Shauna SandersChildren’s Literature

Summer 2010Reading Log 3

Historical Fiction

Title: The Babe & I (1999)

• Author: David A. Adler • Illustrator: Terry Widener• Genre: Historical Fiction (1932) • Format: picture book• Awards: No awards

Summary: The story takes place during the Great Depression and is about a

young boy who finds out that his dad’s job is selling apples on the street for 5

cents each, even though his mom believes his dad is still working in an office.

The boy has the opportunity to start selling newspapers and is shown how to sell

them at Yankee Stadium. The boy and his friend sell out of their newspapers

everyday because they yell out the stories about Babe Ruth. One day, the boy

receives a $5 bill from a man for one paper. He finds out it was Babe Ruth and

the boy and his friend use part of the money to go and watch Babe Ruth bat one

inning during a game. The boy’s dad finds out that he is helping his family and

they know that they are a team working together to keep their family together.

Strategies: I think many times today our younger generation does not fully

appreciate the value of money sometimes. This story would be a good lesson on

how precious life can be and the importance of being good stewards with what

God has blessed us with. In the story, the young boy is upset that his parents

gave him a dime for his birthday because he wanted a bike. In turn, the boy

goes and spends the dime on two apples and doesn’t realize how important that

dime was until he saw his own dad selling apples also. It’s a good story to show

the importance of family and supporting one another, especially during rough

times.

This story could also be used as an introduction to learning about

important people in history. The children would hear about this Babe Ruth and

could then do their own research about who he was and why he was so

important to the American people during the Great Depression. The book could

also be a read aloud with history lessons on the Great Depression and would

allow for students to really see one particular family and how they were affected

during this time in our history. A follow up lesson would be for the students to

see if they can find someone in their family history who might have lived during

the Great Depression and interview them about what specific stories they can

remember of when they were growing up.

Title: The Cats in Krasinski Square (2004)

• Author: Karen Hesse• Illustrator: Wendy Watson• Genre: Historical Fiction (1940’s)• Format: picture book • Awards: No awards

Summary: According to the author’s historical note at the end of the story, this

account of cats in Krasinski Square was a true story. The narrator is a young

Jewish girl living as a Polish citizen hiding from the Gustapo in the late 1930’s

and early 1940’s. The girl encounters some cats that come from inside the

Ghetto. She and her older sister are involved in a plot to sneak food inside the

ghetto for their Jewish friends when the Gustapo find out and plan to seize the

food with dogs at the train station. The young girl and her friends go and gather

the cats and release them at the train station to thwart the dogs’ attention in order

to sneak the food into the city. The story does a good job depicting the lives of

Jews during the worst time in their history.

Strategies: One of the fifth grade social studies standards deals with learning

about this particular time in history with the Holocaust. Many of the fifth graders

this year would ask for the book, The Diary of Anne Frank, so they could learn

more about the Jews and what they experienced. This book would definitely be

a great read aloud during the unit. However, I think the book would need to be

read during or after the unit. This should not be read as an introductory book

because there are too many words and concepts that students would be

unfamiliar with and could possibly lose interest in the book. For example, when

the young girl talks about walking her Polish walk and talking her Polish words.

One idea to use with this book would be to have the students create a

timeline of that time period. The students could even start the timeline at the

beginning of the unit and then use part of the author’s note in the back of the

book to add to their timeline.

Title: Encounter (1992)

• Author: Jane Yolen• Illustrator: David Shannon • Genre: Historical Fiction (1492)• Format: picture book• Awards: No awards

Summary: Jane Yolen has allowed the reader to see through the eyes of a

young Native American who encounters the new settlers of the late 1400’s. The

story begins with a child having a dream about three ships that come to life as

terrible and ferocious birds that are there to attack his people. When he wakes,

he realizes that the boats are indeed at his shoreline with funny looking humans.

He tries to warn the members of his tribe that the people were not there to be

friendly, but were dangerous. No one listened to the young child and the story

ends with the young man a now grown man recalling his encounter many years

ago. He shares how different his world is now and how he just sits and

remembers the day.

Strategies: What a great read aloud to share with older students, especially our

fourth graders who are learning about Native Americans and Christopher

Columbus. This story could be followed with many leading questions to get the

students’ attention and curiosity flowing. For example, the teacher could ask the

students what they thought the settlers’ impression of the experience might have

been. The students could also keep up with a comparing and contrasting chart

of the two different cultures throughout the social studies unit.

