read some of them. Also, there is just a lot of detail in the book that I feel deserves a little extra time to appreciate. The book is full of good saftely lesson and also incorporates humor with the actions the dog makes. I think children would really like reading this book. I think it would really appeal to children who know how to read so they could appreciate all the detailed writing in the book.

Don't Be Silly, Mrs. Millie!

Don't Be Silly Mrs. Millie is a great book that would be silly and fun for younger children. I feel like it would suit kids in younger grades best. The book was written by Judy Cox and is about a kindergarten class who finds thier teacher to be quite funny. Mrs. Millie always uses animal names for things that she says. For example, she tells the children they are having gorilla cheese sandwhiches for lunch instead of grilled cheese sandwhiches. Joe Mathieu does an excellent job of making the pictures in the book very detailed and humerous.
This book seemed like it was a pretty easy read and would be a good book for a child learning how to read, especially since they could use context clues to help them decode the text if they are having trouble. I also think it would be fun to think of some more interesting phrases that you could replace with animal names and use them in the classroom after you read the book. I definately think a class of younger students would think it was funny...They might even say, "Don't be silly Ms. McGee!"

Things That Are Most in the World

I really enjoyed reading this book. Judi Barrett does a great job of finding out all the crazy things in the world. Some examples in the book include, "The oddest thing in the world is an ant windsurfing in a bowl of pea soup," or "The teensie-weensiest thing in the world is a newborn flea." The book kind of reminded me of the story, " Chimps Don't Wear Glasses." I found the book really intriguing myself, so I'm sure it would be very enjoyable for children. The pictures are what really made the book. John Nickle did such a great job making the pictures colorful and humorous.

While I was reading the book I was thinking what other categories there could be for things that are most in the world. I think it would be really fun to create my own page for the book. This would be an excellent project for children. It would let their imaginations run free and I'm posotive they would come up with some crazy funny things after having read "Things That Are Most in the World."

Alien for Rent

While volunteering with a third grade class a young girl was reading this book and thought it was quite funny so I decided I would give it a shot. When Lexie and J.P. see a sign on the bulliten board saying, "Alien for Rent," they go outside under the tree to where this magical creature says he would like to meet. When they encounter the little green alien and think he's kind of cute. The alien wants to help the two friends so he makes the school bully who has been picking on them act like a baby. Even though J.P. and Lexie don't care for Bruce the bully they do everything they can to get the alien to turn him back to normal.

I think there are many different spots in the book that a child would find humerous. When Bruce is turned into a baby he does lots of goofy things. In a way, this book teaches a little lesson about bullies, but also about being a good person. Even though J.P. and Lexie don't care for Bruce they try there hardest to help him.

The book made me think about having a magical friend when I was younger and what I would do if I had a magical pet alien. The book was written for children ages seven to ten and I definately think that a child this age would find this book quite funny. I think it would get a child's imagination flowing.

Dad, Are You the Tooth Fairy?

This book definately caught my attention on the shelf. It made me think about what I would say to a child if they asked me about the Tooth Fairy or Santa Clause. This book is really interesting because it answers the question of whether or not these characters/people are real and it does it in a way in which it does not lie to the child. The story tells how long ago, many creatures such as dinosaurs, unicorns, wizards, and fairies roamed the earth. Each of the creatures wanted to control the world and as the did this, the magical creatures started to dissapear. In the end, the child has to decide what he wants to believe and of course chooses to believe in the fun, money giving Tooth Fairy.

This book had wonderful illistrations of all the magical creatures. I liked it because it is a story that leaves kids still believing in the end without lying to them. I brought me back to when I was younger and believed in all of these magical things. It made me feel like anything can be real as long as you believe in it. It really makes you use your imagination, especially with the ideas the pictures put into your head. It made me want to believe in all of these fun fantacies all over again!

Two Moms, The Zark, and Me

This was a book that i randomly just grabbed from the shelf and checked out. The book was very interesting to me and really got me thinking. It is about a little boy who has two mothers. When he gets lost from his parents he asks a man for help finding his moms. The man tells the boy it is wrong to have two mothers and he will help him find another family. The story really touched me when I read it. It made me think about all of the different types of families that I could possibly have in my classroom someday.
I think there are many lessons that could be taught from this book. You could definately use the book as a way to show how many families are different. It is important for children to be aware of all of the different types of families and to realize that everyone should be accepted. You could also use the book to show how not accepting others may make them feel. When the man told the boy that it was wrong and a sin for his family to be different the boy was sad and upset, but he does not feel ashamed of his family by any means.
This book could definately be a posotive way to teach kids about how all families are different. There are lots of different emotions in the book and the illustrations help to portray these emotions very well. The book all rhymes too...MY FAVORITE!!