Even though the story is a historical fiction story, it is also a good book to

teach students about writing from different points of view. In this story, the point

of view is that of a child and from the Native American point of view. According

to the short history included at the end of the book, most of the retellings of this

encounter are form the Spaniards. The author mentioned how she thought it

would be neat for students to hear another side of the story. The students could

practice point of view by taking the same encounter and write from the

Spaniards’ point of view.

Title: Johnny Appleseed (1990) a poem

• Author: Reeve Lindbergh• Paintings by: Kathy Jakobsen • Genre: Historical Fiction (1774-1845)• Format: picture book• Awards: No awards

Summary: This poem was written about the life of someone named John

Chapman who was born in September 1774 in Massachusetts. John Chapman

loved planting apple trees and spent his entire life traveling around the American

Frontier giving away apples and planting appleseeds along the way. He was

said to be a man who valued nature and did not really care about his own

appearance. He was a Christian missionary of sorts who would also travel with

his Bible. He became friends with the Indians and frontiersmen and soon gained

the nickname of Johnny Appleseed.

Strategies: This book is very popular with first grade teachers and students and

many times on Johnny Appleseed day, the other grade level teachers will share

the story as well. First graders learn about important people in our history and

Johnny Appleseed is on their list. The short history included at the end of the

story claimed that there are a lot of untrue stories floating around about Johnny

Appleseed. It would be a neat project for our older students to do some research

on finding out the true stories about John Chapman and then creating a glog (an

online poster with links, videos, and even audio) for the first graders to view. The

older students would learn research techniques and how to use a new Web 2.0

tool and the younger students would in turn enjoy a new way of learning one of

their standards as opposed to just hearing a story about John Chapman.

Title: Sarah, Plain and Tall (1985)

• Author: Patricia MacLachlan • Genre: Historical Fiction (1910)• Format: chapter book• Awards: 1986 Newbery Medal, 1985 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical

Fiction for Children, 1986 Christopher Award

Summary: This is a story of a family that needs a mother and of a woman who

wanted a family. The dad in the story, Jacob, finally realizes that his kids, Anna

and Caleb, need another mother, since their mother died during childbirth when

Caleb was born. Jacob sends off for a wife and finds Sarah, who describes

herself to the family as plain and tall. The family lives in the Midwest in the

middle of nowhere while Sarah is coming from the seashore in Maine. The story

is all about the characters getting to know each other and accepting each other.

There are also some struggles for all of the characters especially with Sarah who

becomes homesick and misses the ocean.

Strategies: There are so many great writing activities or extensions that could be

used with this book. One possible writing strategy deals with a fifth grade

literature standard that says a student must compare and contrast a book with

the movie. After reading the book, then the students could watch the movie with

Glenn Close and Christopher Walken and write about the similarities and

differences.

Another writing strategy would be to have the students see the story through the

eyes of Sarah or another character instead of Anna. The students could create a few

journal entries as Sarah when she first visits the farm. The students could also write

about the similarities and differences between the ocean and the prairie.

Biography

Title: The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq (2005)

• Author and Illustrator: Jeanette Winter • Genre: Biography• Format: picture book• Awards: No awards

Summary: The Librarian of Basra is a story of Alia Muhammad Baker, a

librarian in Iraq. She is a librarian in a terrible time in Iraq with war raging all

around her library. After many of the soldiers set up on her roof, she decided to

begin moving the books to more secure locations for fear of losing them all to the

bombs. Her neighbor, Anis the restaurant owner and his brothers come over and

help her move the books into his restaurant. Nine days later her library goes up

in flames. She ends up hiring a truck to move the thirty thousand books to her

home, which is overflowing with books and she waits until there is quiet.

This story came from a New York Times reporter Shaila K. Dewan, who

was at Anis’ restaurant and heard about the library and Alia. Alia came and

shared her story with the reporter and then the reporter shared Alia’s story with

us.

Strategies: This biography is definitely written for younger students and would

be a great book for young students to learn why biographies are written. One

strategy to use with this book could involve the art teacher and the librarian

working together. The pictures in this book almost look like different pictures cut

out and placed on top of another pictures. The art teacher could work with the

students to help them create their own pictures for the librarian of Basra.

This story would also be easy to act the parts out. The students could

make paper puppets of Alia, Anis and his brothers and even a few soldiers and

then the students could take on the different characters and replay the story.

This story would possibly lead into many questions about the war in Iraq and a

strategy would be to conduct further research on Iraq and even some in-depth

research on libraries that might have possibly survived.

Title: Snowflake Bentley (1998)

• Author: Jacqueline Briggs Martin• Illustrator: Mary Azarian • Genre: Informational• Format: picture book• Awards: No awards

Summary: Many years ago, in 1865, a boy named Wilson Bentley was born in

Vermont who would grow up absolutely loving snow. Throughout his life, he

studies snow crystals and how they form and how and why each crystal is

completely different. He spends his entire life learning all about snowflakes and

wants to share his knowledge with the world. He tries drawing the crystals using

his mother’s microscope, but the flakes would melt before he could finish his

drawing. Then, he convinces his parents to spend their life savings on a new

camera that would allow him to take a picture on a film. He ended up using the

camera on all types of nature shots. Finally, one month before his death he got

to flip through the pages of his book that he left for all of us to see called Snow

Crystals.

Strategies: This book would be a great book to teach students about what

biographies are because it is very simply written in a way that students would

possibly find interesting. One strategy would be to have students create their

own snowflake with scissors and a piece of paper. Art is always a fun way for

students to connect their learning from a book to a hands-on experience.

Another strategy for this book would be for the students to conduct their

own research on either snow or Wilson Bentley. This book is a good introduction

to biographies, but there is not a lot of information. The students would likely be

able to find quite a bit more information by using a Web 2.0 tool like Wikipedia.

The students could then write an extension to the book using their found

information.

Informational

Title: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why Comma Really Do Make a Difference (2003)

• Author: Lynne Truss• Illustrator: Bonnie Timmons • Genre: Informational• Format: picture book• Awards: No awards

Summary: This book is not the typical informational book for students.

However, this book creates great explanations of how commas should be used

and how they can completely change the meaning of a sentence or statement.

Throughout the entire book, there is a sentence with a comma in a particular

place with a picture showing what is meant by that sentence. Then, on the facing

page, the same sentence is used but the comma is placed in a different spot with

a different illustration from the first one. The book also includes a chart in the

back with each sentence and the rule for a comma in that instance.

Strategies: One strategy to use with this book would be to help students learn

the correct use of commas. The teacher could read the sentence and write it on

the board. Then, before showing the students the illustration the students could

draw what they think the sentence means. Then, change the placement of the

comma and have students draw another picture to go with the new sentence.

The teacher could then show the students the pictures the illustrator used and

discuss the different meanings of the placement of the commas.

Older students could also have this book read aloud with a rich discussion

about the effect a comma can have on text. Then, the students could have a

writing extension where they create their own sentences in which the meaning

could change based on the simple movement of a comma.

Title: Penguins! (1998)

• Author and Illustrator: Gail Gibbons• Genre: Informational• Format: picture book• Awards: No awards

Summary: This is another one of Gail Gibbons’ fantastic informational books that

she writes to teach children about a specific animal or other nonfiction subject.

The layout of the book takes students from learning about the different types of

penguins, the different places they live, and what they eat. It also teaches

students about what penguins do, how they lay eggs, and even how a penguin

grows up. Students are sure to find out all the essential information they need to

know about penguins.

Strategies: Gail Gibbons always does a great job with informational stories. This

book about Penguins! would be a good book for students to use to assist their

informational writing pieces especially with third – fifth graders. The students

could learn research skills first and then use the book to find the information they

need to write an informational story about penguins.

Another extension that students could do would be to create a diagram of

a penguin showcasing the different body parts and what each body part is used

for. The book shows some good example of diagrams like the Emperor

Penguins with the egg and the brood pouch.

Title: From Head to Toe (1997)

• Author and Illustrator: Eric Carle • Genre: Informational• Format: picture book• Awards: no awards

Summary: This short picture book uses many different animals to introduce

young children to the body parts. Each animal claims that they can do something

with a body part and shows the young child in the picture. The story is not only

helping students learn the different body parts, but it is also showing students

that animals can do many of the same things that humans can do and have

many of the same parts that we have.

Strategies: This book would be a great story to use with my Pre-Kindergarten

students to help them learn the different animal names, if they don’t know them

yet, and to help them learn the names of the different body parts. For the

students at my school, this book would also be good to assist with the English

language. Many of our students are second language learners and pre-K is their

first time being in an English-speaking environment. This book would help them

learn vocabulary words associated with body parts and animal names.